世界土地投資（収奪）関連情報：文献リスト：2011年以降

農業情報研究所（WAPIC）＞世界土地投資（収奪）関連情報：文献リスト：2011年以降：最州更新：12年5月21日

Land grabbers: Africa's hidden revolution,The Guardian,12.5.20（アフリカ）

Firms to Invest in Food Production for World’s Poor,The New York Times,12.5.19

Letters: Private rural investment has encouraged land grabs, production of food and bioufuels for exports, as well as exploitation of workers

David Cameron does indeed have a chance to act on global malnutrition this week at the G8 summit (Wood shavings for dinner: G8 urged to tackle scourge of malnutrition, 17 May). However, millions will continue to die or suffer chronic malnourishment unless he and other world leaders stop giving financial and political support for the failed industrialised food system that has exacerbated hunger and environmental degradation.

Barack Obama's plan for private-sector investment will bring scant comfort to our Mozambican partner, the national farmers' movement, União Nacional de Camponeses. Recent drives by Mozambique's government and World Bank policies to encourage private investment have lifted investors' rights above those of rural people. Moreover, private rural investment in many developing countries has not been shown to decrease poverty levels. On the contrary, this approach has encouraged land grabs, production of food and biofuels for export, as well as exploitation of workers, and worsened small-scale farmers' livelihoods.

Cameron, Obama and their counterparts must drop the failed model of food security for food sovereignty, which requires agrarian reform in favour of small producers and the landless, and the reorganisation of global food trade to prioritise local markets and self-sufficiency. It also demands tougher curbs on global food chain firms, such as supermarkets, and the democratisation of international financial institutions. The right to food is a human right, not a welfare issue.
Graciela Romero
International programmes director,

Firms to Invest in Food Production for World’s Poor,The New York Times,12.5.19

The Obama administration has drafted some of the world’s largest food and finance companies to invest more than $3 billion in projects aimed at helping the world’s poorest farmers grow enough food to not only feed themselves and their families but to earn a livelihood as well.

President Obama and the leaders of four African countries will introduce the group of 45 companies, the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, on Friday at a symposium on food security and agriculture that will begin the summit meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized nations this weekend at Camp David in Maryland.

“We are never going to end hunger in Africa without private investment,” said Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. “There are things that only companies can do, like building silos for storage and developing seeds and fertilizers.”

The alliance includes well-known multinational giants like Monsanto, Diageo and Swiss Re as well as little-known businesses like Mullege, an Ethiopian coffee exporter.

The introduction of the group will coincide with the administration’s report on the progress of what is known as the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative, the largest international effort in decades to combat hunger by investing in the fundamentals of agriculture, including seeds, fertilizer, grain storage, roads and infrastructure.

The initiative, first agreed upon by the Group of 8 leaders at their meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, in 2009, was a pledge to put $22 billion into food and agriculture projects. Although much of the money had previously been earmarked for agriculture projects, about $6 billion was new.

Almost all of the $22 billion has now been “budgeted and appropriated,” and 58 percent of it has been disbursed, Mr. Shah said. “I am confident that continuing into this year and the next, the U.S. and other countries will absolutely meet their commitments,” he said.

He conceded, however, that not all of the money is being spent as promised, which has drawn complaints from many nongovernmental organizations and African countries.

“The grand promise of L’Aquila was, if you build a plan for agriculture, the donors will help them find the resources for it,” said Gregory Adams, director of aid effectiveness at Oxfam America, an international relief and development organization.

“Now there are 30 plans of varying degrees of quality with shovel-ready projects donors could invest in today, but instead donors have put their money in other things.”

Some donor countries have insisted that their money be spent on traditional food handouts rather than the building blocks of an agricultural development program, Mr. Adams said.

Several companies that were contacted said the administration had asked them not to speak about their commitments until Friday.

Mr. Shah, however, offered a few examples. Tanseed, a Tanzanian seed company, will commit to spend $11 million over time to buy certified seed and sell it in little packets to meet the needs of small farmers.

Derek Yach, senior vice president for global health and agriculture policy at PepsiCo, a member of the alliance, said it grew from work the World Economic Forum had been doing on food security with the African Union.

“What’s exciting about it is that the companies participating really extend across the value chain,” Mr. Yach said, including seeds, plants, processing and financing.

Mr. Shah said that the administration does not plan for the private sector to take over.

“The president will commit to encouraging ourselves and our G-8 partners to seek to maintain the high level of commitment to agriculture and food security even as we go forward beyond the formal L’Aquila period” of three years, he said.

An article on Friday about the White House’s drafting of a group of 45 companies to invest in projects aimed at helping the world’s poorest farmers contained two misstatements, in some editions, because of incorrect information supplied by the United States Agency for International Development. The name of the group is the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, not the Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security, and a $375 million pledge by an Indian company, Jain Irrigation, to bring its small-scale irrigation technology to Africa, is not final.

José Graziano da Silva: New directives on access rights to land, fisheries and forests show constructive collaboration on food security is possible

The eradication of hunger depends in large measure on how people, communities and others have access to, and manage, land, fisheries and forests. Pressure on these resources, and on tenure arrangements, is increasing as new areas are cultivated to provide food for a rapidly growing population, urban areas expand, and as a result of environmental degradation, climate change and conflict. Rural landlessness is often the best predictor of poverty and hunger. Moreover, insecure tenure rights can lead to instability and conflict when competing users fight for control of these resources.

Weak governance of tenure hinders economic growth and the sustainable use of the environment. Small-scale farmers and traditional communities will not invest in improving their land, fisheries and forests if they could be taken away at any minute due to lack of recognition of customary rights, weak registration practices or corruption. In some countries, women, for example, despite doing all the farming, are denied legal recognition and protection of rights to their land plots.

The guidelines cover a wide range of issues, including promoting equal rights for women in securing access to land, creating transparent record-keeping systems that are accessible to the rural poor, and helping with recognising and protecting informal and customary rights to land, forests and fisheries. They provide a framework that governments can use when developing their own policies and give investors and developers clear indications of what constitutes acceptable practice.

The guidelines are the result of a three-year inclusive process of consultation that was initially driven by the Food and Agriculture Organisationn (FAO). During this government, civil society, the private sector and academics assessed a range of issues and actions. Approximately 1,000 people from more than 130 countries participated in the 15 consultations held worldwide in conjunction with a global electronic conference.

The process moved on to the CFS, the inclusive international and intergovernmental platform dealing with food security and nutrition, under whose auspices the final negotiations were carried out. The negotiations involved nearly 100 national governments, NGOs, civil society, farmers' associations, private-sector representatives and research institutions.

This participatory, dynamic CFS-led dialogue was crucial to achieving consensus among disparate, sometimes conflicting interests, on a sensitive topic involving – among other issues – striking the right balance between attracting needed investment in agriculture and safeguarding the rights, livelihoods and wellbeing of traditional communities, indigenous people and small-scale producers.

The challenge now is for countries to adapt these guidelines to national conditions and needs before implementing them. This is an effort in which every stakeholder that participated in the consultation processes has a role to play, to transform these guidelines into national policies and concrete improvements in the lives of people worldwide.

The FAO stands ready to assist countries in areas such as institutional capacity development, advocacy, technical support and legal advice. The FAO will use the guidelines as the baseline for our partnerships, and we call on all our current and potential partners to endorse them.

Hunger eradication is a complex challenge. Only by working together can we make progress. Agreement on the guidelines shows that effective, concrete co-operation on sensitive issues central to food security and economic development is possible, offering cause for optimism as we address other challenges on the path to a world free from hunger.

It is our collective duty – governments and NGOs, civil society and the private sector – to ensure that the process of constructive collaboration bears fruit by promoting tenure governance consistent with 21st-century needs and equitable access to the precious resources on which the world's food security depends.

And while work on the guidelines now moves to countries, our next global challenge is to establish principles for responsible agricultural investment. A substantial increase in investment, which has fallen precipitously in recent decades, is needed in developing countries. These principles will help assure that investments serve the needs of all stakeholders and enhance rather than compromise food security.

The same dialogue and collaborative process that underpinned the guidelines should inform discussions about agricultural investments and other challenges related to food security and rural development. The CFS is uniquely positioned to support this process, providing a forum in which different stakeholders can debate and reach the consensus the world needs.

Step by step, we are laying the groundwork for a food-secure world.
• José Graziano da Silva is director general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation

The database, launched on Thursday, lifts the lid on a decade of secretive deals struck by governments, investors and speculators seeking large tracts of fertile land in developing countries around the world.

The past five years have seen a flood of reports of investors snapping up land at rock-bottom prices in some of the world's poorest countries. But, despite growing concern about the local impacts of so-called "land grabs", the lack of reliable data has made it difficult to pin down the real extent and nature of the global rush for land.

Researchers estimate that more than 200m hectares (495m acres) of land – roughly eight times the size of the UK – were sold or leased between 2000 and 2010. Details of 1,006 deals covering 70.2m hectares in Africa, Asia and Latin America were published by the Land Matrix project, an international partnership involving five major European research centres and 40 civil society and research groups from around the world.

It is the first time a comprehensive list of international land deals has been collected and made public. The database relies on a wide variety of sources – including media reports, academic research and field-based investigations – to add detail to a global phenomenon notoriously shrouded in secrecy.

In a report published alongside the database, which analysed 1,217 agricultural deals covering 83.2m hectares of land, the researchers said the data confirms suspicions that wealthy food-importing countries have been targeting farmland in poorer countries with high rates of hunger and weak land governance. However, the report also reveals the growing role of emerging economies.

The report describes the rise of a "new intra-regionalism" characterised by growing south-south investment. Overall, researchers found more than 30% of documented agricultural deals involve investors coming from the same region as their "target" country. Expanding agribusiness companies from Brazil and Argentina seem to prefer to invest in other Latin American countries, they said, while South African investors appear particularly involved in projects in nearby east, central and southern African countries.

The majority of documented deals are in Africa. Researchers say 754 deals have been identified on the continent, covering 56.2m hectares – or roughly the size of Kenya.

Little evidence of job creation or other benefits to local communities could be found among the hundreds of largely export-oriented projects, said the report. In some cases, it adds, investors have secured hundreds of thousands of hectares of prime farmland at little to no cost. One deal in South Sudan, for example, has reportedly granted a Norwegian investor a 99-year lease for 179,000 hectares at an annual cost of just $0.07 a hectare.

Governments eager for foreign investment have often gone to great lengths to advertise vast tracts of available "vacant" land in their countries. But the report says almost half of the agricultural deals studied showed the areas concerned were already being farmed before investors moved in. Competition between powerful foreign investors and local farming communities seems "inevitable", it said.

But, so far, few large-scale projects have been established on the millions of hectares bought or leased for agricultural activities, according to the report, which says less than 30% of documented deals are thought to be in production. It suggests that some investors may have underestimated the challenges associated with their projects, while other deals are likely to be purely strategic and speculative investments.

A separate report published on Wednesday by the International Land Coalition, the NGO Global Witness, and the US-based Oakland Institute, denounced the "secretive culture" around large-scale land deals, and demanded governments and businesses disclose contracts and detailed information about potential risks and impacts of land-based investments.

"Far too many people are being kept in the dark about massive land deals that could destroy their homes and livelihoods," says Megan MacInnes, senior land campaigner at Global Witness. "Companies should have to prove they are doing no harm, rather than communities with little information or power having to prove that a land deal is negatively affecting them."

The database, launched on Thursday, includes 1,006 deals covering 70.2m hectares (173m acres) – or roughly half the size of western Europe. Data on further deals will be added on an ongoing basis.

• Eastern Africa has the largest number of recent investments, with 310 deals.

• Indonesia is the country with the largest area of land acquired by investors – 9.5m hectares. The Democratic Republic of the Congo comes second, with almost 8.1m hectares.

• The Indian government, Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE International and Indonesian company Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper are the top three investors, having acquired more than 10m hectares around the world between them.

• The vast majority of the deals are for agricultural projects (690 deals covering 50.2m hectares). Forestry is the next largest sector (94 deals covering 12.7m hectares).

• Of the agricultural deals, fewer than 30% are for food crops alone. Almost 20% are for non-food crops such as biofuels and livestock feed.

The Land Matrix database is now the most comprehensive public source for information on international land deals – but it is not perfect. Some countries, for example, may be over-represented in the data simply because they are more transparent and routinely publish contract information. In other cases, the data may be skewed towards investors or countries that have featured in more media reports.

This makes it difficult to draw too many conclusions from the data. For example, there appears to be a sharp decline in deals since 2009 – but although this could correspond to a drop in investments, it could also be driven by a fall in media interest or an increasing reluctance to disclose information about deals.

Researchers warn that smaller deals are often harder to track and may be under-represented in the database. Data for deals struck after 2010 is still being collected, cross-checked and verified.

Researchers hope that releasing the data and inviting the public to crowdsource new information will help address some of these issues. The site lets users "report a land deal" or submit further details on deals already recorded. This information will be independently verified by researchers before being included in the database.

We have pulled out all the data on who's investing, where and what for. You can browse key figures below, or download the full dataset. What can you do with the data?

Top 10 investors Click heading to sort table. Download this data
. Source: Land Matrix, as of April 2012
Indian Government	India	4877419	9	India, Ethiopia
ZTE International	China	2800000	1	DRC
Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper	Indonesia	2388468	1	Indonesia
Wuhan Kaidi	Unknown	2000000	1	Zambia
Tata Power	India	2000000	1	Indonesia
Samling Group	Malaysia	1838000	1	Malaysia
Al Ain National Wildlife	United Arab Emirates	1680000	1	Sudan
Daewoo Logistics	Republic of Korea	1600000	2	Madagascar
Sinar Mas Group	Indonesia	1600000	2	Indonesia
Muting Hijau	Indonesia	1100000	1	Indonesia
. Source: Land Matrix, as of April 2012
Indonesia	South-East Asia	9527760	24
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Central Africa	8051870	10
Ethiopia	Eastern Africa	5345228	83
Philippines	South-East Asia	5182021	45
Malaysia	South-East Asia	4819483	20
India	South Asia	4628578	113
Sudan	Northern Africa	3923430	18
Brazil	South America	3871824	61
Madagascar	Eastern Africa	3779741	39
Zambia	Eastern Africa	2273413	9
United Republic of Tanzania	Eastern Africa	2194975	58
Mozambique	Eastern Africa	1983127	92
Argentina	South America	1505020	22
Cambodia	South-East Asia	1154194	86
Russian Federation	Eastern Europe	1113434	11
China	Eastern Asia	1108396	12
Benin	Western Africa	1040900	9
Cameroon	Central Africa	710340	17
Liberia	Western Africa	679000	6
Ghana	Western Africa	669900	9
Ukraine	Eastern Europe	662167	7
Kenya	Eastern Africa	633500	13
Sierra Leone	Western Africa	588950	11
Mali	Western Africa	581891	27
Peru	South America	571900	26
Lao People's Democratic Republic	South-East Asia	478153	49
Colombia	South America	420820	14
Australia	Australia and New Zealand	400926	3
Nigeria	Western Africa	362532	21
Malawi	Eastern Africa	310147	7
Senegal	Western Africa	234800	8
Côte d'Ivoire	Western Africa	207200	5
Zimbabwe	Eastern Africa	201171	2
Angola	Central Africa	183000	4
Viet Nam	South-East Asia	156540	7
Congo	Central Africa	138000	2
Guatemala	Central America	81006	10
Papua New Guinea	Melanesia	79178	1
Uganda	Eastern Africa	76512	4
Mexico	Central America	56581	5
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	South America	37156	4
Niger	Western Africa	29969	3
Bangladesh	South Asia	29456	2
Thailand	South-East Asia	28912	3
South Africa	Southern Africa	27124	3
Somalia	Eastern Africa	21500	2
Swaziland	Southern Africa	15124	2
Ecuador	South America	8000	1
Costa Rica	Central America	7658	5
Solomon Islands	Melanesia	7577	1
Pakistan	South Asia	5926	3
Turkey	Middle East	4500	1
Rwanda	Eastern Africa	3100	1
Chile	South America	1400	2
Suriname	South America	1073	2
Burkina Faso	Western Africa	1000	1

