farmlandgrab.org

English

Kingdom must have agriculture base, says Al-Rasheed
- Arab News
- 18 February 2010
The chairman of Golden Gras says the solution to problems around buying farmland abroad for Saudi food production is 60:40 partnerships.
Proposed agricultural deal carries risk for Cambodia's rural poor
- VoA
- 18 February 2010
BKK Partners, an Australian financial advisory firm, has a client that wants to buy 100,000 ha of Cambodian farmland. Human rights workers and politicians are concerned.
IDB eyes Qatar funds to double farm financing
- Gulf Times
- 17 February 2010
Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank is tapping Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund as well as other government and private entities as the bank seeks to double financing for agriculture sector in developing countries.
Egypt offers 50,000 acres of farmland for agri-products
- Reuters
- 17 February 2010
Egypt will invite bids in March for 50,000 acres of land in North Sinai for agro-business projects under a new land scheme that could bring in as much as 66bn Egyptian pounds ($12bn) by 2020.
Bringing jobs, energy to Sierra Leone or another African land grab?
- WSR
- 16 February 2010
In the last four years, an area the size of Germany has been bought or rented to produce food and fuel in Africa. But not by Africans, nor for Africans, say critics.
Hungarian MPs favor ban on sale of farmland to foreigners
- RealDeal
- 16 February 2010
Parliament yesterday approved a resolution calling on the government to get the EU to extend a ban on the purchase of farmland by foreigners for another three years. The current moratorium will end in 2011.
Egypt and Uganda mull wheat farmland options
- Reuters
- 15 February 2010
Three options both governments were looking at are whether Egyptian investors would own and cultivate farmland, whether land would be owned in partnership with Egypt and Uganda, or whether land would be owned as a concession right.
Farm investors must avoid resentment: IFAD
- Reuters
- 15 February 2010
Foreign investors must avoid provoking resentment as they buy and lease farmland from developing nations by using local manpower instead of industrialised agriculture, the head of the UN's IFAD said.
Africa's land and family farms - up for grabs?
- GRAIN
- 15 February 2010
Over the years many Big Ideas have been imposed on Africa from outside. The latest is that the region should sell or lease millions of hectares of land to foreign investors.
Farming furore: World Bank launches new agriculture fund
- Bretton Woods Project
- 15 February 2010
Emphasis is given to property rights and the need to “strengthen land rental and sales markets” – which will give ammunition to those critical of the Bank’s involvement in ‘land-grabbing’.
Tear down the stonewall of secrecy
- Huffington Post
- 15 February 2010
Runaway farmland and borderland giveaway deals need to be publicly scrutinized to ensure transparency (detect corruption and criminality) and to make certain that private interests (sweetheart deals) have not overtaken the public interest, or secret deals are not made to harm the Ethiopian national interest.
Landowners ready to lease farmlands to foreigners
- Dawn
- 14 February 2010
Two years ago, the Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture, NWFP, Pakistan was contacted by investors from the Gulf states through a letter showing interest in acquiring farmlands on lease under the corporate farming being introduced by the government.