Paper for the International Fund for Agricultural Development's Governing Council meeting

Six Taiwanese and five local companies have committed more than RM4bil in investments in the Tanjung Manis Halal Hub in Mukah Division in central Sarawak.

Big purchases of African land by richer countries in a drive for food security could fuel unrest if the rights of local farmers are not taken into consideration, a land rights campaigner warned on Wednesday.

A group of five Saudi Arabia business men have planned to invest 1 billion Saudi riyals (some $ 266.6 million) in agricultural projects in Sudan and Ethiopia within the coming few years, Pan Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat reports.

Los gobiernos y corporaciones ricos han desatado la alarma para los pobres a medida que van comprando los derechos a millones de hectáreas de tierra cultivable en los países en desarrollo en un esfuerzo por garantizar su suministro de alimentos a largo plazo.

"We can't eat semiconductors or auto parts." When Richard Shin of Daewoo Logistics told me this during an interview last week, it hit me hard. Shin is the manager of the Korean firm's $6 billion project to carve a 1.3 million hectare farm out of Madagascar, a formal French colony.

A number of videos interviews broadcast by Al-Arabiya are available at Zawya.com, in Arabic

Saudi Arabia's Hail Agricultural Development Co (Hadco) said on Monday it would look at investing in Turkey and Kazakhstan after moving into Sudan under a government plan to ensure steady food imports.

With land prices falling, now is a good time for the UAE to acquire farmland in other countries, in order to strengthen food security, a senior official says.

Saudi private sector company Hail Agricultural Development Co (Hadco) has picked Sudan for its first investment in farming abroad under a Saudi government scheme to ensure steady food imports, it said.

« Nous sommes toujours désireux d’investir là-bas. (…) Nous avons fait tout ce qui était prévu dans les textes, mais le gouvernement de Madagascar n’a pas pu procéder aux actes nécessaires pour nous permettre de continuer. (…) Nous attendons une réponse pour passer à l’étape suivante. »

There is this saying common in most tribal vernaculars and other languages which simply states that where there is smoke there is likely to be fire.