WASHINGTON, Apr 23, 2012 (IPS) - The World Bank continues to facilitate land-grabbing in poor and developing countries around the world, according to new research released here on Monday.
The report by Friends of the Earth, an international watchdog, is part of a host of initiatives taking place ahead of the start of the Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, which runs for the next four days.
Friends of the Earth says that anywhere from 80 to 227 million hectares of rural, often agrarian land, typically in poorer countries hungry for foreign investment, have been taken over by private and corporate interests in recent years.
Programmes and policies pushed by the World Bank, the organisation suggests, have been both directly and indirectly responsible for this trend, with examples reportedly coming from more than 60 countries.
"Some of these are countries which struggle to feed their own populations – but which have enough fertile land to attract foreign investors," the report states.
Such figures are on the rise, driven by increased human demand for vegetable oils and the evolving global market for biofuels. According to some, these developments have been further exacerbated by certain international efforts to combat global climate change, such as the U.N.-sponsored Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programme.
According to activists and farmers speaking ahead of the World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty here in Washington, part of the blame also needs to be placed on the Bank's own technical assistance, past and present. The issue formed a core message during more than 250 protests worldwide on Apr. 17, marked as the International Day of Peasant Struggle.
"Decades of World Bank policies have created the basis for what is happening today," Giulia Franchi, a campaigner with the Italian Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale, said on Monday.
Franchi and others express particular frustration with a Bank-led initiative known as the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment that Respects Rights, Livelihoods and Resources (commonly referred to as RAI), which came into existence in January 2010.
The RAI, Franchi says, constitutes "an attempt to support transnational corporations to acquire land worldwide. While it looks like it's standing with local communities, there is no way that the expropriation of people's lands can be considered responsible."
According to the Bank's explanation of the motivations behind the RAI, recent years have seen "a sharp increase in investment involving significant use of agricultural land, water, grassland, and forested areas in developing and emerging countries … some countries have been confronted with informal requests amounting to more than half their cultivable land area, and other countries are actively seeking major investments."
The code of conduct inherent in the RAI is thus aimed at trying to "better spread the benefits and balance opportunities with risks in major investment programs".
Some warn that such an approach is wrongheaded from the start. The RAI "creates an illusion that by following a set of standards, large- scale land acquisitions can proceed without disastrous consequences," Friends of the Earth's Kirtana Chandrasekaran told IPS.
"RAI may seek 'transparency' from land deals, but even if done 'transparently', the transfer of large tracts of land … to investors is still going to deprive smallholder farmers and local communities from crucial, life-sustaining resources for generations to come."
Chandrasekaran points instead to a recently created set of principles, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests.
A final draft of the Voluntary Guidelines was released in March following three years of negotiations between 96 governments and civil society organisations, under the auspices of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The guidelines are to be formally endorsed in May.
Most important, Chandrasekaran says, the Voluntary Guidelines "anchors the land-grabbing issue to the existing obligations of states under international law, explicitly mentioning the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
There is also a potentially more direct feedback loop under the Voluntary Guidelines. According to the FAO, the Guidelines "allow government authorities, the private sector, civil society and citizens to judge whether their proposed actions and the actions of others constitute acceptable practices."
Still, others caution that the Voluntary Guidelines might be too open with regards to investment safeguards.
According to Devlin Kuyek, a Montreal-based staff member for GRAIN, an international NGO focused on sustainable agriculture, "an investment chapter was inserted into the Voluntary Guidelines at the last minute, over the objections of civil society organisations, that is very similar to what the Bank has been promoting with regards to private investment … to try to make it appear that land acquisition can be done responsibly."
Kuyek notes that there are several similar guidelines in the works that will attempt to impose some regulation – or the appearance of regulation – on the surging market for foreign investment in fertile land. While each of these will offer some competition to the RAI, observers suggest that the World Bank appears to be little inclined towards changing its stance on the issue.
"I've seen absolutely no sign whatsoever that the World Bank Group has made any meaningful moves at all to genuinely respond to the criticisms that its policies lead to land-grabbing," Joan Baxter, a researcher with the Oakland Institute, an environment-focused think tank, told IPS.
Baxter points to the roster of presentations at the current World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty. "How can (the Bank) invite hedge-fund manager Susan Payne and land-grabbers such as Addax Bioenergy to speak at this conference?" she asks.
"Instead, why doesn't it invite some rural women to talk about how the loss of their land to rich investors has robbed them of their livelihoods?"

Massive Theft of Developing World's Farmland,IPS,12.4.23
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107538
BERLIN , Apr 23, 2012 (IPS) - The mass acquisition or lease of arable land in developing countries, especially in Africa, by foreign investors – a practice aggravated by the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007 – has reached record highs, according to several new studies.
A study by the Spain-based group Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), released late February, estimates that some 35 million hectares of land have been sold or leased in 416 recent, large-scale land grabbing deals in 66 countries, mostly in Africa.
Another analysis of land grabs, carried out by the International Land Coalition (ILC), released last January, found that between 2000 and 2010 some 203 million hectares were leased or sold in developing countries, mainly in Africa, but also in Latin America, Asia, and even Eastern Europe, to foreign investors.
"This land area is equivalent to over eight times the size of the United Kingdom," the ILC said in its report 'Land Rights and the Rush for Land - Findings of the Global Commercial Pressures on Land Research Project.'
Most land is used to produce inputs for so called biofuels, ILC pointed out.
In his new book on the subject, award-winning Italian journalist Stefano Liberti says that this massive global land grab is the direct consequence of the privatisation and liberalisation policies imposed for years upon developing countries by international financial institutions such as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and investment in agricultural policies promoted by United Nations agencies such as the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).
The book, published originally in Italian under the title 'Land Grabbing: How the market for land is creating a new colonialism', was released in German on Apr 18, with English and Spanish editions under way.
Liberti told IPS that most governments in developing countries affected by land grabbing are also accomplices in the process.
"In many African countries in particular, land belongs to the state," Liberti said. "Governments are dealing secretly with investors, to lease or sell enormous areas of the best arable land. Local farmers who don’t own the land they work are informed of these deals at the very last moment, when they are told to leave," Liberti said.
During the preparation of his book, Liberti travelled across Africa, and attended numerous seminars and sessions of international institutions, such as the FAO and the WB, and participated in workshops organised by small farmers’ organisations around the world.
Liberti said that the most spectacular cases of land grabbing he came across were in Ethiopia. "This country has been suffering from famine for decades, due to armed conflicts and droughts. And yet, it has been leasing or selling its best land to foreign investors for almost nothing at all to produce food or inputs for biofuels to be consumed abroad," Liberti said.
In his book, Liberti illustrates the case of an Indian company, which leases 300,000 hectares of Ethiopia’s best arable land for one dollar per year per hectare, to produce wheat, palm oil, and sugar for mostly Indian consumption.
"Ethiopians have almost nothing from this deal," Liberti said. "The company pays extreme low salaries to its Ethiopian workers, almost nothing for the land, enjoys tax breaks for the import of technology, and on top of that uses the country’s water for free."
Indeed, the Ethiopian Investment Agency, the state office administering foreign direct investment (FDI), praises the country’s labour costs as "relatively low compared to the African average." According to Liberti, foreign agricultural industries in Ethiopia pay their workers less than a dollar a day.
The Ethiopian case is typical of the land grabbing phenomenon across the developing world.
In a recent case in Algeria, the Abu Dhabi-based Al Qudra Holding obtained concessions for 31,000 hectares of agricultural land, on which it intends to produce potatoes, olives and dairy products, all for export.
The company is also planning similar land leasing investments in Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, Vietnam, Sudan and India to increase its land holdings to 400,000 hectares.
Liberti said that holdings such as Al Qudra, and investment funds, including pension funds, are the main actors in the global land grab. "The international financial sector discovered some five years ago that it can earn substantial amounts of money by speculating with food stuffs," he said.
Holdings and sovereign wealth funds, which manage the currency reserves of many Arab and other strong, emerging economies also invest massively in land grabbing, to guarantee food supply in their home markets.
According to estimations by GRAIN, "Pension funds currently juggle 23 trillion dollars in assets, of which some 100 billion are believed to be invested in commodities."
Of this money in commodities, five to 15 billion are reportedly going into farmland acquisitions. "By 2015, these commodity and farmland investments are expected to double," GRAIN estimated last year.
Liberti said that international institutions such as the WB and the FAO are accomplices in the land grab.
"The FAO used to say that agriculture needed massive private investment to improve efficiency. The WB and the (IMF), for their part, promoted privatisation and liberalisation of food markets, and gave impulse to land grabbing."
"The WB has even lent money and provided insurance to investment funds taking part in land grabbing," Liberti added.
Yet another driver of the land grab is an explosion in the use of so-called biofuels. As the ILC report points out that of all the many deals resulting in land theft, "Seventy-eight percent are for agricultural production, of which three-quarters are for biofuels."
Mineral extraction, industry, tourism, and forest conversions are also significant contributors, adding up to the remaining 22 percent.
ILC Director Madiodio Niasse told IPS that governments in developing countries must "understand that there are alternative investment models that do not necessarily involve them giving away their land."
Niasse, a Senegalese national, has been the director of ILC since 2005. He told IPS that it is essential for African governments to conceive "their own rural development strategies to serve their national priorities and the interests of their people."
"During my research trips in Africa, I came across posters against the land grab deals," Liberti told IPS. "One said: ‘Future generations will damn your graves, because you did not leave them any land.’"
To avoid this future, Liberti stressed, "An efficient agricultural model, an alternative to the agro- industrial (framework) in practice now, must be developed for Africa, Latin America, and Asia."
Foreign investment in agriculture was invited based on the misguided assumption that it would help local communities; now, "the opposite is actually happening."
"The alternative is to support local farmers by teaching them modern methods of sustainable agriculture, and providing infrastructure for irrigation, storage, transportation, and technical inputs," Liberti concluded.

The Rio+20 Earth summit must back peasant farmers on land rights,The Guardian,12.4.17
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/apr/17/rio-summit-should-back-peasants-rights
Governments in the global south are claiming farmland is 'empty' and 'unused' – and flogging it off to foreigners who promise investment. The June summit in Rio needs to call a halt to this
The agenda for the upcoming Earth summit in Rio this June has a glaring hole: land rights.
I have spent the last two years investigating the global epidemic of land grabs for a book. Saudi sheikhs, private equity whizz-kids, Indian entrepreneurs and Chinese billionaires all believe, with financier George Soros, that "farmland is going to be one of the best investments of our time".
They are satisfying their newfound land lust from Mali to Mozambique, Cambodia to Kazakhstan, and Paraguay to Papua New Guinea, usually seeking out unfenced "customary" land to grow grains, sugar, vegetable oils and biofuel for sale on the world's booming commodity markets.
This unprecedented corporate privatisation and enclosure of the world's common lands – its pastures, fields and forests – is being done in the name of development. But much of it will destroy development and impoverish the poorest. Tuesday, the International Day of Peasant Struggle, is a good moment to call on the Rio Earth summit to declare a halt.
Most investors are trying to bring capital-intensive prairie farming to African plains that the World Bank calls "the world's last large reserve of underused land". Peasants are being replaced with tractors.
Next month, the UN committee on world food security will probably agree voluntary guidelines on "responsible" land grabbing. But I hold out no hopes for their success. As one British venture capitalist, with a 100,000-hectare stake in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, candidly admitted at an investor conference last year: "Industrial-scale farming displaces and alienates people, creates few jobs and causes social disruption."
The trouble is that most of the grabbers care little for people like Omot Ochan, who I met in a forest clearing in Gambella, the poorest corner of Ethiopia. "All round here is ours. For two days' walk," Ochan said. "When my father died he said don't leave the land. We made a promise. We can't give it to the foreigners."
But Gambella is being taken over by Arab and Indian land grabbers, and Omot Ochan is being forced out. "We used to sell honey," he told me. "But two years ago, the big farm began chopping down our forest, and the bees went away. We used to hunt, but after the farm came the wild animals disappeared. Now we only have fish." Behind us, trucks owned by Mohammed al-Amoudi – Saudi Arabia's second richest man and a friend of the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi – were digging a canal that would drain the nearby wetland. So the fish would soon be gone too.
I met Malian herders whose cattle pastures are being fenced in for Chinese farms; Paraguayan tribes ejected from their land by Brazilian ranchers; Liberian peasant farmers giving ground to Malaysian palm-oil princes; and Cambodian rice farmers shunted aside by their own senators, who are shipping sugar to Tate & Lyle.
In Kenya, angry locals told me how they had lost the rich resources of the Yala swamp, on the shores of Lake Victoria, to an evangelical American who made his fortune managing privatised prisons.
I discovered that the government of newly independent South Sudan handed out a tenth of its land to foreigners before even raising the flag for the first time last year. Not far from the capital, Juba, a British investment banker, Leonard Thatcher, claims control of more than half a million hectares, in a deal done with an aged chief whose people have denounced the deal.
Post-imperial governments across the world spent half a century putting communally owned land in state hands. The land was being held in trust for the people, they said. Now those governments are claiming the land is "empty" and "unused" – and flogging it off to foreigners who promise investment. After decades of under-investment in African agriculture, governments seem willing to accept any kind of investment.
Some say this is necessary to feed the world? I don't believe so. I agree with the World Bank report which noted in 2009 that "there is little evidence that the large-scale farming model is either necessary or even particularly promising for Africa". And with the Ford Foundation's Pablo Farias, who recently called for the Earth summit to "endorse community land rights", noting that "when land rights of rural communities are recognised, far more sustainable land uses evolve".
This is about both practicality as much as equity. What sense does it make to grab the land of the poorest and hungriest, in the name of feeding the planet? We need to invest in peasant farmers, not dispossess them. An Earth summit that declared in favour of the land rights of peasant farmers would be a victory indeed. Otherwise, we face a new tragedy of the commons.
• Fred Pearce's The Landgrabbers is published by Eden Project Books on 24 May
UN moves to curb farmland grabs,FT.com,12.3.25
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/083aab3a-7697-11e1-8e1b-00144feab49a.html#axzz1qCf2Y6IU
The UN has proposed that countries set limits on the size of agriculture land sales to regulate the growing trend of so-called farmland grabs.
The new voluntary guidelines won the consensus of nearly 100 countries this month after three years of negotiations and are now set to be ratified in May at a special session in Rome of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The guidelines, which officials say are largely pro-business, nonetheless state that countries should “provide safeguards” to protect tenure rights.
“Such safeguards could include introducing ceilings on permissible land transactions and regulation over how transfers exceeding a certain scale should be approved, such as by parliamentary approval.”
The FAO said earlier this month that the ‘Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land’ had won the consensus of countries, nongovernmental groups and farmers, but did not release the content of the guidelines.
The voluntary code is the first attempt to regulate investment in farmland deals, which often involve rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and South Korea investing in overseas farming in Africa and Latin America to boost their own food security.
The trend gained prominence after an attempt by South Korea’s Daewoo Logistics in 2008 to secure a large chunk of agricultural land in Madagascar contributed to the collapse of the African country’s government.
Critics, including prominent international non-governmental organisations like Oxfam believe the deals are a form of neo-colonialism. But supporters argue that investment in farmland could contribute to economic growth in the host countries and improve global food security.
Farmland has become a hotspot not only for countries, agricultural groups and commodities trading houses, but also for institutional investors. For example, US pension fund TIAA-Cref has about $2bn invested in farmland worldwide.
The World Bank last year urged voluntary regulation of farmland investments, painting a poor picture of some of the deals already signed. In a report, the bank said that “land acquisition often deprived local people, in particular the vulnerable”.
“In some cases, investors who were unable to turn a profit due to unrealistic plans then started to encroach . . . [on] land that had explicitly been set aside for use by local people, causing environmental damage and threatening local food security,” the banks said.
The FAO plans to submit the voluntary guidelines document for ratification in mid-May, but officials say that they are not expecting any changes from the document already agreed. The voluntary guidelines, under discussion since 2009 at different levels, largely support farmland deals, saying that states should “promote and support responsible investments in land, fisheries and forest”.
Brazil, a large recipient of investment in agricultural land, has lobbied strongly for a pro-business document, officials said.
The voluntary guidelines discourage the larger deals, not only suggesting that countries set limits, but also saying that countries should encourage “investment models that do not result in the large-scale transfer of tenure rights to investors”.
When Daewoo Logistics attempted to buy land in Madagascar, it signed a 99-year lease for 1.3m hectares – an area half the size of Belgium. The World Bank has documented deals in South Sudan and Ethiopia totalling 3.9m and 1.2m respectively between 2004 and 2009.
U.N. Human Rights Council Exhorted to Defend Peasants' Rights,IPS,12.3.9
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107017

GENEVA, Mar. 9, 2012 (IPS) - Decades after peasants’ networks have advocated for a new legal instrument to protect the rights of small farmers to land, seeds, traditional agricultural knowledge and freedom to determine the prices of their production, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) may decide to start drafting a declaration on peasants’ rights next week.

Dwindling Resources Trigger Global Land Rush,IPS,12.3.1
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106929
UXBRIDGE, Canada, Mar 1, 2012 (IPS) - A global scramble for land and mineral resources fuelled by billions of investment dollars is threatening the last remaining wilderness and critical ecosystems, destroying communities and contaminating huge volumes of fresh water, warned environmental groups in London Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Dec 6, 2011 (IPS) - While the United Nations climate talks in Durban enter their ninth day of political feet-dragging, researchers and peasants around the world are busy connecting the dots between so- called "green climate solutions", industrialised agriculture and chronic hunger.

From 17 to 19 November, more than 250 small farmers and civil society activists gathered near Sélingué, in southern Mali, for the first international farmers' conference to tackle 'land grabs'

Governments and companies involved in leasing land claim it is little used and that the projects will bring food security, create jobs and boost tax revenues – none of which is true

Organisations petition FAO's committee on world food security for new rules to protect communities affected by land grabs
Farmers' Networks Urge Government Action Against Land Grabbing,IPS,11.10.11
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105441
ROME, Oct 11, 2011 (IPS) - Civil society organisations and global farmers' networks are gathered in Rome this week to ask governments to stop the "disastrous practice of land grabbing", ahead of next week's Committee on World Food Security.

How Global Investors Make Money Out of Hunger,Spiegel,9.1
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,783654,00.html
By Horand Knaup, Michaela Schiessl and Anne Seith
In recent years, the financial markets have discovered the huge opportunities presented by agricultural commodities. The consequences are devastating, as speculators drive up food prices and plunge millions of people into poverty. But investors care little about the effects of their deals in the real world.
Rising biomass demand could drive land grabs: report,Reuters,11.8.30
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/30/us-biomass-iied-idUSTRE77T3L220110830
Reuters) - Rising global demand for cleaner energy from biomass could drive more land acquisition in poorer nations where food security and land rights are weak, an International Institute for Environment and Development report said on Tuesday.

"If left unchecked, the growing pressure on land access could undermine livelihoods and food security in some of the world's poorest countries," the London-based non-profit research group said, calling for more public scrutiny into global biomass expansion plans.

Biomass energy makes up 77 per cent of world renewable energy, and trees and woody plants account for 87 per cent of that biomass, the report said.

As governments attempt to move away from fossil fuel-based power, they are increasingly looking at biomass, as new technologies now allow it to be converted competitively into liquid fuels and electricity.

