The South Koreans have indicated that they want to ship their output back home for their own domestic market, which is overdependent on imports. Officials in Antananarivo insist they will be able to keep some of the new supplies within the country. “We’re very excited because we’re frightened by this food crisis,” said Eric Beantanana, a spokesman at the Madagascar Economic Development Board.
Most of the produce from the proposed project, mainly vegetables and fruits, would be exported to the Gulf. Questions have been raised on why the Government has chosen to lease the land instead of engaging local farmers to boost food security in the country.
Vision 3, an alliance formed by Gulf Finance House, Ithmaar Bank and Abu Dhabi Investment House, announced the make up of its board at its inaugural meeting yesterday.
A US businessman backed by former CIA and state department officials says he has secured a vast tract of fertile land in south Sudan from the family of a notorious warlord.
Unity state, where Philippe Heilberg, a US businessman, says he has secured a huge tract of arable land, is inaccessible even by south Sudan’s standards. Apart from AK-47 assault rifles, it is deprived of most of the trappings of the modern world.
"We are seeing a land grab bigger than anywhere else in the world, and it has attracted a mighty cast of characters," says Kingsmill Bond, chief strategist at Troika Dialog, a Moscow brokerage firm.
Egypt will receive a number of UAE delegations next month to discuss proposals involving agriculture, land reclamation and the food industry in southern Egypt, as well as infrastructure and renewable energy projects.
The reported land deal between Kenya and Qatar is not unique. The Philippines Department of Agrarian Reform said in 2007 it was looking at large tracts of land for agribusiness development under a MoU signed with China. The memo calls for the development of land to grow hybrid corn, rice and sorghum.
Walden Bello said that many of the deals were struck in dysfunctional and corruption-ridden nations, and rejected claims the land being signed away is of poor quality, and that the projects will bring jobs and improve infrastructure. “What we’re talking about is private parties using state contracts to enrich themselves,” he said. “It’s an intersection of corrupt governments and land-hungry nations.”
A privately held US investment firm entered into an agricultural investment with a company controlled by the son of a South Sudanese general.
As investment-starved Pakistan puts its 1.1 million acres of agriculture land on the auction block next year, farmers wonder what it would mean for food security and social fabric of the country.
The area around Tana Delta which the government seeks to lease to the Qatari is of immense strategic value. It is fertile, has fresh water and, more importantly, is located in a region that has the highest potential oil and gas deposits in the country as well as other mineral deposits.
