Hedge funds are behind "land grabs" in Africa to boost their profits in the food and biofuel sectors, a US think-tank says

Richer countries that are investing in land abroad for food cultivation should also educate the poor about agricultural methods, so that food production can be increased to a level at which poor people can produce enough for investing countries as well as themselves, says Bob Geldof.

There are massive areas of agricultural lands and huge water resources in some countries that suffer financial constraints, while there are some rich Arab states that have the money but not the land or the water.

Experts meeting at the World Bank in Washington, DC, discuss how best to assist African smallholder farmers to transition from subsistence to commercial farming.

Africa is up for sale by the acre to the highest bidder. But how can rice exports from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia be justified?

Food prices are soaring again and the highest risks of farmland expropriation remain in Latin America, while the greatest impact of the recent rally could be on land deals in Africa.

Pension funds are deepening their commitment to farmland, upping investments by billions of dollars and moving to active strategies, as a hedge against potential inflation and to diversifty from riskier investments.

"In the age of derivatives and evaporating valuations, farmland is gold with a cash flow."

Friends of the Earth International warns that voluntary principles on land acquisitions announced by the World Bank and supported by the UN will legitimize and promote land grabbing in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Such huge transfers of agricultural power must surely come with consequences that are worthy of closer regulatory inspection.

Saudi Arabia, along with Abu Dhabi and Kuwait, want to buy more than $1 billion worth of Aussie farmland in a 21st century land grab.

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’.

Ethiopia must harness its enormous agricultural potential, not by selling it off as a cheap commodity, but by supporting farmers in growing culturally appropriate crops for domestic markets, using agro-ecologically sustainable farming methods.

"Al Shariqi said that while the government does not have foreign agricultural investments, some UAE sheikhs personally own land in Pakistan, Egypt, Australia and New Zealand," reports the US mission in Abu Dhabi

Palong Piroomyu, a 52-year-old farmer from Bang Len in Nakhon Pathom province, is preparing to sell his portion of farmland to a Bangkok-based buyer. He's not concerned about who the buyers are or that some may even be quietly representing foreigners.

“It is the height of stupidity for our country to bargain our lands for the sake of other nation’s food security, while being dependent on importation for our very own food security needs,” says Rafael Mariano

Nigeria allows foreigners -- like Thailand's Riceland International Co -- to lease land for growing rice and to run rice-related businesses including milling and processing.

On May 5, the Wilson Center hosted a half-day conference that considered the implications for investors, host countries, and food security, highlighting case studies from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the former Soviet Union.

The outsourcing of food has suddenly become a very big business. Richard Ferguson, a Europe-based analyst for the Japanese investment bank Nomura, calls what is going on now the “third great wave” of outsourcing after manufacturing in the 1970s and 1980s and information technology in the 1990s and 2000s. In his exhaustive 319-page report, he talks about the future of farming in terms of 1 million-hectare operations.

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

Governments in developing countries should exercise caution when granting land concessions to foreign governments and corporations. Despite the short-term investments, most – if not all – of the production will be exported, making the long-term food security situation even worse in these host countries.

Countries in the Gulf and in Africa can form mutually beneficial partnerships, with Africa supplying fertile arable land and the Gulf investing in technology, fertiliser and other agricultural inputs.

The bigger question—one Tasmania must answer soon—is how much of its food-bowl can be outsourced to balance sheets before community cohesion snaps.

The Schmidt Agricola family business is planning a 10,000-hectare cocoa farm in the Brazilian state of Bahia, where similar super-sized cocoa farms are also under development in partnership with large cocoa companies like Cargill and Barry Callebaut.

Plantations et Huileries du Congo, the DRC’s leading palm oil producer, plans to exponentially increase its palm oil production, but this strategy could exacerbate land conflicts.

SALIC aspires to expand co-operation and investment in the Vietnamese market, especially in the production, processing and export of rice, along with animal feed, poultry, livestock and aquaculture.

The Egyptian Countryside Development Company and the Italian Ambassador to Egypt discussed cooperation and strategies to attract Italian investments to the lands and sectors of the 630,000 ha agricultural project.

In the face of intensifying environmental and human rights violations, advocacy groups like Friends of the Earth are calling on the Brazilian and US governments to reign in land speculation and halt the expansion of soy plantations in the Cerrado.

Globe-trotting billionaire Mo Dewji made a fortune in East Africa selling palm oil, rope, and soda. Now he says he's trying to acquire 100,000 ha in Rufiji and another part of Tanzania for sugarcane and cereal plantations.

New York-based African Agriculture Holdings went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange on December 7, 2023. This new business venture plans to operate on over 2.9 million hectares in Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal to produce animal feed for export and sell carbon credits for corporations seeking to offset their carbon emissions.