BDFC has already been given 17,400ha of land in 2008 for the production of sugar cane, a year after it came to Ethiopia. It is also getting close to receiving an additional 13,000hct in the same area of the Tana-Beles Basin of Jawi Wereda, Hawi Zone of Amhara Regional State.
During his current visit to Qatar, Dr Ismail is scheduled to brief the Qatari officials on a number of projects on food security and agricultural, which would, involve the two countries and ensure food security for both of them with the possibility of overseas export to fill the food shortages afflicting the Arab region and abroad.
Stephen Murphy, managing director of institutional fundraising, said the firm had eyed agriculture and infrastructure investments in Uganda.
Many foreign companies are now positioning for investments in the Philippines such as the Far East Agriculture Corp., a consortium of at least 10 agribusiness companies from Saudi Arabia. Next month, these companies are expected go back to the Philippines for site selection in areas of rice, corn, poultry and livestock production.
UAE foreign investment in food production have so far focused on leasing Pakistan and Sudan’s agricultural land, with new prospects in Cambodian rice, Canadian wheat and Australian beef. Alongside the strategic deals at the national level, private investment has followed which should open new channels of trade, for example, Al Qudra Holding has plans to grow grain and vegetables in Vietnam and Croatia as well as Pakistan.
Formally, it is colonialism. Deals are often judicially incomplete. Populations are not part of this process and the traditional law is ignored. Agreements are not transparent.
Cash-rich overseas pension funds and investors have been scouting for New Zealand dairy farm investments,
The Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) says these land deals exclude farmers and threaten their livelihoods.
Interview with Kieran Forde, an Irishman who works in Saudi Arabia for the Tabuk Agriculture Company (TADCO), which will be shifting food production for the Saudi market to Egypt
An audio recording of the panel on global land acquisition, held on 22 October 2009 at the European Development Days 2009 in Stockholm, is available online.
Ernest Corea, a former senior consultant with the Washington-based Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), told IPS the surrender of nationally-owned farm land and land rights to foreign interests - whether individuals, the corporate sector or governments - amounts to an erosion of sovereignty.
The Congolese government said it had signed similar agreements with China, Brazil and Israel.