In Britain alone, plans to expand biomass energy will push demand for biomass up to as much as 60 million tonnes a year, compared with 1 million tonnes burned or co-fired in the country's biomass power stations today, according to the IIED.

Local sourcing, such as using wood from forests near power plants, is favored by countries such as Germany, France and the United States, the report said.

However, with demand for wood set to outstrip supply by up to 600 percent in some countries, and high tree growth rates in tropical countries, it is likely that some developed countries will look at non-traditional suppliers in the South to plug the biomass gap, the IIED added.

Already, operators in Brazil are becoming more interested in exporting wood chips to Europe, while Africa is also likely to play an important role in feeding European demand.

"All eyes are turned to food and biofuels, but tree plantations for biomass energy may soon become an important driver in the global land rush," said Lorenzo Cotula, a senior researcher at IIED and co-author of the report.

Investing in biomass plantations could become more attractive in the coming years as fossil fuel prices rise and the cost of biomass production falls as new production methods develop, the report said.

Biomass plantations may also be able to generate additional revenue streams, such as by selling carbon credits.

However, in the search for cheap land, suitable climates and competitive transport costs, investors could increasingly focus on Africa and south-east Asia, where many countries suffer from food insecurity and weak land rights.

Such plantations could displace poor and marginalized communities from land they have looked after for generations but have no formal claim over, the report warned.

"Biomass plantations may also compete for the best lands with food crops (and with biofuel feedstocks), adversely affecting local food security and further marginalizing smallholder farming," it added.
→Rising demand for renewable energy could drive more land grabs(iied)

From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars.

We export food to import food,Pambazuka,11.4.20
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72721
by Nebiyu Eyassu
Nebiyu Eyassu cuts through the supposed benefits of foreign agricultural investments - so-called land grabs - for a country like Ethiopia. Far from boosting employment and local food security, land grabs are likely to prop up a discredited government and increase hunger

責任ある農業投資に関する原則（RAI）は、人権と企業の社会的責任の名で土地を横取りを許す欺瞞的な概念だ

While investment is critical for agriculture, the rush into long-term land leases is a dramatic step with many risks and substantial social and environmental costs

New research on the global rush for agricultural land shows small-scale farmers increasingly at risk as land deals ignore local tenure rights.

From Ethiopia's lowlands to the hilltops of Madagascar, hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in the developing world are being gobbled up by investors creating super-sized farms.
This high-stakes global land rush, which has the potential to transform, for good or ill, developing nations, is essentially a third wave of outsourcing.
International Conference on Global Land Grabbing,Future Agriculture,11.3.2

Organising committee: Jun Borras (ISS, Netherlands), Ruth Hall (PLAAS, South Africa), Ian Scoones (IDS, UK), Wendy Wolford (Cornell, USA), Ben White (ISS, Netherlands)

The focus of the conference will be on the politics of global land grabbing and agrarian change. Papers are expected to address some of the most urgent and strategic questions around global land grab.

Assemblée générale des Nations Unies à New York, le 17 février 2011 : Discours de Bruno Le Maire, Ministre de l’Agriculture, de l’Alimentation, de la Pêche, de la Ruralité et de l’Aménagement du Territoire,Ministère de l’Alimentation,l'agriculture et de la pêche,11.2.17
http://agriculture.gouv.fr/assemblee-generale-des-nations

*Rush for land takes off again following downturn
* Hedge funds, pension funds, ag firms join investment boom
* Risks remain--for target countries and investors
* Change to Brazil rules may push more investors to Africa
* Need for tighter regulation to protect poor

British firms have acquired more land in Africa for controversial biofuel plantations than companies from any other country, a Guardian investigation has revealed.

Half of the 3.2m hectares (ha) of biofuel land identified – in countries from Mozambique to Senegal – is linked to 11 British companies, more than any other country.
　

Biofuel project stalls as foreign investors go into bankruptcy,Business Daily,11.3.31

Swedish pensions money is threatening the livelihoods of small farming communities in Brazil and risk speeding up the devastation of the rainforest. That is according to the organisation GRAIN, which this week received the Right Livelihood Award for its work to protect the livelihoods and rights of farming communities around the world.
But the Second Swedish National Pension Fund says it is doing what it can to oversee that its money is invested responsibly.
　

Foreign NGOs in Sierra Leone warned to stop lying,COCORIOKO,11.6.15
http://www.cocorioko.net/?p=12141
The Coalition of Civil Society for Peace and Development (CSOPAD) the lead civil society organization in the Northern Region has in a press release issued on Wednesday 14th June, 2011 at it’s No. 6 Mabanta Rd. secretariat announced the completion of a two month investigation into land grabbing allegations made against Addax-Bioenergy Company by some non-governmental organizations in the Diaspora.----------

Foreign joint venture eyes banana farming in Koh Kong province,Phnom Penh Post,1.25
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012012554122/Business/foreign-joint-venture-eyes-banana-farming-in-koh-kong-province.html
A Japanese firm and an Australian company planned to invest more than US$35 million in a banana plantation, a factory and a port in Koh Kong province, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said yesterday.
Australia-based Indochina Gateway Capital and Japan’s Sumifru Corporation would jointly invest in banana cultivation in the province’s Thma Baing district, MAFF plann-ing office director Por Ratana said.

Chinese bid to buy Kimberley land for beef and sugar production,ABC Rural News,12.4.30
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201204/s3491745.htm
　→オーストラリア
NZ again approves Chinese dairy purchase,ABC,12.4.23
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201204/s3483481.htm
→ニュージーランド
China should farm more abroad to feed growing demand – experts,Reuters,12.4.18
http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL3E8FI1TY20120418?sp=true
BEIJING, April 18 (Reuters) - China, the world's most populous country and biggest consumer of grain, should expand its farming overseas to ensure enough food for its people because of limited land and low productivity at home, agriculture experts said on Wednesday.
China's farm trade deficit will continue to widen to about $40 billion in 2012 following an increase of nearly 50 percent in 2011 to $34.12 billion, according to an estimate by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences think tank.
"While largely relying on domestic supplies for agriculture products, we should also fully utilise the international market," Zhu Gang, a researcher with the Rural Research Institute of the Academy, told a news conference.
"We should actively explore overseas resources by combining 'imports' and 'go overseas' to ensure stable supplies of agriculture products," said Zhu on the sidelines of the news conference, called for the publication of an academy study on rural China.
China's per capita farmland is less than 40 percent of the global average and water resources are at a quarter. It has no comparative advantages in farming, the academy said.
It said some Asian and African countries had vast areas of uncultivated land and investment in farming there by Chinese companies should boost global food supplies, which would also mean stable supplies for China.
About 40 Chinese companies are involved in overseas farming in more than 30 countries, with investment totalling 15.3 billion yuan ($2.43 billion).
Despite good harvests in China over the past eight years, increases in output are not able to keep pace with higher consumption at a time of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation.
China, the world's top rice producer, became a net importer of corn, rice and wheat for the first time in 2011.
"Supplies of agriculture products are tightening, despite years of bumper harvests, growth of demand has shown no sign of a slowdown," Guo Wei, the head of the rural department of the State Council's research office, told the conference.
"BALANCED SUPPLY DIFFICULT"
Guo said farmers in some areas had given up rice farming and moved to cities to find work.
Strong demand from livestock producers and processors had led to tighter corn supplies even though production of that crop had increased the most of all grains in recent years, said Guo.
The think tank expected China's corn output to surpass that of rice for the first time this year, becoming the largest grain crop. Record corn prices encouraged Chinese farmers to plant the largest ever acreage of the crop this year.
"To keep a balanced supply of agriculture products is becoming more and more difficult given the constrains of worsening land and water resources," said Xu Xiaoqing, head of the rural department of the Research and Development Center of the State Council.
Xu said rising imports of agriculture products, such as soy, cotton, sugar and edible oils would continue in the long term while overall grains production level fluctuates wildly depending on the weather.
China is the world's top importer of soy and cotton.
China's grain production fell to about 90 percent of its needs in 2011, down from a government target of 95 percent, according to the report.
Despite a record rice and corn harvest last year, prices of grains also hovered at record highs. Overall, the price of agriculture products rose 16.5 percent in 2011 from 2010, of which grain prices rose 9 percent.
The think tank expected the overall prices of agricultural products prices to rise 10 percent in 2012. China's annual inflation rate jumped more than expected in March to 3.6 percent largely driven by high food prices, which rose 7.5 percent. ($1 = 6.3015 yuan) (Reporting by Niu Shuping and Ken Wills; Editng by Robert Birsel)
SIERRA LEONE: Land deals beginning to stir discontent,IRIN,12.3.20
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95112/SIERRA-LEONE-Land-deals-beginning-to-stir-discontent
　→シエラレオーネ

The High Court has decided it will hear the case brought by local bidders for Crafar farms led by Sir Michael Fay.
A judicial review will be held on the decision by Government ministers, to allow China's Pengxin Group to buy the Crafar farms.
Fran O'Sullivan: Key hits stride with Crafar farms decision,The N ew Zealand Herald,112.1.27
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10781723&ref=rss

Prime Minister John Key says the Government did not have any valid reasons to refuse approval for the Chinese bid from Shanghai Pengxin to buy the 16 Crafar farms - and blocking it may have broken the law.

Legal challenge looms if Chinese win Crafar farms,The New Zealand Herald,12.1.19

China's appetite for New Zealand still growing The New Zealand Herald,11.5.11

A CHINESE Government owned multinational has purchased shares in the Tully Sugar Mill with a view to stage a $126.7 million takeover.

Chinese agricultural companies have taken control of New Zealand rural services company PGG Wrightson. The bid vehicle Agria (Singapore) Pte yesterday disclosed it had a 50.52 per cent holding.

Cracdown planned on farmland speculators,Financial Times,11.2.7,p5中国－ブラジル）

Natural Dairy warned of criticism of NZ Govt policies,The New Zealand Herald,11.2.11

Korean firms go abroad for farming land,The Korea Times,11.7.19
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2011/07/123_91150.html
Korean firms are going abroad in search of cheap arable land, but the country's high import tariffs virtually prevent them from bringing their farm produce here, a report said Tuesday.
Currently, there are 73 South Korean companies farming on a little over 23,000 hectares of land in 18 countries, including China and the Philippines, according to the report by a think tank run by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, known as Nonghyup.
Out of the total, 18 companies receiving government funds for overseas farming are now producing some 44,000 tons of grains in the countries that also include Brazil, Cambodia, Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan.
However, most of the produce from the overseas farms are either sold in their host nation or shipped to a third country as South Korea's import tariffs, as high as 500 percent, deter South Korean producers from bringing their goods here, according to the report.
"As of the end of last year, the country ranked 29th out of 31 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) nations in terms of the self-sufficiency rate of major grains," it said.
"The country needs long-term plans to develop overseas farms given rising global prices of grains and the country's import-dependent grain market."
South Korea to Expand Overseas Farming on Rising Food Costs,Bloomberg,11.7.10
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-10/south-korea-to-expand-overseas-farming-on-rising-food-costs.html

Peru: Land grabbing in indigenous peoples’ territories,WRM(World Rainforest Movement) Monthly Bulletin,Issue 166 - May 2011
http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/166/viewpoint.html#6
----------a Korean company, ECOAMERICA, has applied for the registration and titling of more than 72,000 hectares of land, at a price of 80 cents [in the local currency] a hectare, for crop production, logging and livestock raising.----------
韓国企業・エコアメリカが、作物生産・伐採・家畜飼育のために、ペルー・アマゾン地域の先住民が集団所有権を与えられた土地・7万2000ヘクタールのヘクタール当たり80セント（現地通貨）での取得を申請。

This is the first of a series of articles that investigate the roles of agriculture, food security, and social movements in South Korea’s rapid transformation in to an Asian economic and cultural super power. The articles will take a closer look at how this nation transformed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the richest in only 50 years, seen from the perspective of those who benefited the least: The Farmer’s and Rural Communities.

CAMBODIA’S first biofuel production plant has pushed its restart back until at least July, as the high prices of cassava continues to halt company plans, according to company officials.

“At the moment, we have no plans to reopen, but we hope to restart in July of this year,” said Kim Jong-ho, director of administration at MH Bio-Energy Cambodia.
“The price of cassava remains high. We are waiting for the price to decrease, and now, we are harvesting our cassava,” he said yesterday.
South Korean MH Bio-Energy plant is a Kandal province factory that uses cassava to produce ethanol for sale largely to Europe. It first opened in November 2008 with an initial investment of US$30 million.
In 2009, MH Bio-Energy plant exported 29,406 tonnes of bio-ethanol to European markets.
However, the plant’s doors have been closed since May 2010 because of rising crop prices.
The firm has acquired some 8,000 hectares to plant cassava in a bid to end purchases of cassava on the open market, but to date has only planted 1,700 hectares.

Citizens Reject Sime Darby’s Request,Daily Observer,11.8.27
http://liberianobserver.com/content/citizens-reject-sime-darby%E2%80%99s-request
オイルパーム栽培のためにさらに15,000ヘクタールの土地を提供することを許可せよよいうSime Darby社（マレーシア）の環境保護庁に対する要求に市民団体が反対を表明。この要求に応じるのは現地住民の強制立ち退きにつながり、リベリア憲法と基本的人権の原則に反することになるという。
Malaysian interest up in Cambodia's land concessions,Phnom Penh Post,7.29
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011072950711/Business/malaysian-interest-up-in-cambodias-land-concessions.html
Lion Forest Industries Berhad will seek to acquire a 9,995 hectare concession in Cambodia, the latest in a number of Malaysian firms eyeing the Kingdom to increase land banks this year.
The firm aims to cultivate rubber and palm oil on the proposed concession in Preah Vihear province, with a total investment of 11.77 million ringgit (US$3.9 million), according to a filing on the Bursa Malaysia late on Wednesday.----------
Sime Darby to invest $3.1 bln in Liberia project,Reuters,11.5.19
http://af.reuters.com/article/liberiaNews/idAFN1925797320110519

Asian palm oil companies go back to the future in Africa,Financial Times,2011.2.2,p.17

Karuturi in a statement said the floods had affected its maize crop in over 12,000 hectares of land that has been leased to them. The fresh floods bursting the banks of river Baro and Alwero has resulted in the submergence of the crop that would have produced up to 50,000 tonnes of maize, a senior company official noted.

However, the firm informed the stock exchange that it is committed for developing a second crop for this year and is confident that large-second crop will not see the same fate. The company had planned to plant about 20,000 hectares having completed 12,000 hectares. It had planned to sow 20,000-30,000 hectares in November-December, by growing maize on 10,000 hectares of maize while the rest 2,000 hectares was to be of paddy.

Karuturi Global is among the global majors in rose exports and during the past two years, it's been putting in place a concrete strategy to get into agriculture sector. The company, as part of the move, leased vast tracts of land in Ethiopia to grow a host of crops including wheat, oil palm, sugarcane, paddy among others. The company has initiated an ambitious $300 million investment plan over a period of five years to take this to fruition and is understood to be reaching closure to raise $180 million debt as part of this initiative.

As part of its damage-control move, Karuturi said it has retained the services of Wapcos Limited, a mini-ratna public sector enterprise, to provide consultancy services for undertaking flood control measures besides designing an irrigation and drainage system. WaterWatch, another Dutch advisory firm, has also been engaged in authenticating the irrigation, drainage and flood control by Karuturi.

This setback is expected to push back Karuturi's plans to increase its share of revenues from agriculture. The company was expected to get 35 per cent of its revenues from agriculture business in the next two years.

Ethiopia saw an above-normal rainfall during the June-September rainy season this year, with flooding in western, northwestern and central areas. Areas around Lake Tana in Amhara region, parts of Gambella and along the Awash basin in Afar region were affected. Parts of these areas, particularly in low-lying regions and near riverbanks, faced flooding.

Launching an appeal on July 11 for drought aid, Ethiopia’s Agriculture Ministry had said the country’s food security situation had deteriorated since the beginning of the year to the La Niña-induced drought currently ravaging parts of the country.

Farmers may soon acquire land abroad,Financial Express,11.9.6
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/farmers-may-soon-acquire-land-abroad/842255/
New Delhi: Land acquisition overseas for farming could soon become a reality. The agriculture ministry plans to announce a policy that will allow farmers to buy land in continents like South America and Africa to farm for all sorts of crops.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source told FE that the policy was in the works. Current government regulations allow companies to buy land for building factories and even individuals to buy houses. But there is no clarity on buying land for agricultural investments.

“With a projected population of 1.6 billion by 2050, it is imperative to seriously explore the opportunities of transnational farming and facilitate the same so as to better the national food security concerns of both the sides in the future,” the source said.

While options such as boosting yields through technology interventions and provision of better irrigation facilities do exist, a key solution theme that has garnered immense attention in the recent past has been investing in farmland in under-developed and developing countries — across regions such as Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. China, South Korea and a several Arab countries have led the way in creating new African mega-farms to outsource domestic food production. South Korea has bought under 700,000 hectares in Sudan, while Saudi Arabia has signed a deal for 500,000 hectares in Tanzania, according to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

The government reckons that this will bring large tracts of uncultivated lands in the two continents under farming. “The land in Latin America is fertile and the rainfall pattern easily allows one a choice of crop. The soybean boom makes it much more competitive as far as working capital requirement and risk mitigation is concerned,” a government official said.

Indian agribusiness companies are estimated to be planning to spend $2.5 billion in deals in several countries. A delegation of 35 Indian investors, including food conglomerates McLeod Russel, Kaveri Seeds and Karuturi Global, had toured Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda for a week recently under the aegis of Ficci to seek land to grow palm oil, maize, cotton, rice and vegetables, largely for the burgeoning Indian market. It is not just large Indian companies, but also the small and medium enterprises in sectors ranging from spices and tea to chemicals that are looking at entering the commercial agriculture space in Africa.

