Officiellement, les terres arables louées à la Chine n’existent pas. C’est que les autorités kazakhes craignent la réaction de la population rurale devant la “concurrence déloyale” représentée par l’arrivée en masse de paysans chinois, dont l’équipement agricole est supérieur au vieux matériel soviétique encore utilisé sur la plupart des exploitations kazakhes.

Water is the new gold, and a few savvy countries and companies are already banking on it.

Rich nations buying farmland in less developed countries to boost own food supplies should also contribute to improving agriculture overseas, heads of two United Nations' food agencies said.

UAE food processing and poultry group Iffco has justifiably ruffled some feathers in Australia. Earlier this year, Iffco acquired a 14.99 per cent stake in Australian Agricultural Company (AAC) from Futuris Corporation for AU$64.7 million (Dh171.6m). AAC is the largest beef cattle company in Australia, running around 500,000 beef cattle on 21 cattle stations comprising 8.2 million hectares.

Some nations, such as India, instituted tight export controls on staples like wheat and rice. Others, like South Korea and Saudi Arabia, have bought land overseas to help grow food for their populations.

The Republic of Congo offered 10 million hectares of farm land to South African farmers to grow maize, soya beans and also establish poultry and dairy farms. In the deal being touted as the biggest in recent African history, farmers would be able to lease the land for free for 99 years.

We are seeing big international investors and speculators move away from financial products and into to food products and agricultural land in the South.

Farm ministers of the Group of Eight meeting in Italy this weekend aim to forge a strategy to secure food supplies and stabilize prices, as rich nations scramble for acreage abroad to feed their people.

The International Land Coalition, in close collaboration with its members and partners, has started a research process that will lead in the second half of 2010 to the release of a global report seeking to understand the current and anticipated impacts on poverty of commercial pressures on land, and to explore possible policy and operational solutions both to mitigate negative impacts and to enable poor land users to benefit from possible opportunities.

Malawi has agreed to lease arable land to Djibouti for crop production, leaders of the two countries have disclosed, the Nations reported on Tuesday.

Afin d’éclairer l’opinion sur l’information diffusée par une agence de presse internationale, portant état de l’offre gracieuse par le Congo aux Sud-Africains de 10 millions d’hectares de terres agricoles, le ministère de l’Agriculture et de l’Élevage a fait une mise au point

En janvier, le premier riz “saoudien” produit à l’étranger a été présenté au roi Abdallah. Le consommateur saoudien ne goûte pas la différence. En dépit du renversement de conjoncture, il continue à payer son alimentation à un prix élevé, correspondant au niveau en vigueur pour les achats massifs effectués en 2008 afin de prévenir toute crise alimentaire.