But more than Africa the emphasis is now on Latin America. An increasing number of Indian companies are looking at Latin America as a safe investment destination, mainly because of stable governments and economic policies. These markets are also becoming a potential lifeline as India deals with food shortages and droughts. Earlier, India was bullish on Africa, but political turmoils there gradually shifted interests towards Latin America.

According to an MEA official, “there is immense scope for collaboration between businesses of the India and the LAC (Latin American and Caribbean) region in beefing up India’s food security and in areas related to development of agriculture and agricultural processing. With climate changes wreaking havoc in the agriculture output, India and LAC could synergise and complement each other to meet the growing food crisis”.

Punjab farmers set to grow pulses, oilseeds in Ethiopia,Hindu Business,11.2.15

The destruction of western Ethiopia forest must be stopped,Anyuak Media,11.2.10

NEW DELHI: In what could give a big boost to India's efforts at food security, Ethiopia has offered 1.8 million hectares of its farmland to Indian investors that equals nearly 40 percent of the total area of the principal grain-growing state of Punjab.

Vadodara-based ACIL Cotton Industries today said it plans to invest nearly $15 million (Rs 68 crore) to start contract farming of crops like pulses and coffee in Brazil, Congo and Ethiopia.

"The company is expecting the potential large profits that it plans to invest nearly $15 million in its Congo, Ethiopia and Brazil agricultural operations," the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The farming of crops including coffee, pulses, oilseeds, cereals, potato, sugarcane and vegetable would be undertaken on lease-hold agricultural land in these countries, it said.

ACIL also said that it will set up subsidiaries in these three countries and a consultant will be appointed to prepare a feasibility report on the planned agri-business.

Quoting reports about the land lease project of Ethiopia, the company shared that the Ethiopian government is offering fertile farm land to local and foreign investors at a give away rates in an effort to introduce large-scale commercial farming in its country.

Authorities in Bangladesh are looking abroad for land to grow food to meet the country's increasing demand and to create jobs for Bangladeshi migrants

BANGLADESH: Government shopping for farm land,IRIN,11.11.15
The government of Bangladesh is looking near and far – from Ukraine to South Sudan – to bolster food security at home, according to the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management.

Food security and quest for foreign land,Financial Express,11.5.11
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=135254&date=2011-05-11
Bangladesh, itself an agrarian economy, also had faced serious situation emanating from unabated hike in food prices and narrowing of sources of food import. The crisis was so acute that a couple of countries reneged on their deals to export rice to Bangladesh in 2008.
Despite the fact the country is yet to tap the full production potential of its own arable land due to a host of factors, the policymakers, keeping in view the future food need of an ever increasing population, also started looking outward for taking lease of agricultural land.

GCC investing heavily in overseas farms,Trade Arabia,12.3.8
http://www.tradearabia.com/news/AGRI_213807.html
The governments in the Gulf region are investing heavily in outside farmland acquisitions and leases besides injecting money into the domestic food production industry, according to an expert ahead of a major agriculture expo.
This is part of their two-pronged strategy to secure food supplies to the GCC region and safeguard against market fluctuations, said Richard Pavitt, the exhibition director for AgraME, the region’s largest agri business trade event, to be held in Dubai next month.
Agra ME, which runs from April 2 to 4, will host more than 180 global manufacturers and suppliers of agribusiness equipment and technology from 30 countries looking to showcase their products to importers, buyers and government officials from across the Middle East.
'Leading the way is Saudi, which is currently investing $23.1 billion in food security initiatives such as the allocation of $12.3 billion to the development of the food processing sector and the provision of $6 billion in financial and oil aid to Pakistan in return for agricultural land, said Pavitt, citing a report by research analysts Alpen Capital.
The UAE, he stated, has recently acquired or leased more than 1.4 million hectares of arable land in Sudan, Pakistan, and Morocco, while investing $1.4 billion in the country’s value-added food manufacturing sector, resulting in 150 food processing plants.
As part of plans to be completely self-sufficient by 2023, Qatar has invested $5.1 billion in various food security initiatives, including leasing 400,000 hectares of land in Kenya against a $3.5 billion loan to the Kenyan government, said Pavitt.
It has also established a $1 billion joint venture with Vietnam to provide 90 per cent of funds for investment in various sectors, including agriculture, he added.
Ensuring food security remains one of the most important issues for all GCC countries; according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the six GCC states currently import 90 per cent of all food products.
The high reliance on imports mean the region is particularly vulnerable to price increases when supplies are interrupted, the expert said.
“Disruption in food imports, either due to policy restrictions by exporting countries or natural disasters, affects the GCC region significantly, thereby emphasizing the importance for the governments in the region to achieve food security in order to reduce their dependence on imports,” remarked Pavitt.
In its efforts to attain self-sufficiency in the fish sector and agricultural products, Kuwait allocated $80 million in 2011 to the newly established Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs & Fish Resources (PAAAFR), while investment in land projects in Sudan, Cambodia, and Vietnam is ongoing.
Meanwhile Oman has boosted its fisheries, modern irrigation systems, agricultural production and livestock breeding technologies with up to $361 million of investment in the past two years, while Bahrain has purchased farmland in India, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey and Sudan, with 112 of their own food manufacturing plants.
The increased attention on food security and investment in the GCC is also reflected in the growth of Agra Middle East, which has tripled in growth since its first year in 2007.
The exhibition covers the five main sectors of agriculture including Agribusiness, Poultry and Livestock, Fishing and Aquaculture, Flower and Garden, and Agricultural Machinery and Supplies.
Added Pavitt: “Growing at an average of 50 per cent in exhibitor space every year, AgraME has established its presence as the must attend event by the Middle East’s agribusiness industry players.
'This year’s edition promises to be the largest yet as exhibitor interest remains strong from all the sectors covered by the event,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Grain storage for Gulf region planned,Trade Arabia,12.2.23
http://www.tradearabia.com/news/FOOD_213044.html
The Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (AAID) is considering building a system for storing three to six months of grain reserves for the Gulf region, a senior official from the investment bank said on Wednesday.

AAID, which was set up by Arab governments in the late 1970s, will study construction of storage for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Al-Arabi Hamdi, adviser to the president for economic affairs for AAID, told Reuters.

'It will be most likely in the United Arab Emirates as the Fujairah port is close to the Strait of Hormuz and close to ports and the shipping world,' Hamdi on the sidelines of a grains conference in Dubai. 'We can build silos there and import and export grains,' he said.

The port of Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman is a popular storage point, because it lies outside the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has threatened to block on several occasions over the last few months, but close to busy shipping lanes in and out of the Gulf.

If the AAID decides to go ahead at the end of the study, which could be completed by year-end, private investors will be invited to invest in the project, Hamdi said.

AAID is also setting up an agricultural land investment company, in conjunction with Saudi investors, to buy land in the Middle East and further afield, he said.

The company, which will start with capital of $60 million, has identified Egypt, Sudan and Kazakhstan as potential places for buying land.

'The company that is being set up will market the grains within the Arab world,' Hamdi said.

Oil-exporting Gulf states have been investing in farmland overseas to help secure supplies of food for a region where fresh water is scarce.

AAID sees potential for growing wheat, oilseeds and potatoes in Egypt, where the Nile river offers a long backbone of fertile land in an otherwise arid region.

The AAID, headquartered in Khartoum, is also studying a proposal from the Mauritanian government to build a 60,000 tonne per year sugar factory, Hamdi said. - Reuters

New solutions needed to improve food security in Gulf,Arab News,11.12.4
http://arabnews.com/economy/article542583.ece
JEDDAH: Economic analysts and experts say the world's major threats of population growth, climate change and natural disasters, which have led to food shortage and an increase in food prices, will consequently endanger food security in the Gulf.

The issue of food security in the GCC countries has become alarming with the rapid growth in global population, harsh climatic changes and natural disasters that have affected food-exporting countries — especially those in East Asia.

All these factors together led to raising average food prices by 30-40 percent, amid expectations that prices will continue to increase at record levels over the next five years.

If these challenges are still a distant reality for GCC countries, this does not mean the Gulf region is immune against their effects. The picture of any impact on the Gulf region can be seen clearly and strongly through food imports.

The GCC countries export about 70 percent — 80 percent to secure its food needs, and this figure rises to be around 100 percent with the export of basic food commodities for traditional Gulf daily dishes.

Annually, food imports increase in the GCC region proportionally with the population increase, especially that the recorded rise in the Gulf is three percent at the global level, while the average population growth in the world is only 1 percent.

This has been the case for nearly five to six decades before the decline in the profession of fishing and resorting to import in the wake of the discovery of oil, and reliance on open-imports.

Commenting on this issue, Omar Al-Juraifani, financial and economic analyst, said: "Farmers in the Kingdom sought to grow wheat and barley in the 1980s, but they were discouraged by the high cost of water. The Kingdom, a major importer of barley, usually imports about 7.5 million tons of barley every year to feed livestock, and the production of one ton of barley needs about 1,212 cubic meters of water. Hence, the production of such an amount of barley in Saudi Arabia needs 9.1 billion cubic meters of water — which is a huge amount for countries that suffer from water scarcity, a challenge that cannot be underestimated”.

He added: "It is fair to say that the Gulf nations never stood powerless with regard to ensuring their food security, as they sought to encourage investment in the agriculture sector beyond the Gulf region, and then re-export the production.

This approach helps the GCC countries achieve several aspirations apart from food security — the most important of which is the recruitment of huge manpower and the opening of cross-cutting areas for investment, especially in Egypt, Sudan, Indonesia, among other countries.”

The approach will also pave the way for investors to enter this area. Yet, the GCC countries were faced by the challenges of unstable political situation in these places, which needs a comprehensive reassessment of the overall topic in the light of the recurrence of such challenges in the region.

Al-Juraifani said the GCC countries must benefit from massive oil revenues and high budget surpluses by allocating a portion of these revenues for seawater desalination research and the development of agricultural techniques by making use of the latest technologies in a manner that helps preserve and save water.

Here it is vital to refer to the success of the new experience spearheaded by the UAE in farming. With less water, agriculture still in the process of support and development.

Al-Juraifani believes that there are other solutions to deal with various challenges facing food security in the Gulf region, represented in keeping reserve food stocks of large quantities which would help stabilize prices and halt the effect of reliance on the volatility of global food markets that continue to rise remarkably.

Another important thing is to activate and develop strategic plans for food security in the Gulf region, which can be done by entering into agreements with exporting countries such as Africa, Europe and East Asia, and choose the politically stable ones, to invest in agricultural infrastructure in these countries.

Under these agreements, the GCC countries can cultivate large areas, which will be of significant benefit to the Gulf States and pave the way for stabilizing food prices on the one hand, and reducing inflation on the other.Al-Juraifani is a financial adviser for leading investment projects in the GCC.
Nation feeds Gulf's appetite for ownership,smh,11.8.1
http://www.smh.com.au/national/nation-feeds-gulfs-appetite-for-ownership-20110731-1i6eg.html

Food security is back on the agenda with a bang, but while countries with money but little land want to invest elsewhere, few efforts are as emotive as a global "land grab".

The political risk involved makes such deals fraught with difficulty. There is now considerable discussion concerning how to define stricter investment codes to curb possible abuses.

It is increasingly clear that overseas agrarian acquisitions are problematic. Usamah al Kurdi, the chairman of the founding committee for the Saudi agricultural investment company Agroinvest, says: "Everyone is getting philosophical about this issue."

Some investors, including Hassad Food, which is owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, have reassessed external land purchases. Nasser Mohamed al Hajr, the chairman of Hassad Food, says: "In many cases these deals are not win-win situations."

Food security mandates require a broad-based policy agenda but still must include an offshore farmland investment component.

Strategies with insufficient allocations to property ownership, long-term lease agreements or comparable exposures lack sustainability. Investments that offer long-term solutions contribute best to true food security.

　サウジ企業、自国市場で売るための米を生産する目的で、フィリピンの20万㌶の政府所有地と民間農地のリースを求めてふぃィリピン政府と交渉

JEDDAH – A Saudi company is seeking joint venture agreement with the Philippine government for large-scale rice production, Manila Bulletin reported Wednesday.
Dr. Khalid Abu Al-Saud of Dar Al-Maskukat Trading in Riyadh, through a letter dated April 1, 2012, said the proposal for the long-term land lease of up to 200,000 hectares of rain-fed government land and private farms is targeted for the production of 1.2 million metric tons (MMT) of rice for the Saudi market.
The letter was coursed through Dr. Eduardo C. Sison, chairman of the Madecor Group of Los Ba?os, Laguna.
Dante Delima, assistant secretary at the Department of Agriculture (DA) and coordinator of the National Rice Program (NRP), has already endorsed to Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala a proposal to create a technical working group (TWG) to study the matter.
Saudi Arabia heavily favors basmati rice varieties, the very same varieties that the Philippine Department of Agriculture is now seeking to propagate in at least 10 rice-producing provinces nationwide.
In response to Al-Saud’s letter, Alcala’s letter dated May 7, 2012 said: "We share your enthusiasm toward this project, considering that such a joint venture will definitely boost our farmers’ income and provide opportunities to modernize their production and post-harvest capabilities."
He added: "We recognize that in the long run, this partnership could result in a mutually beneficial arrangement for both our countries as we cope with the international realities of food scarcity."
Alcala also told Al-Saud that the proposal will be considered in the light of the special rice varieties required by Saudi consumers and "the availability of large tracts of land that can be leased on a long-term basis."
The joint venture offer could spur the production of basmati rice varieties, three of which are now being propagated, with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) developing the seeds for distribution to rice farmers. – SG

AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia’s largest dairy company said Wednesday it is buying Argentine farm operator Fondomonte S.A. for $83 million to secure access to a supply of animal feed.
The acquisition will give Riyadh-based Almarai Co. control of roughly 30,000 acres of farmland in the South American nation just ahead of tough new limits likely to be imposed by Argentina’s government on foreign ownership of productive land.
Almarai said the deal is in line with the desert kingdom’s policy of “securing supplies and conserving local resources.”
Despite its scorching desert climate, Saudi Arabia for decades produced millions of tons of homegrown wheat with the help of generous farm subsidies. It is now trying to wind down domestic production because of concerns over dwindling water supplies.
Fondomonte operates three farms dedicated to producing corn and soybeans, according to Almarai. The Argentine company’s website says it also grows barley, rice and sorghum.
Almarai said it plans to use the crops to feed chickens and cattle.
It expects to pay for the deal using in-house cash and loans based on Islamic principles, which generally prohibit the paying of interest.
“This is a relatively significant move, that they’re actually acquiring a company,” said Farouk Miah, an analyst at NCB Capital in Riyadh. “If anything, I think this is the beginning of a trend.”
The Saudi purchase was announced as Argentina’s Senate prepared Wednesday to approve strict new limits on foreign land ownership, designed to protect the South American country’s food resources.
The proposed law, already passed by the House, would limit individual foreign ownership of rural land to 2,500 acres per titleholder, and bar any more purchases by foreigners once 15 percent of Argentina’s land is foreign owned.
No one knows just how much Argentine land is already in foreign hands. The law would create a nationwide land registry to establish who owns what. President Cristina Fernandez has said the law would not take away land already owned by foreigners.
As their populations boom, oil-rich Gulf Arab nations have shown increased interest in buying up farmland and other agricultural assets overseas to ensure reliable food supplies.
Emirati investors have bought farmland in Pakistan, while Saudi Arabia’s Binladin Group has sought to develop rice fields in Indonesia. Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund set up a company in 2008 known as Hassad Food specifically to target agricultural investments abroad.
Almarai is one of the Middle East’s largest food companies. It traditionally focused on milk and other dairy products like yoghurt and cheese, but it has recently begun expanding into new product lines such as juices, baked goods and poultry products.
That expansion means “it’s even more critical for them to have secure supplies coming in,” Miah said.

Report plays up challenges in agriculture investment abroad,Sauzi Gazette,11.10.5
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=20111005109997
JEDDAH — There are a number of problems hindering an efficient implementation of the King Abdullah Initiative for Saudi Agricultural Investment Abroad, according to a Ministry of Commerce and Industry report.
The project aims to create a strategic reserve of food and commodities such as rice, wheat, barley, corn and soybeans, and secure animal resources to help the Kingdom achieve food security, prevent food crises and keep prices stable.
Problems in the countries targeted for investment include weak infrastructure including the lack of power, railways, paved roads, backup services and marketing channels, along with poor irrigation networks that would require major investments, the report said.
Costs of basic needs such as electricity, water and fuel place additional burdens on investors, the report added.
Other problems in foreign countries include: slow customs procedures, complicated procedures to implement privileges guaranteed by investment regulations and the establishment of laws and legal interpretations that adversely affect investments, the report said.
The challenge is compounded because there are lengthy procedures for investors to enter the market, several different taxes imposed on them, a lack of transparency in applying investment laws and the investors’ lack of commitment to sending annual reports on projects’ performance, which is required for tax exemptions, according to the report.
Some investors are slow in executing projects, which leads them to request extensions of exceptions, especially those relating to taxes, the report added.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Maglouth, head of a research and studies center, called on the Ministry of Agriculture to work on removing these obstructions so the Kingdom can fill the gaps it is suffering in terms of food and commodity supplies.
Prices of basic crops are expected to keep rising until at least 2015 due to climate change, problems with water resources, and the tendency among some Western countries to use crops for energy production, he said.
Dr. Al-Maglouth warned that the Kingdom’s annual food costs could reach SR50 billion, which would be about 10 percent of the state budget.

State Enterprise Sues Saudi Star,Addis Fortune,11.8.7
http://addisfortune.com/State%20Enterprise%20Sues%20Saudi%20Star.htm
Saudi Star Agricultural Development is being sued by Agricultural Equipment and Technical Services (AETS) for 35.2 million Br due to failure to pay for land the latter had cleared for Saudi Star in the Gambella Regional State.

Saudi Star had twice been the sole bidder for AETS offering 171 million Br the second time. Both times its bids were rejected by the Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency (PPESA) which valued the company at a higher price.

AETS, which employs 525 people and maintains and rents heavy-duty farming and construction machinery, signed a contract worth 43.5 million Br with Saudi Star Agricultural on January 20, 2010, to clear 4,000ht plot of land located in Alwero, Gambella Regional State, 721Km from the capital, a plot which has been idle for 18 years.

The land that will be used to grow rice using irrigation dams and canals made by the government, was given to Saudi Star Plc, which was registered at the Ethiopian Investment Agency (EIA) on August 20, 2009, with a start up capital of 500 million Br. The plots are covered by a forest of juniper of medium density and other indigenous trees.

AETS, which was established in 1993 with the merger of two companies with an estimated asset of 249.5 million Br, and with a total land holding of 200,544sqm, including 79,800sqm in Nekempt 355Km from Addis Abeba, submitted the charge at the Federal High Court’s Eight Civil Bench through its lawyer, Moges Lemma.

AETS claims that it has not been paid by Saudi Star, which is obliged to make a full payment once the duty is performed according to the contract agreement.

The plaintiff attached the contractual agreement it had signed including letters of notice dated March 23, 2011, and June 8, 2011, and a letter written on April 1, 2011. Saudi Star admitting the debt, requested additional time to pay the amount.

Saudi Star plans to increase its landholding to 500,000ht over the next 10 to 14 years at cost of three to five billion dollars, and received a 10,000ht of land in Alwero, where it has planned to grow rice using the Alwero Dam, which was constructed by the military regime to grow cotton in the area.

AETS, which is also involved in the importation of heavy machinery, was valuated to be more than 200 million Br by the privatisation agency. AETS claims that its two demands for payment were ignored by Saudi Star, which had agreed to pay 9,000 Br for every hectare cleared.

AETS has demanded 35.2 million Br in payments from Saudi Star, a figure which includes nine per cent interest.
The presiding judge, Ayeshesum Mellese, adjourned the case to October 19, 2011 ordering the defendant to respond to the charges

Egypt settled one of a string of disputes over state land sales under deposed President Hosni Mubarak, revising the terms of a farmland deal with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the Egyptian government said

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Agricultural Development Co. (Kadco) agreed to give back most of the land it was allocated for a farming project in southern Egypt, an Egyptian government spokesman said.

"Both parties agreed to the return to the Egyptian government of 75,000 feddans out of a total of 100,000 feddans," the Agriculture Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The company will own 10,000 feddans while cultivating another 15,000 feddans that it doesn't manage but will own in the future."

The farming project would use water pumped from Egypt's Aswan High Dam reservoir along a 50 km (30 mile) canal to irrigate reclaimed agricultural land at Toshka, 60 km from the Sudanese border. - Reuters

Saudi firm Menafea Holding plans to invest $125 million in a 5,000 hectare farm in north-western Zambia during 2011, where it will grow pineapples and build a factory to produce juice, a board member said.

The UAE will look to invest in farmland in Turkey as rising prices raise the urgency of food security, says Sultan al Mansouri, the Minister of Economy.

Recent natural catastrophes from Australia to Argentina had taken officials by surprise and pushed up prices of some commodities, he said.

Qatar moves to reach food sustainability,Arab News,11.9.9
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article499319.ece
DOHA: Many Gulf countries have been investing in foreign farmland, mainly in fertile Africa, to serve as their breadbasket.
But Qatar has recently announced that it was going to boost its own food security and start investing in a master plan to turn 45,000 hectares of its own land into farms. The government’s Qatar National Food Security Program says its plan is to achieve self-sufficiency using the most modern technological advances to feed its booming population.

多くの湾岸諸国は食料基地として役立てるために海外農地に投資してきたが、カタールは最近、45000ヘクタールの自国の土地を農地に転換するマスタープランへの投資を始めると発表した。政府の「カタール国家食料安全保障計画」は、膨れ上がる人口を養うために最先端の近代的技術を利用、食料自給を達成すると言う。・・・

A LARGE investment in prime Western District farmland by the Qatar government is increasing pressure for a toughening of Australia's foreign ownership rules.

Amid growing disquiet in the bush over the loss of national sovereignty, the Greens and independent senator Nick Xenophon have called for changes requiring the Treasurer to approve all foreign acquisitions of rural land above $5 million.

Bahrain firm inks $50m Philippines farm deal,Trade Arabia,12.1.19
http://www.tradearabia.com/news/AGRI_211242.html
砂糖、米、バナナ等栽培のためにフィリピンが公有地を5年間提供。
Bahrain’s Nadir and Ibrahim Sons of Hassan Group has signed a $50 million agriculture investment deal with AMA Group Holdings, Philippines.
The deal is part of a total project worth $250 million which was launched two years ago and aims to ensure food security and promote the agribusiness sector.
The Philippines has provided the group with public land to grow crops including sugar, rice and bananas among other fruits over a five-year-period, Group executive director Ibrahim Al Ameer told our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.
Setting up agricultural projects in the Philippines follows instructions from His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa to meet Bahrain's food requirements and encourage the private sector to enter into joint ventures to this effect,' Ameer said. – TradeArabia News Service

エジプト（ページトップ）

Egypt's Citadel to grow staple crops in South Sudan,Reuters.12.3.20
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE82J08J20120320
JUBA (Reuters) - A unit of Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital plans to cultivate up to 40,000 acres of farmland in South Sudan to sell staple foods such as maize in the newly-independent nation, an executive said on Tuesday.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July under a peace agreement that ended decades of civil war with Khartoum, but the new nation is struggling with food shortages and widespread tribal and rebel violence.

The United Nations warns that around a third of the country's roughly 8 million people will need food assistance this year after bad weather and violence hit farming.

The young nation, one of the least developed in the world, also needs to cope with an influx of more than 80,000 refugees from Sudan's South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, where the army is fighting rebels.

Citadel is investing about $30 million to produce staples such as maize, sorghum and sunflower in the oil-producing Unity state bordering South Kordofan, project manager Peter Schuurs told Reuters.

"We have so far 4,000 acres and we will be planting this year, primarily maize with some sorghum and sunflowers," said Schuurs, managing director of Concord Agriculture, a fully-owned Citadel unit.

"Our focus is food security in South Sudan ... we will be supplying the local markets," he said on the sidelines of an investment conference in Juba. "We will plant the crop in June."

The firm has leased land from Unity state to be developed with the help of local farmers who it trains and equips with heavy machinery.

Schuurs said Citadel plans to add between 6,000 and 8,000 acres every year to reach between 30,000 and 40,000 acres within three to five years, when the firm expects to make its first profit from the project. Total production would be around 67,000 tonnes at the start.

"There is a food deficit for hundreds of thousands (of tonnes)," he said, adding that the United Nations, South Sudan's army and local merchants would be customers.

A camp with refugees from South Kordofan is located close to Citadel's farming land. "They will need to be fed," Schuurs said.

Citadel expects a return of 15 to 20 percent from the project, which it plans to reinvest in the Unity state farmland.

Like other investors, Concord is facing a long list of challenges doing business in South Sudan, which is struggling to set up a functioning administration.

The biggest headache is importing farming machinery to the landlocked nation from the Kenyan port of Mombasa along poor roads in Kenya and Uganda. Few paved roads exist in South Sudan outside the capital Juba.

It not only takes weeks to get the machinery but local officials frequently try to impose unexpected duties on the imports, Schuurs said.

"There are always challenges. At the border between Uganda and South Sudan there is a problem at the moment," he said.

Promised by the government in Juba to be exempted from customs in the first 10 years of the project, Citadel now faces demands from South Sudan border officials.

He said customs officials have become much stricter since a row between Sudan and South Sudan over oil payments escalated.

South Sudan needs to export its crude via Sudanese pipelines to a Red Sea port but has been unable to agree on a fee with Khartoum.

In January Juba shut down its entire oil production of 350,000 barrels a day in a protest at Sudan taking some oil for what it called unpaid transit fees. Since then officials have been scrambling to find alternative sources of revenue."There is no revenue from oil and all of a sudden they are looking for ways to generate revenues," Schuurs said. "The easiest way to generate money is to put up a road block and ask for a kind of a fine for a passing truck or car."
Citadel Capital of Egypt Says It Plans to Boost Investment in East Africa,Bloomberg,11.8.2
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-01/citadel-capital-of-egypt-plans-to-invest-more-in-east-africa.html
When the Nile Runs Dry,The New York Times,11.6.2
　

The inland Niger delta of Mali is a unique wetland ecosystem that supports a million farmers, fishermen, and herders and a rich diversity of wildlife. But now, the country’s president and Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi have begun a major agricultural project that will divert much of the river’s water and put the delta’s future at risk.

CONGO-SOUTH AFRICA: Land deals raise food security hopes,IRIN,11.6.8
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=92934
BRAZZAVILLE, 8 June 2011 (IRIN) - By handing over 80,000 hectares of untilled

Other countries believe their agricultural expertise can kickstart an agrarian revolution across the African continent

POINTE-NOIRE, Congo, Mar 26, 2011 (IPS) - In the hope of strengthening its agricultural production, the Republic of Congo has handed over 80,000 hectares of arable land to a company owned and operated by 14 South African farmers

S. Africa Farmers Shun Libya, Target Sudan Bananas, Egypt Grapes,Bloomberg,11.2.24

South African farmers ready to venture into the Congo,How we made it in Africa,11.2.13

Africa’s agriculture sector is currently receiving a lot of interest from all over the world, but setting up operations on the continent does involve a degree of risk. Some of the Zimbabwean farmers who in 2004 were invited to start with commercial agriculture in Kwara State, Nigeria had to wait many years for promises of electricity and irrigation. They are also facing challenges to get financing from the banks.

“Irrigation is key to our project but there have been many delays in this area. The promise of a constant electricity supply has not yet materialised, although there are many electrical poles and wires on our farm. Finance is also still a problem. We battle to get the financial institutions to understand the concept of short-, medium- and long-term loans and the real need to have finance before the rainy season starts,” one of the farmers told How we made it in Africa in an interview last year.

Rall is, however, determined to take a cautious approach and not make the same mistakes as other South African farmers that ventured into the rest of the continent. “There are too many disasters that happened in the past in Africa where farmers lost everything, they had to come back home with nothing,” he said.

“It is very important . . . that whatever we do, we take small steps. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes in the past that happened all over Africa,” Rall added.A number of trade and investment protection agreements signed between the two countries’ respective governments, Agri SA and the farmers should offer some security. “We have five agreements, which have been ratified by both countries’ parliaments. If something goes wrong there, you can come and open a case in Pretoria to protect your property up there,” Rall explained.

The company has $2.5 billion invested in farmland and owns about 600,000 hectares (1.48 million acres) mostly in the U.S., Brazil and Australia, said Jose Minaya, 40, a managing director and head of natural resources and infrastructure investments at New York-based TIAA-CREF.

“From a historical point of view, farmland has generated returns of 8 percent to 12 percent a year and we expect that to continue over the long term,” Minaya said.

Farms are attracting investors such as billionaire George Soros as rising incomes in China and India and a growing world population increase demand for food and fuel. Food production will have to climb 70 percent by 2050 as the population rises to 9.2 billion from 6.9 billion in 2010, according to the United Nations. Global food costs reached a record in February after weather ruined crops from Canada to Australia and Russia.

The Standard & Poor’s Spot Index of 24 commodities has dropped 21 percent from its April high on concern the European debt crisis would slow growth and curb demand. The gauge had more than doubled since the start of 2009. The MSCI All-Country World Index of global equities lost 22 percent from its May high.

Farmland is an asset class that’s “pretty steady” and delivers stable income returns with capital appreciation that tracks slightly above inflation, said Minaya, who previously worked for AIG Global Investment Group and Merrill Lynch & Co.

The company is seeking to expand in grain-exporting countries and hold investments for as long as 30 years, he said in an interview Sept. 30. “We can easily be twice the size that we are today” if the right opportunities arise, he said.

The pension manager buys land and leases it back to farmers, he said. The investments are in “mature and established” regions, in “the bigger farms” and in countries that export grain, he said. Returns in the past few years have been at the high end of the 8 percent to 12 percent range, he said Sept. 30.

“On aggregate, it does look like a pretty good bet,” said Michael Creed, an agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. “We’re entering a period of rapid growth in emerging- market demand for higher protein,” which is increasing use of grains to feed poultry and livestock, he said from Melbourne.

TIAA-CREF is one of eight institutional investors representing $1.3 trillion in assets that have endorsed a set of Farmland Principles ranging from environmental sustainability to transparency and respect for land rights, it said on Sept. 6.

Farmland values in one of the most-productive regions in the U.S. Midwest soared 17 percent in the second quarter as higher grain prices made real estate more attractive, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said on Aug. 17. The increase from a year ago in the area including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin was the biggest since the 1970s, it said.

A fund controlled by George Soros owns 23 percent of South American farmland venture Adecoagro SA, Bloomberg data show. The company is involved in the production of grains, oilseeds, dairy, sugar, ethanol, coffee, cotton and cattle meat, and has operations in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, its website said.

Shrinking land and water supply in countries including China and India, will limit their capacity to boost food production, creating import demand, Minaya said. That’s going to be met by the major exporting regions in North and South America, Australia, and parts of Central and Eastern Europe, he said.

As well as the U.S., Australia and Brazil, the company has a smaller level of investments in Poland and Romania, he said.

Morgan Bet Farm in Ukraine Before Bailout,Bloomberg,11.10.5
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-04/morgan-stanley-bet-the-farm-in-ukraine-before-fed-bailout-by-u-s-taxpayer.html
Iowa native Justin Bruch marveled at the opportunity when Morgan Stanley (MS) called in late 2007 to recruit him for an unusual assignment.
The New York bank, flush with $7.5 billion in fiscal 2006 profit -- the biggest in its history -- was going to be farming 11 parcels on the steppes of Ukraine. The commodities team wanted Bruch, a redhead with meaty hands who’d been farming all his life, to manage one of them.
Bruch saw a chance to dig into some famous dirt, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November issue. The former Soviet republic has 30 percent of the world’s black soil, earth so fertile Adolf Hitler had Nazi troops cart some back to Germany during World War II. Wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflowers thrive there.
“It’s like the prairie land that was broken in the Midwest 100 years ago,” says Bruch, 34, who grew up on his family’s 2,500-acre (1,012-hectare) corn and soybean farm. “The soil and potential for crops that Ukraine has is the best in the world.”
Morgan Stanley was primed for the investment. It was then the second-largest U.S. securities firm by market value, after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) Chief Executive Officer John Mack was pushing managers to take more risks.
The year Morgan Stanley called Bruch about running a farm in the Mykolayiv region near Odessa on the Black Sea, the bank spent $6.5 billion for Crescent Real Estate Equities Co., which had 54 office buildings in Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami and elsewhere.
Golden Fields
The bank also financed an Atlantic City casino resort after buying the land for it in 2006. The commodities division, which had acquired operators of fuel terminals and oil tankers, recruited for its European agriculture desk, anticipating rising food prices. The increases would spark riots in several countries in 2008.
Enselco Ltd., the company Morgan Stanley funded that owned the Ukrainian farms, bought satellite-guided John Deere tractors to plow its weed-strewn Ukrainian acres and imported mold- preventing grain bags as long as football fields. Bruch picked up enough Russian to joke with his tractor drivers and order a meal in his adopted home.
Things began to fall apart within months. The locals stole fertilizer and insecticide, Bruch says, and he suspected that harvested wheat was disappearing too. He wound up fighting with tax, immigration, fire and police inspectors and trying to satisfy officials who wanted him to build roads, not just till fields. He left the farm, called Golden Fields, in June 2009 to manage a Ukrainian farm owned by another foreign investor.
‘Worked My Tail Off’
“I worked my tail off for a year on that, trying to do a good job, produce a good crop,” Bruch says in a Lviv beer garden over a meal of spit-roasted pig. “It was pretty stressful and pretty much a headache, so I’m really happy not ever to deal with any of it again.”
Morgan Stanley gave up on farming in Ukraine in July 2009, abandoning the initiative in the middle of a harvest. It bought out its local partner, Aleksandr Mamontenko, then sold Enselco to an investment firm based in Jersey in the Channel Islands, at what people familiar with the situation say was a loss. All told, Morgan Stanley put about $30 million into Enselco through loans, according to Igor Bobrov, who was hired in 2008 to be Enselco’s chief financial officer and later became its CEO. Hugh Fraser, a London-based Morgan Stanley spokesman, says bank officials declined to comment for this story.
Failed Gamble
Morgan Stanley’s failed gamble in Ukraine shows how Wall Street firms, in the last gasp of a debt-fueled bull market, strayed further from their traditional business of advising companies and underwriting stock sales to embrace diverse projects with unfamiliar risks.
By 2007, banks were investing in everything from casino development to mortgage lending in Russia. That year, the five major U.S. investment banks had only $1 in capital for every $40 of assets, meaning a 3 percent drop in asset value could wipe out a firm, according to a January report by a congressionally appointed panel probing the 2008 credit crisis.
“You don’t buy farms if you’re a brokerage,” says Richard Bove, an analyst who follows Morgan Stanley for Stamford, Connecticut-based Rochdale Securities LLC and has covered Wall Street for 30 years. “It’s an example of stretching too hard to make a killing without thinking about the core responsibility.”
After credit and equity markets collapsed in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ)’s failure in September 2008, Morgan Stanley borrowed $107.3 billion from the Federal Reserve, according to a Bloomberg News compilation of data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, litigation and an act of Congress. It also got a $10 billion capital infusion in October as part of a $700 billion government bailout of the industry.
Food Inflation
Morgan Stanley’s misadventure in Ukraine points up risks for current-day investors lured by statistics that may seem to paint agriculture as a no-brainer. Rising wealth is changing the diets of 2.5 billion people in China and India, requiring more grain to feed cattle and pigs just as soil erosion and urbanization are limiting available farmland.
To keep food inflation under control, at least 185 million new acres -- twice the area of Germany -- will have to be cultivated by 2015, says Philippe de Laperouse, the St. Louis- based director of the agribusiness practice at consulting firm HighQuest Partners LLC.
Less than 60 million acres were added during the 10 years through 2005, he says. Global food prices spiked to records in 2008 and again this year, according to a United Nations food index. Prices in August were 26 percent higher than a year earlier, after having peaked in February.
‘Difficult Business’
Hedge funds, mutual funds, university endowments and others with little experience in agriculture are buying farms at an unprecedented pace, pouring at least $13 billion since the end of 2007 into land or funds that involve agriculture, according to London-based Hardman & Co.
“These investments are driven by people who put investments together; they aren’t farmers,” says Howard Buffett, the son of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett.
The younger Buffett runs a farm in Illinois and is a former director of agricultural behemoths ConAgra Foods Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland Co. in addition to sitting on Berkshire’s board.
“It’s a very difficult business, and people really underestimate that,” he says.
Some foreign investors have had a tough time in Ukraine, even with the humus-laced black earth -- called chernozem in Russian -- that once made the region Europe’s breadbasket.
‘Soviet Brains’
Outsiders often struggle to appreciate the mind-set of Ukrainian workers, says Yuriy Kosyuk, CEO of Myronivsky Hliboproduct SA, a Kiev poultry and grain producer.
“We still have Soviet brains,” the shirt-sleeved Kosyuk says in a room adorned with porcelain chickens at company headquarters. “A lot of people here don’t want a job for the salary. They want it to be able to steal something, or for some preference or way to get ahead.”
Landkom International Plc (LKI), based on the Isle of Man, leases 74,000 hectares, mainly in western Ukraine. It raised 54 million pounds ($111 million) in a 2007 U.K. public offering and has since lost a similar amount, according to its financial reports.
Richard Spinks, the company’s former CEO, recalls putting 96 people on his payroll for security. They caught workers with plastic bottles of diesel fuel stuffed in their boots, he says. Landkom said on Sept. 7 that it doesn’t expect to report a pre- tax profit this fiscal year because of a poor rapeseed harvest.
Pig Snorts
Ukraine -- which ties with Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Azerbaijan for 134th place in Transparency International’s 2010 corruption perceptions index -- wasn’t Morgan Stanley’s first try at producing food. The bank also invested in U.S. pig farms, says Brad Hintz, a former Morgan Stanley treasurer who left the company in 1996 and is now an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.
Morgan Stanley’s merchant banking funds had a controlling stake in Princeton, Missouri-based Premium Standard Farms Inc., founded in 1988, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The pork producer ran up $461 million in debt as it invested in new barns and packing plants while hog prices fell to the lowest levels since the mid-1970s, the filing says. Premium Standard sought bankruptcy protection in 1996.
“It was so clear that this was a troubled investment that when you would sit in the merchant banking review committees, in the back of the room there would always be an associate who would do ‘snort, snort, snort,’” Hintz says, making a noise like a pig.
Emulating Goldman
With Ukraine, Morgan Stanley saw a first step into a potential multibillion-dollar crop-growing business, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
Record profits from advising on mergers, under-writing stock offers and selling mortgage-backed securities tied to U.S. housing prices had transformed Wall Street. Banks were opening the throttle on risk taking.
Mack, hired in 2005 after executive defections and lagging profits weakened predecessor Philip Purcell, wanted managers to emulate New York rival Goldman Sachs and wager more of the firm’s own capital, Hintz says. Mack set aside $2.5 billion for principal investments and encouraged employees to come to him with ideas.
Mikhail Chernyy, who worked in the bank’s Moscow office, helped propose the investment in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the creation of Enselco.
‘Visions of Sugarplums’
Mamontenko, a member of the supervisory board of AKB Finbank in Odessa, says Chernyy called him to suggest a partnership. The company was registered in Kiev on Jan. 11, 2007, amid a two-year surge in food prices that peaked in mid- 2008. Chernyy, now deputy director of strategy and energy markets at OAO Bashkirenergo, a utility in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, declined to comment.
Mamontenko led a search for suitable property for Enselco, of which he was CEO. After the Soviet Union was dismantled in 1991, most of Ukraine’s land was given to its people in plots that average 3 hectares and that can’t be sold or used as collateral. Enselco acquired 11 operating farms that leased land from thousands of peasants in the Mykolayiv region, where Bruch was a manager, and in the Khmelnytsky region of western Ukraine. The farms produced wheat, rapeseed and other grains and oilseed.
“I can imagine the visions of sugarplums,” says Bove, the Rochdale analyst. He says the bank may have wanted to grow grain to give its traders in futures markets an edge, as it has in crude oil by chartering tankers.
Bruch, the farmer from Iowa, was finishing a Master of Business Administration at California State University in Fresno in 2007 when Morgan Stanley called. He’d gotten a taste for international farming in Brazil, where he worked with his brother running a 1,250-acre farm in the state of Bahia.
‘You’re Naive’
In Ukraine, Bruch says, he was struck by the timelessness of a place where on some plots women still drop seeds by hand behind horse-drawn plows.
“When you come from Iowa, you’re naive,” Bruch says on a rainy afternoon by a wheat field owned by his current employer, Stockholm-based farm investment company Alpcot Agro AB. (ALPA) He soon learned that the ancient landscape hid a bureaucracy little changed from Soviet days.
The red tape begins with bringing equipment into Ukraine. Most countries require one piece of paper for imports, says Joseph Gooch, an Indiana farm equipment broker. He loaded five containers for Morgan Stanley’s Ukraine operations in 2008.
‘Communist Mentality’
Included were a 500-horsepower John Deere 9620 tractor, a 300-hp John Deere 8430, a self-propelled sprayer and two grain- bagging systems. He says that in Ukraine, importers need a “certificate of quality,” a “certificate of origin,” a packing list and a “pro forma” invoice.
“The Communist mentality just hasn’t died,” Gooch says.
On the farm, Bruch was facing a rash of thefts.
“It’s mind-boggling what people will steal from you,” he says. “The chemicals don’t go in the sprayer, they go in the back of someone’s Lada and are sold to a neighbor down the road.”
Bruch says he didn’t mind losing a few gallons of insecticide; what concerned him was the wheat that might not grow because he didn’t have enough to cover the last few acres. After the 2008 harvest, his doubts increased. Bruch wondered whether whole truckloads of wheat had been pilfered.
“I would look at a wheat field and know that it was about a 4 1⁄2-ton field, that I had a good crop,” he says, pointing to a steel grate where trucks pour in grain after it has been weighed. “Then it comes across the scale at 3 1⁄4 tons, and I would lie awake at night and wonder was I way off or did that wheat get stolen? I’ll never know.”
‘What a Problem’
Still, yields weren’t bad; some wheat fields came in at 5.2 tons a hectare and some rapeseed at 3 tons a hectare, above the average in Ukraine, Bruch says. The larger concern was the bank’s dispute with its partner, he says.
“I didn’t have the brains to see what a problem that would be,” says Bruch, declining to be more specific.
By 2008, Morgan Stanley was sparring with Mamontenko, according to two people familiar with the situation. Enselco was owned by Venusaur Holdings Ltd., a Cyprus-based firm whose sole shareholder was Mamontenko, according to documents in the Department of the Registrar of Companies in Nicosia. Venusaur pledged 100 percent of the equity in Enselco as collateral to Morgan Stanley, the documents show.
The bank questioned Mamontenko’s decisions, people familiar with the matter say. Enselco bought chemicals from intermediary companies that charged markups and sold crops to middlemen at prices below market levels, according to three of these people, who declined to be quoted by name because they don’t have documents to prove the markups.
‘Spoiled Everything’
Mamontenko says he wasn’t affiliated with intermediaries and coordinated prices with Morgan Stanley officials. He says he had a good relationship with the bank.
Leaning over a dark-wood table in his Finbank office in Odessa, he says the market panic following Lehman’s September 2008 collapse caused the bank to bow out.
“The biggest problem was the financial crisis,” says Mamontenko, his white shirt open to reveal a tanned chest with a thick chain and a gold cross. “That spoiled everything. Without that, we’d be farming 200,000 hectares now.”
By the end of the 2008 harvest, Morgan Stanley was cutting its far-flung investments as fast as it had been making them. Mack reduced leverage -- a measure of how extensively a firm is using borrowed money to enhance returns on shareholders’ capital -- to 11 times by the end of March 2009 from almost 28 times a year earlier, according to bank figures.
Red Lada
The Ukrainian farms went out the door in July 2009 when Enselco was sold to JadenFinch Ltd., a firm that invests on behalf of oil trader Robert Finch and his family. Kernel Holding SA, Ukraine’s largest sunflower oil producer, agreed on Sept. 9 to an option to buy Enselco for $52.3 million.
The bank’s shares haven’t recovered. So far this year, the stock has dropped 49 percent through Oct. 4, closing at $14.01 - - or less than one-fifth of its $74.13 peak in June 2007.
James Gorman took over as Morgan Stanley’s chief executive in January 2010. Mack, who’d stayed on as chairman, will end that role on Jan. 1, making Gorman both chairman and CEO. The bank wrote down all but $40 million of its $1.2 billion investment in a half-built Atlantic City casino last year -- another sign it’s getting back to the business of banking.
Bruch is in his element too. Fishtailing up a muddy track in a red Lada, he points to the wheat and rapeseed fields he’s cultivating for Alpcot.
After losing money for three years, the company, which specializes in the black-earth belt of Russia and Ukraine, said on Aug. 31 that it had turned its first operating profit in Ukraine.
“I just want to raise the best crops I can for the best value,” Bruch says. “Now I just focus on raising crops.”
The bankers at Morgan Stanley, who once fancied themselves farmers, learned how hard that can be.
Sumatran Tribe Say Lands Stolen for Palm Oil,The Jakarta Globe,11.9.19
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/sumatran-tribe-say-lands-stolen-for-palm-oil/466412

The Wilmar Group, one of Asia’s largest agribusiness companies, claims to lift people out of poverty and respect indigenous peoples’ land rights.
But protesters from the Anak Dalam Sungai Beruang tribe from Jambi in Sumatra demonstrating outside the state palace in Jakarta on Monday said a Wilmar Group subsidiary, Asiatic Persada, had forced them off their ancestral homelands. ---------

Investors make land bets as agriculture play,Market Watch,11.9.13
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/investors-make-land-bets-as-agriculture-play-2011-09-13
With food prices relatively strong even during recent market turmoil, investors remain keen for exposure to agriculture. One popular theme: investing in land.
Bringing more land under cultivation is crucial to meeting global food demand, as crop yields stagnate. From 1990 to 2007, farmers squeezed about 1% more maize, rice or soybeans per year from their land, down from the 2%-3% growth between 1961 and 2007, according to OECD figures.
So the search is on for more land to plant. Brazil alone could have 190 million hectares of under-utilized land, according to Renaissance Capital, equivalent to the European Union's total farmland. One answer has been to transform large areas of scrub land, known as cerrado, into arable land, by reducing the soil's acidity to make it suitable for cattle grazing and soybean cultivation.
Agrifirma, a private investment company backed by financier Lord Rothschild, raised $159 million in 2008 to invest in 40,000 such hectares. With cerrado land prices rising fast, and more crops being harvested from the land, it hopes to generate a 20% internal rate of return for its investors over a five to seven year period. Last week, it transferred around half of its assets to a new joint venture with Brazilian private equity firm BRZ Investimentos, which will majority-own the company and invest a further $82 million.
Technological development, available land and adequate property rights made the cerrado attractive to Agrifirma. Such a happy confluence of factors may be hard to find elsewhere. With 85% of the world's farmland held in smallholdings of two hectares or less, many countries are nervous of foreign investors looking to build large land banks that disrupt rural life. Brazil itself is considering laws to restrict foreign land ownership, one factor behind Agrifirma's deal with BRZ.
Agricultural companies can't escape the underlying volatility of commodity prices, or land values. SLC Agricola, a listed Brazilian cotton and soybean producer, saw its return on equity fluctuate from 15.9% in 2008, to 0.7% in 2009, back to 14.1% in 2010, with its land value returns moving wildly. Adecoagro, another Brazilian company, saw first half earnings at $28 million this year after a $70.6 million loss in the same period in 2010.
Agrifirma itself recently shelved plans for a Hong Kong flotation. But with market volatility spiking, appetite will likely return for the ultimate hard asset: land.

Asian Agri Seeks $100 Million for Palm Oil Fund as Malaysia Land Runs Out,Bloomberg,11.8.19
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-19/asian-agri-seeks-100-million-for-palm-oil-fund-as-malaysia-land-runs-out.html
Asian Agri Capital, a Singapore private-equity firm that focuses on early-stage plantations, is seeking to raise $100 million to invest in palm oil and other tropical commodities in Southeast Asia and Latin America.
The Pacific Agriculture Fund will invest more than half of the money in palm-oil plantations in Peru, where the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has been supporting the cultivation of the crop and other commodities to provide former coca-growing farmers with sustainable incomes, said Bill Randall, managing director of Asian Agri. The manager, which has two earlier funds, will continue to invest in Malaysia, the world’s second-largest palm-oil producer, he said.
Malaysia could run out of land to grow palm oil by 2020 and Indonesia by 2022 because of “aggressive plantings” over the past decade and environmental concerns, according to an April report by Nomura Holdings Inc. Malaysia and Indonesia are the two largest growers of palm oil, crushed from an over-sized pineapple-like fruit and processed into oils used in cooking, packaged foods and in toiletries such as shampoo.
“We will invest a significant amount of our assets in Peru as opposed to Southeast Asia because there are just a lot opportunities there,” Randall said in an interview.
As the global population expanded 85 percent in the past four decades, demand for edible oils rose almost ninefold. Palm oil climbed to 3,967 ringgit ($1,328) on Feb. 10, the highest level in almost three years as global demand outstripped supply.
Asian Agri’s fund is targeting returns of 40 percent to 60 percent when it hands money back to investors in three to five years, Randall said. It plans to list the companies it invests in within the first two years of their operations, he said.
Edible Oil
Asian Agri’s first fund gained 104 percent after fees and expenses last year, benefiting from investments in Asian Plantations Ltd. (PALM), a palm-oil producer listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market, Randall said.
Asian Agri had invested in Asian Plantations, which grows palm oil in Malaysia, and helped it to list in 2009. Asian Plantations’ market value has increased to about 101 million pounds ($167 million) from 20 million pounds when it first started trading.
“Nobody can produce edible oil cheaper than a palm oil plantation in the tropical belt,” said Dennis Melka, joint chief executive officer of Singapore-based Asian Plantations.
Asian Agri, which has applied to change its name to Pacific Agri Capital, plans to invest about 70 percent of its new fund in Peru and other Latin American countries and the rest in Southeast Asia, said Randall, who lived in Venezuela as a child and speaks Spanish. It will make complimentary investments in cocoa and rubber plantations in Latin America and plans to open an office in Colombia this year, he said.
Oil vs. Narcotics
The Pacific Agriculture Fund, which has raised more than $8 million from small family offices and friends, is seeking to attract capital from institutional investors in the U.S. and Latin America, said Zack Kembar, a director of Asian Agri.
Asian Agri is teaming up with local palm-oil companies in Peru that are seeking capital to expand, Randall said. The UNODC is supporting co-operatives in the Andean nation, which last year rivaled Colombia as the world’s largest producer of cocaine after a government eradication program failed to stem rising cultivation of coca, the raw material used to make the drug.
“Palm oil has made money consistently for 30 years for its growers,” said Asian Plantations’ Melka. “I tell people that it’s the most profitable crop that humans can grow outside of narcotics.”
Being Like Soros in Buying Farmland Reaps Annual Gains of 16%,Bloomberg,11.8.10

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-10/being-like-soros-in-buying-farm-land-lets-investors-reap-16-annual-gains.html
Perry Vieth baled hay on a neighbor’s farm in Wisconsin for two summers during high school in 1972 and 1973. The grueling labor left him with no doubt about getting a college degree so that he’d never have to work as hard again for a paycheck. Thirty-eight years later, and after a career as a securities lawyer and fixed-income trader, Vieth is back on the farm.

Except, now, he owns it. As co-founder of Ceres Partners LLC, a Granger, Indiana-based investment firm, Vieth oversees 61 farms valued at $63.3 million in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee. He’s so enthusiastic about the investments that he quit a job in 2008 overseeing $7 billion in fixed-income assets at PanAgora Asset Management Inc., a Boston-based quantitative money management firm, to focus full time on farming, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its September issue.

On a spring afternoon, Vieth, 54, barrels along backcountry roads in a Jeep Cherokee in Indiana and Michigan to scout a fruit orchard and corn and soybean farms to buy. Rural towns with names such as Three Rivers pass by in a blur, separated by a wide horizon of fields with young crops popping up.

“When I told people I was leaving to start an investment fund in farmland, they said, ‘You’re doing what?’” says Vieth, in a red polo golf shirt and khakis. “It will always be difficult for Wall Street firms to understand. It’s not like buying stocks on a computer.”

It’s much better: Returns from farmland have trounced those of equities. Ceres Partners produced an average annual gain of 16.4 percent after fees from January 2008, just after the firm started, through June of this year, Vieth says.

The bulk of the returns are in rent payments from tenant farmers who grow and sell the crops and from land appreciation. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Agriculture Index of eight raw materials gained 5.3 percent annually over the same period, and the S&P 500 Index (SPX) dropped almost 1 percent.

Investors are pouring into farmland in the U.S. and parts of Europe, Latin America and Africa as global food prices soar. A fund controlled by George Soros, the billionaire hedge-fund manager, owns 23.4 percent of South American farmland venture Adecoagro SA.

Hedge funds Ospraie Management LLC and Passport Capital LLC as well as Harvard University’s endowment are also betting on farming. TIAA-CREF, the $466 billion financial services giant, has $2 billion invested in some 600,000 acres (240,000 hectares) of farmland in Australia, Brazil and North America and wants to double the size of its investment.

“I have frequently told people that one of the best investments in the world will be farmland,” says Jim Rogers, 68, chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, who predicted the start of the global commodities rally in 1996. “You’ve got to buy in a place where it rains, and you have to have a farmer who knows what he’s doing. If you can do that, you will make a double whammy because the crops are becoming more valuable.”

The growth in demand for food, spurred by the rising middle classes in China, India and other emerging markets, shows no signs of abating. Food prices in June, as measured by a United Nations index of 55 food commodities, were just slightly below their peak in February. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said in a June report that it expects food costs to remain high through 2012.

So many investors have rushed to capitalize on food prices in the past three years that they may be creating a farmland bubble. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which covers Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and other agricultural states, said in May that farmland prices had surged 20 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier.

“Yes, farmland will be a bubble again; all agricultural products will be in a bubble again,” says Rogers, who is an investor in Agrifirma Brazil Ltd., a South American farmland owner.

Hedge-fund manager Stephen Diggle calls farming the ultimate safe haven. Diggle began buying farms with his own money in 2008 after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ) filed for bankruptcy in September of that year and the S&P 500 plunged 43 percent in the next six months. He purchased 8,000 acres in Uruguay, three smaller plots in southern Illinois and an 80-acre New Zealand kiwi-and-avocado orchard.

“We really thought all the investment banks would go under,” says Diggle, who as a hedge-fund manager uses options and warrants to bet on price swings in the market. “Everyone said, ‘Buy gold.’ But at the end of the day, you can’t eat it. If everything else goes and I just have these farms, it makes me moderately wealthy.”

The hedge fund Diggle co-founded, Artradis Fund Management Pte in Singapore, suffered about $700 million in losses. He closed it in March and opened another Singapore-based hedge fund, Vulpes Investment Management Pte. Diggle plans to incorporate his five farms into an investment management group run by Vulpes.

From his vantage point in Asia, where the British expatriate has worked for the past two decades, Diggle says he’s witnessed aspiring locals eating their way up the food chain.

“You can see what a more prosperous China will consume,” Diggle, 47, says. “It means more dairy, more meat -- not just pork and chicken.”

Investors find in farmland a respite from the cyclical price swings of the commodities market. Since 1970, there have been at least four price jumps of at least 100 percent that were followed by steep declines in the S&P agriculture commodities index. By contrast, the average value of an acre of farmland tracked by the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been on a mostly steady climb from $737 in 1980 to $2,350 in 2011.

“Farmland is the lowest-risk part of the value chain, but it’s also a key part of production,” says Jose Minaya, TIAA- CREF’s head of natural resources and infrastructure investments.

In the U.K., where farm prices are also rising, one money manager traded his career at BlackRock Inc. (BLK) for one in farming. Graham Birch, 51, left in 2009 as the London-based head of the natural resources team at BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, to run his two dairy, wheat and barley farms in southwest England full time.

Birch, who says farming has suffered from a lack of investment and management talent, has spent $1 million on improvements. He now captures all of the effluent from his 600- cow herd, stores it in a 4 million-liter (1-million-gallon) steel tank and uses it as fertilizer for his crops. “At heart, I am basically a businessman, and I want to try to apply the things I learned over the years to see what I could do,” Birch says.

Ceres Partners’ Wall Street roots are evident in the firm’s makeshift office in an old clapboard farmhouse that sits in the middle of cropland. Lucite tombstones resting on a shelf in a small room mark deals done by Brandon Zick, a former vice president of strategic acquisitions at Morgan Stanley (MS)’s investment management unit. Vieth hired Zick in January to help analyze and manage farm purchases.

Vieth, a 1982 graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School, began his career as a securities and corporate lawyer before moving to the pits of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he traded S&P 500 options. After a series of stints running an arbitrage team for Fuji Securities Inc. and other firms, he was hired as chief investment officer of fixed income at PanAgora, the quant firm, in 1999.

By about 2006, Vieth’s concerns about the economy were mounting: Inflation was at a low, and the dollar had peaked as U.S. debt and deficits soared. So he searched for an asset class that would benefit from a currency decline and rising prices. His research led him to farms, since a falling dollar boosts U.S. crop exports.

Vieth then connected with Paul Blum, a fellow Notre Dame alumnus who spent some of his youth on a farm in upstate New York and today acts as Ceres’s point person with tenant farmers.

As the dollar fell 24 percent against the euro from January 2006 through May 2008, the pair started buying land as personal investments until the business grew too big for Vieth to manage during evenings and weekends. So, in late 2007, he founded Ceres, just as tightening credit markets began to push the global economy into a recession.

He named the firm Ceres for both the Roman goddess of agriculture and a bar he frequented during his trading days in Chicago. “I was more convinced hard assets were where you wanted to be, and farmland was the best investment I could identify,” Vieth says. By May 2011, he had collected 17,238 acres, mostly in the Midwest.

When Vieth wants land, he goes shopping, as he does with Zick and Blum under a partly cloudy southern Michigan sky in May. Armed with aerial and soil maps, they look for farms with predictable rainfall, mineral-rich land and good drainage. They avoid land that slopes too much, which could lead to soil erosion.

The trio drive by a 337-acre farm for sale by a bank, and Vieth frowns at the slant of the land and the trees that line the perimeter. “Those trees will shade the corn and stunt growth,” he says. Blum doesn’t like the many rocks scattered on the unplanted dirt. Zick is skeptical that the bank will get its asking price of $7,000 an acre in a foreclosure sale.

The investors next visit a farmer they hired, Ed Kerlikowske Jr., who grows watermelon, peas and corn on their 782-acre spread near Berrien Springs, Michigan. For farmers such as Kerlikowske, the entry of outside investors frees up money for new equipment that they would otherwise have to spend on land. “To really grow the business in today’s economy, you need partners,” Kerlikowske says as he passes around slices of fresh watermelon.

The farm-investing boom is making lots of people happy, but could it all end in tears? The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which regulates banks that lend to farmers, has examined whether investors may be pumping up prices and creating the conditions for a crash like the one that devastated the market in the 1980s, resulting in the failure of 300 farm banks.

In March, then-FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair devoted a symposium to the topic in Washington with the participation of economists, bankers and agricultural experts. “If there is a bubble in farmland prices, I hope the bulk of any correction is borne by investors such as hedge funds and not by the banking industry,” William Isaac, chairman of the FDIC during the farm banking bust and now senior managing director of FTI Consulting Inc. (FCN) said during the event.

Charles McNairy, whose family has been involved in agriculture since 1871, says neophyte investors who lack a deep understanding of farming are making bad deals. In 2009, McNairy started U.S. Farming Realty Trust LP, a fund based in Kinston, North Carolina, that had raised $261 million as of late May to buy farms, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

McNairy says funds such as Ceres have been overpaying for land, based on the return from crops. “Ceres shouldn’t be buying in the Midwest,” says McNairy, who declined to disclose the states he invests in. “It’s crazy to be buying up there.”

Vieth disagrees, saying Ceres’s returns prove that his strategy is working. “I certainly don’t want to start slinging mud, but I don’t know what the heck he’s talking about.”

Greyson Colvin, who started farming fund Colvin & Co. LLP in Anoka, Minnesota, in 2009, dismisses the idea of an overheated market. “After the housing bubble, people are a little too quick to assign the word bubble these days,” says Colvin, whose two funds and separately managed accounts hold 2,300 acres of farmland in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota valued at more than $10 million.

Colvin, a former analyst at UBS AG (UBSN) and Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN), says U.S. farmers aren’t carrying as much debt as they did during the 1980s crisis, which contributed to the downfall of banks as agriculture loans defaulted. The farm debt-to-asset ratio, which peaked in 1985 at 23 percent, is expected to fall to 10.7 percent in 2011, according to Agriculture Department estimates.

Vieth’s farm funds are facing head winds in coming months and years: A likely rise in interest rates will push up his acquisition costs and the value of the dollar, which in turn might hurt commodity exports. While the former trader keeps a close eye on the dollar, he says farming will continue to thrive.

Investors seem to agree. At a dining-room table in the farmhouse in Granger, Vieth sits down at his computer one evening and totals the day’s haul: another $900,000 from investors looking for comfort -- and profits -- in one of the oldest and most essential industries on the planet.

Iowan Rastetter leads Tanzanian ag project,Des Moines Register,11.6.14
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011106140371
Washington, D.C. - Iowa agribusiness investor Bruce Rastetter is leading a project to turn as much as 800,000 acres of land in the east African country of Tanzania into a massive grain-and-livestock operation.
Development experts warn that Rastetter's project must avoid squeezing the region's small-scale farmers. One critic slammed the project as a land grab that will create a "plantation-style" system.
But Rastetter says the project will show how the use of high-quality seeds, machinery and chemicals common to U.S. agriculture can dramatically increase food production in Africa and improve the livelihoods of local, poor farmers.

Imbalance of power in Africa land deals,The Guardian,11.6.13
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/africa-land-grab-imbalance-power
Your report that US universities and UK hedge funds are grabbing land in Africa (US universities in Africa 'land grab', 9 June) is disturbing but perhaps not surprising. Investors are benefiting from the massive imbalance of power between themselves and families living in poverty in rural Africa, who often lack legal titles to the land on which they grow food, let alone the means to demand consultation or challenge their eviction. At present, across much of the world, land-grabbing is all too easy and the protections for poor people are terrifyingly few.

There is no simple solution to this growing problem, but many measures that together could help. For instance, community land titling initiatives of the sort being supported in Africa by the International Development Law Organisation are valuable, as is expert legal advice to help governments and poor communities negotiate better land deals with foreign investors – as has happened in Liberia. Wealthy countries such as the UK should support such initiatives.

Given many governments' widespread neglect – at best – of poor people's most basic rights, we should also demand that foreign investors be totally transparent about the terms and human and environmental impacts of their land deals.

US universities in Africa 'land grab',The Guardian,11.6.8
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/08/us-universities-africa-land-grab
Harvard and other major American universities are working through British hedge funds and European financial speculators to buy or lease vast areas of African farmland in deals, some of which may force many thousands of people off their land, according to a new study.

Researchers say foreign investors are profiting from "land grabs" that often fail to deliver the promised benefits of jobs and economic development, and can lead to environmental and social problems in the poorest countries in the world.

The new report on land acquisitions in seven African countries suggests that Harvard, Vanderbilt and many other US colleges with large endowment funds have invested heavily in African land in the past few years. Much of the money is said to be channelled through London-based Emergent asset management, which runs one of Africa's largest land acquisition funds, run by former JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs currency dealers.

Researchers at the California-based Oakland Institute think that Emergent's clients in the US may have invested up to $500m in some of the most fertile land in the expectation of making 25% returns.----------

Hedge funds 'grabbing land' in Africa,Oakland Institute,11.6.8
http://media.oaklandinstitute.org/hedge-funds-grabbing-land-africa-0
In a report, the Oakland Institute said hedge funds and other foreign firms had acquired large swathes of African land, often without proper contracts.

Foreign firms farm the land to consolidate their hold over global food markets, the report said.

They also use land to "make room" for export commodities such as biofuels and cut flowers.

"This is creating insecurity in the global food system that could be a much bigger threat than terrorism," the report said.

U.S. millionaire conservationist Douglas Tompkins has spent decades—and millions of dollars—acquiring about two million acres of pristine land across Argentina and Chile, and he doesn't waver when asked what he plans to do with his holdings.

Mr. Tompkins says he envisions a string of national parks across the two nations, protecting wilderness and sustaining the region's biodiversity.

But his plan has fueled fear and mistrust in many residents long wary of deep-pocketed foreigners they suspect of offering little more than exploitation and neocolonialism.

Un documentaire dénonçant les conditions de travail et l’accaparement des terres par la Société PHP, productrice de bananes au Cameroun, a été interdit de projection à Yaoundé. Quelques jours auparavant, une équipe réalisant un documentaire sur l'accaparement des terres par la Sosucam (Société sucrière du Cameroun) a été placée en garde à vue pendant une nuit.

He hails from an East Coast seafaring family, but Tom Eisenhauer is making his mark as a landlubber these days. The former investment banker and tech investor heads Bonnefield Financial Inc., a new Canadian entry into the rising investment market for agricultural land. Bonnefield expects to close its first fund at year-end, and has amassed a portfolio of 7,000 acres. While the global food-price surge helps his cause, Mr. Eisenhauer insists the payoff is long-term gains for investors and for farmers who lease back land from the fund.

Indonesia's move to bring in a two-year moratorium on new palm oil plantations to protect its remaining rainforests has seen agribusiness giants like Sime Darby switch expansion plans to Cameroon, Ghana and Liberia
The sudden upsurge in land deals by palm oil companies in Africa could lead to large-scale deforestation and loss of farmland by local communities, NGOs and environmental groups in Africa have told the Ecologist.
The world's largest palm oil producer Indonesia is due to implement a two-year ban on granting new concessions of land to plantation companies in forest areas. There are also restrictions on the availability of land in Malaysia. This has led companies like Sime Darby, which has more than half a million hectares of palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia, to look elsewhere.
Sime Darby - reported to be the largest palm oil producer in the world - has leased 220,000 hectares of land in Liberia and is considering buying a further 300,000 hectares for palm oil plantations in Cameroon. Despite the Indonesian ban, it still wants to acquire 1 million hectares of plantation land worldwide by 2015. Other rival palm oil giants like Sinar Mar, Olam International and Wilmar International are also tying up land deals in Liberia, Gabon and Ghana.
For Sime Darby at least, the ambition is to target the lucrative European markets, particularly for biofuels. It recently announced plans to build a processing plant in the South of France, bringing palm oil from its new plantations in Liberia.
However, Friends of the Earth say at least two of the areas in Liberia - Gbarpolu and Bong - where the company has leased land are currently heavily forested and include virgin rainforest.
Cameroon problems
In Cameroon, campaigners have admitted to having strong reservations about Sime Darby's plans to lease land for palm oil plantations. Samuel Nguiffo, from the Centre for Environment and Development (CED), says even if they only develop on degraded forest, the deal is likely to involve farmland being taken away from local communities.
'Degraded natural forests are located next to villages, and are considered as traditional land and "reserve" for the future expansion of communities' farmland. But according to the State law (which prevails), the State owns part of the land, and is cutodian of the rest of the land. The malaysian company [Sime Darby] will therefore enter a deal with the State, and not with the communities, but will be taking what is still considered by the communities as their traditional land, according to their customs,' he says.
Nguiffo believes the land has more value in terms of sustaining local livelihood but says the government will push hard for a deal, regardless of the long-term consequences for the country's food security. 'The purpose of this company will be to use the land in Cameroon to produce crops for exports, while Cameroon has still not conquered its food sovereignety.
'If the policies are established to promote the development of food crops in Cameroon, land scarcity will quickly exacerbate. The hunger crisis in 2008 in Cameroon showed what the future could look like if we don't collectively consider as an urgent matter the need to give the priority to regaining our food sovereignety over promoting land concessions to foreign companies,' he says.
----------

Asian palm oil companies go back to the future in Africa,Financial Times,2011.2.2,p.17

----------Sime Darby,which has a total of about 525,5000 hectares in production,this week disclosed taiks on acquiring 300,000ha in Cameroon,in addition to a lease signed last year on 220,000ha in Liberia.Golden Agri has identified a similar amount in Liberia;Singapore’s Olam International has a 300,000ha joint venture in Gabon,and Wilmar International,also Singapore based,recently acquired a Unilever plantation in Ghana.Other Producers are looking for land in Ivory Coast,Sierra Leone,Nigeria,and even Uganda.

The planters say they are getting an enthusiastic response from gavermments,eager for export revenues and hobs for unemployed workers.But both costs and risk are Enormous.Developing a 300,000ha plantation costs around $2.5bn including mills to crush the fruit,While Liberia,Sierra Leone,Ivory Coast,Uganda,Nigeria have all suffered civil war or serious dislocation in recent decades.--------

Malaysia’s Sime Darby is considering a US$2.5 billion plantation expansion deal in Cameroon, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, signalling the global grab for land is well underway as food prices soar.
The Financial Times quoted Sime Darby Chief Executive Mohd Bakke Salleh as saying the project in the West African state will involve 300,000 hectares (741,300 acres) of oil palm estates although discussions have so far led to “nothing conclusive.”

* Sime to develop Liberian estates over 15 years (adds palm oil price movements in paragraph 7)

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Sime Darby , the world's biggest listed palm oil firm, is on the lookout for more land, its chief executive said on Wednesday, in a move sure to fuel the global grab for arable land as food prices remain high. ----------

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) today announced plans to invest in sustainable palm production in Brazil. Spanning five years, the ADM investment will encompass approximately 12,000 hectares of palm production in the state of Pará and include the construction of a palm processing plant.

Vast swaths of Africa are being bought up by oligarchs, sheikhs and agribusiness corporations. But, as Fred Pearce explains in this extract from his book The Land Grabbers, centuries of history are being destroyed

Omot Ochan was sitting in a remnant of forest on an old waterbuck skin and eating maize from a calabash gourd. He was lean and tall, wearing only a pair of combat pants. Behind him was a straw hut, where bare-breasted women and barefoot children cooked fish on an open fire. A little way off were other huts, the remains of what was once a sizable village. Omot said he and his family were from the Anuak tribe. They had lived in the forest for 10 generations. "This land belonged to our father. All round here is ours. For two days' walk." He described the distant tree that marked the boundary with the next village. "When my father died, he said don't leave the land. We made a promise. We can't give it to the foreigners."

Our conversation was punctuated by the rumble of trucks passing on a dirt road just 20 metres away. The dust clouds they created wafted into the clearing and rained down on the leaves on the trees. Beyond the road huge earth-diggers were excavating a canal. Omot watched them: "Two years ago, the company began chopping down the forest and the bees went away. The bees need thick forest. We used to sell honey. We used to hunt with dogs too. But after the farm came, the animals here disappeared. Now we only have fish to sell." And with the company draining the wetland, the fish will probably be gone soon, too.

Gambella is the poorest province in one of the world's poorest nations – a lowland appendix in the far south-west of Ethiopia. Geographically and ethnically, the hot, swampy province feels like part of the new neighbouring state of South Sudan, rather than the cool highlands of the rest of Ethiopia. Indeed, Gambella was effectively in Sudan when it was ruled by the British from Khartoum, until 1956. For the half-century since, the government in Addis Ababa has ruled here, but it has invested little and cared even less for its Nilotic tribal inhabitants, whose jet-black skin and tall, elegant physique mark them out from the highlanders. The livestock-herding Nuer, who frequently cross into South Sudan, and the Anuak, who are farmers and fishers, are peripheral to highland Ethiopia in every sense.

Only three flights a week go to the provincial capital, also called Gambella. When you get there, there are no taxis, because there is no demand. The road from the airport is a dirt track through an empty landscape. Gambella town is a shambles. Its population of 30,000 has no waste collection system, so garbage piles up. The drains don't work, public water supplies are sporadic and electricity is occasional. There are few public latrines. The couple of paved roads are heavily potholed and give out before the town limits. My billet, the Norwegian-built guest house at the Bethel Synod church, was probably the dirtiest, bleakest and most ill-kempt building in which I have ever rested my head. The only vehicle in town for hire was a 40-year-old Toyota minibus of dubious roadworthiness, with a crew of three. I took it.

Of late, the central government in Addis Ababa has stopped pretending that the province of Gambella doesn't exist. It now seems intent on taming a populace that might prefer rule from Juba, the capital of South Sudan. In practice, that means bringing in foreign agribusiness and collecting the province's dispersed population in state-designated villages, while their forests, fields and hunting grounds are handed over to outsiders. In the service of capitalism, the Gambella "villagisation" programme will relocate a domestic population much in the manner of Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot.

I set out along the only road south from Gambella town to find the land grabbers. On the outskirts, as we hit the dirt, my driver decided to pick up a dozen hitchhikers. From then on, we were the local bus service. To an outsider, much of the province looks deserted. For miles, the only obvious sign of human activity was the odd cellphone tower, usually with a generator to power it and a native guard. But there were hidden villages in the bush. Their members would sit by the roadside trying to sell mangoes and other fruit to any vehicles that passed. Mangoes cost less than three cents each and the price had halved by late afternoon. Soon after the small town of Abobo, the road passed through a landscape of ash, smoke and charred trees. This was land newly acquired by my first land grabber – Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi, a Saudi oil billionaire with large holdings in Ethiopian plantations, mines and real estate. In 2011, Fortune magazine put his wealth at more than $12bn. Ethiopian-born, he is a million-dollar donor to the Clinton Foundation and also a confidant of Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, and his ruling party, which had granted a 60-year concession on 10,000 hectares of Gambella to Amoudi's company, Saudi Star.

Amoudi has been eyeing agriculture since the world food price spike in 2008 sent Saudi Arabia into a spin about its food supplies. He is intent on shipping most of his intended produce, including in excess of a million tonnes of rice a year, to Saudi Arabia. There, he has been feted by the king for making investments abroad to keep the kingdom fed. To smooth the wheels of commerce, Amoudi has recruited one of Zenawi's former ministers, Haile Assegdie, as chief executive of Saudi Star.

Saudi Star's concession is based around the Alwero dam, built in the 1980s to irrigate a state cotton farm that never happened. The dam's rusting sign still advertises the consulting services of Soviet engineers Selkhozpromexport. Amoudi is digging a 30km canal from the dam to irrigate rice paddies. Once the old state farm is watered, he wants to expand to at least 250,000 hectares, to grow sunflowers and maize.

At the gate of the Saudi Star compound, I watched soldiers usher in giant Volvo trucks and Massey Ferguson tractors and workmen starting to replace the temporary buildings with new permanent structures. Close by, they were laying an airstrip in a recently made clearing in the forest. Nobody at the company here or in Gambella town would talk to me. Perhaps they thought there was nothing to add to their boss's media statement that "land grabbing poses no harm on the environment or on the local community".

Our next hitchhikers were a couple of schoolgirls who wanted a lift to their home 2km away. It was there, in a small clearing in a forest by the road, where we found Omot Ochan in his combat pants, describing how Amoudi and his company were destroying his world. Hearing his testimony of ancestral connection with this patch of forest, and his determination to keep it, I was struck by how most westerners have lost any sense of place and attachment to the land. I move around all the time and buy and sell houses without feeling ties to the soil. But here in Gambella, their land is like their blood. It is everything. And to lose it would be to lose their identity.

Omot insisted Saudi Star had no right to be in his forest. The company had not even told the villagers that it was going to dig a canal across their land. "Nobody came to tell us what was happening." He did remember officials from the "villagisation" programme dropping by to say the families should go to the new village at Pokedi, across the River Alwero from Saudi Star's compound. But that was all. Omot had no doubt the purpose of the new village was to clear them and others off land taken from them to give to Saudi Star. So far, his family and their neighbours had refused to go, even though their children walked to the school at Pokedi on a Monday morning and didn't return until Friday evening.

"In our culture, going to a different place is unusual. You get different people and there is quarrelling," he told me, as his children gathered and grabbed the remaining maize. "We should remain in our own area. We won't go unless we are forced. God gave us this land." Another truck rumbled past, spraying dust over the tiny forest community now ostracised by its own government and under siege from a Saudi billionaire. After the truck had gone, I noticed a large, dead stork in the road. A woman headed off down the road with a bucket, on a long walk to find water.

New Colonialism for Africa? Hunger, Aid Dependency and the Selling Off of Land & Resources:Mr. Obang speaks to the Group of 78 in Ottawa, Canada, Soridarity Movement for a New Ethiopia,12.3.17（アフリカ）

A new phenomenon is taking shape across the developing world, threatening to heighten resource-related conflict, particularly in Africa. Referred to as land leasing, land selling or land grabbing, it affects Africa more than any other region, where land is more than a factor of production, but a lifeline to an individual’s wellbeing, the family unit, the community at large and the stability of the state. In this article, Patrick Mugo Mugo exposes the extent of the land grab phenomenon, arguing that while we debate over whether it is land grabbing, leasing or selling, African countries are already stepping on a potential landmine.

Small-scale farmers have been the backbone of African agriculture

With land central to the livelihoods of millions of people in Africa, Lorenzo Cotula of the International Institute for Environment and Development examines the impact of large-scale land acquisitions on the continent's farmers.

"Land grabs" are now one of the biggest issues in Africa.

Over the past few years, companies and foreign governments have been leasing large areas of land in some of Africa's poorest countries.

Continue reading the main story

Land deals as % of agricultural area

Source: FAOstat
DR Congo	48.8%
Mozambique	21.1%
Uganda	14.6%
Zambia	8.8%
Ethiopia	8.2%
Madagascar	6.7%
Malawi	6.2%
Mali	6.1%
Senegal	5.9%
Tanzania	5%
Sudan	2.3%
Nigeria	1%
Ghana	0.6%

Many commentators have raised concerns that poor villagers will be forced off their land and agribusiness will marginalise family farming.

Others say that foreign investment can help African countries create jobs, increase export earnings and use more advanced technologies.

Three years since media reports started raising public awareness on this issue, evidence has been growing on the scale, geography, players, features and impacts of the land rush. The emerging picture provides ground for concern.

Last year the World Bank documented media reports of land deals over the period between 2008 and 2009.

The deals were for nearly 60 million hectares worldwide, roughly the size of a country like Ukraine - and two-thirds of the land acquired was in Africa.

While new figures continue to emerge, all evidence points to a phenomenon of unprecedented scale.

Also, some individual deals are for very large areas. For example, Liberia recently signed a concession for 220,000 hectares.

Money to be made

Media attention has focused on investments by Middle Eastern and Asian government-backed operators but Western companies have also been heavily involved.

Ethiopian Abago could lose his village to a foreign-owned oil palm plantation

Companies acquire land because they expect world food and commodity prices to increase - so there is money to be made in agriculture.

Some governments have also promoted land acquisitions abroad as a way to secure affordable food for their people.

In many African countries, agriculture has suffered from years of neglect - and investment is needed to improve productivity and market access.

But not all investment is good - and growing evidence strongly indicates that large land deals are not the way to go.

Short-lived jobs

A synthesis of over 30 reports worldwide found that many investments have failed due to insufficient soil fertility, financing difficulties or over-ambitious business plans. For example, in Mozambique and Tanzania, some large biofuels projects have now been abandoned.

Continue reading the main story

Why land deals are good

Nissi Ekpott Entrepreneur and business journalist

International land deals are a form of trade - and for years Africa has been asking for increased trade, rather than aid, as a way out of poverty. Economists say a 2% increase in Africa's share of global trade could halve unemployment. When it comes to agricultural land, Africa has a significant global competitive advantage - a position that it needs to make use of.

Some acquisitions have resulted in a raw deal for local people - but this should not mean that the continent should steer clear of all deals. Statistics show that 84% of businesses fail in their first year. But this does not mean that starting a business is bad; instead measures should be put in place to reduce the rate at which start-ups fail. The same applies to land deals.

Africa's civil society groups have important roles to play - by demanding greater transparency from their governments and investors. Instead of being treated as helpless victims, local communities could easily be helped to become equal partners.

If land deals are implemented properly, they can bring many benefits to Africa - including increased food production; access to improved agro-skills and development in rural communities, which, in turn, will stem the tide of urban migration, one of Africa's most pressing issues.

Even where investments are profitable, it is often difficult to see how they contribute to poverty reduction. The jobs created are few, short-lived and low-paid - and public revenues are limited by tax exemptions.

A report published last year raised serious questions about the terms of the contracts that governments are signing up to.

Some of the world's poorest people are losing the land, water and natural resources that have supported their livelihoods for generations. In Uganda, for example, 20,000 people claim to have been evicted from their land and a legal case is pending before courts.

Not every deal is a "land grab" - much depends on local context, the investor's track-record, the terms of the lease, and whether these reflect the free, prior and informed consent of local landholders.

But for local people, the context in which the deals are being concluded tends to make negative outcomes more likely.

Best intentions

There are huge power imbalances among international companies, government and local landholders. Many land deals are being negotiated without transparency and local consultation.

In many parts of Africa, local farmers, herders and gatherers only have insecure legal rights to the land they see as theirs. Most have no written documents for their land. Much land is owned by the state, which can allocate it to outside investors even against local opposition.

Continue reading the main story

The Africa Debate

Tune in to the BBC World Service at 1900 GMT on Friday to listen to The Africa Debate broadcast from Freetown: Is 'land grabbing' good for Africa?

Or take part in Twitter - using #bbcafricadebate - Facebook or Google+

And while international law provides relatively effective protection for foreign investment, international human rights law remains inaccessible and ineffective for people losing land.

So even when investors come with the best intentions, this means local groups are exposed to the risk of dispossession - and investors to legal disputes.

Family farmers have long provided the backbone of African agriculture - and, when given a chance, they have been able to compete on global markets.

Family farming

In Ghana, for example, a co-operative of 60,000 cocoa farmers has run a successful business for nearly 20 years and owns 45% of a UK company that manufactures and distributes chocolate.

Continue reading the main story

Investor case study

Abdul Matlub Ahmad Nitol-Niloy Group, Bangladesh

Africa is our first investment choice. It is a huge continent with plenty of land and not as densely populated as Bangladesh.

We are looking at opportunities in Uganda and Kenya, where people do not eat as much rice as we do. This means we can sell 10-30% of the crop to the local market and export the rest, thereby ensuring food security for Bangladesh.

We would provide technical assistance to local farmers. Bangladesh has extensive experience of rice research. We have developed some seeds that can be used for farming in Africa - and we can also produce new breeds by mixing our rice seeds with African seeds

To keep production costs down, we plan to help Bangladeshi farmers move to Africa with their families - and give them land and equipment. We know there are concerns about foreign investors acquiring land in Africa. But I think this is mostly about richer countries and the former colonial rulers - not a country like Bangladesh, which is as poor as many African countries. I think we can live side-by-side happily.

The global demand for food and agricultural commodities creates new opportunities for African farmers.

Public policies and infrastructure to support family farming are needed today more than ever.

Evidence also shows that private investments to improve productivity or market access can be structured in ways that support local farmers.

Many companies successfully source agricultural produce from family farmers, and have invested in other activities along the production line - in ways that secure their supplies and improve local livelihoods.

In Mali and Zambia, some farmer associations own shares in the company they collaborate with, which gives them monetary benefits and a greater say.

Co-operatives or intermediaries can reduce the costs linked to working with large numbers of farmers. Public policy plays a key role in promoting fairer investment models.

The perception that large plantations are needed to "modernise" agriculture in poorer countries is dominant in many government circles.

But evidence shows that this perception is misplaced.

Promoting agricultural development in Africa and addressing the world's food security challenges requires investing in farmers - not in farmland.

Lorenzo Cotula leads the Land Rights Team at the UK-based research body the International Institute for Environment and Development

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/agri-biz/article2910459.ece
From the beginning of 2004, Ethiopia has witnessed a flurry of investments from all parts of the world into their farmlands.
Come 2011, land deals are already in place for 5,28,000 hectares, of which according to the Government of Ethiopia, 3,07,000 hectares of land have already been transferred to both foreign and domestic investors.
With the spur in foreign investments both in infrastructure and land banks, and a growing domestic economy, Ethiopia is today amongst one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.

Encouraged by the attractive investment climate, Indian companies have committed investment amounting to $4.4 billion out of which 40 per cent is for commercial agriculture.

Investors ranging from Karuturi Global to conglomerates such as Emami, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. etc. have acquired huge fertile tracts of land for initiating large scale commercial farming.
Large-scale commercial farming
Ethiopia is not a one off case. Since the beginning of 2000, there has been a rising global interest in farmlands.
This has been fuelled by the volatility in commodity prices globally, growing human and environmental pressures, and worries about food security due to the rising demand for biofuels.
According to the FAO estimates, the global food demand will increase by 70 per cent in 2050, in order to feed an estimated global population of 9.3 billion.
There is rising interest in large-scale commercial farming opportunities, especially in the developing economies such as India where concerns on food security are further aggravated by stagnating yields and an increasing population.
Compared to an average annual expansion of global agricultural land of less than four million hectares before 2008, approximately 56 million hectares worth of large-scale farmland deals were announced even before the end of 2009.
More than 70 percent of such demands have been in Africa; countries such as Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Sudan have transferred millions of hectares to investors in recent years.
Why Africa?
Africa offers immense opportunity in terms of investment in large-scale commercial farming. The main reasons are:
Availability of huge tracts of contiguous fertile land at modest prices.
Land prices in Africa are much lower than those in India.
For instance, the land lease rate in Punjab's Doaba region is a minimum of Rs. 40,000 for an acre whereas the average land lease rates in Africa (in rupee equivalent terms) comes to around Rs 700/acre.
Due to the large size of the farms, it becomes much easier to go for mechanised farming in such plots, thereby, increasing farm efficiency, and administrative hassles of people management in a foreign land.
Gap in the potential and actual yields in Africa, thereby, providing a huge scope for further interventions (in terms of better seeds and improved farm technology).
Availability of labour at cheaper rates as compared to developing nations, therefore, having a direct implication on cost of production.
According to studies, the cost of agriculture production in Africa is almost half as compared to India. There is a lower requirement for agricultural inputs and labour is cheap, thereby, significantly reducing the cost of production.
Proximity of some of the African nations to West Asia, EU and the US, thereby, reducing freight costs and increasing cost competitiveness.
Africa is perhaps the world's largest importer of rice, wheat, sugar, maize, soyabean and other staples. There is, therefore, a ready domestic market which is available for whatever is produced on these farms.
pull factors
Additionally there are strong “pull” factors for an Indian promoter investing in Africa notably.
Liberalised norms of Governments of most of African nations for allocation of land to Indian investors and limited bureaucratic hurdles; additional incentives such as duty-free imports, zero duty on exports, easy repatriation of profits etc.
Support from the Indian Government in terms of lending financial support through EXIM Bank, double taxation (avoidance) agreements (DTAs) and other bilateral trade agreements.

The land parcels are offered at competitive prices on lease hold which run from a minimum of 20 years to a maximum of up to 99 years.
Investment
A foreign investor needs a minimum capital investment of $50,000-1,00,000 (varies on a country-to-country basis). On an average, of the total project cost, almost 60 percent is on fixed asset, 30-35 per cent on pre-production (development) and about 6-10 per cent for working capital.
The returns from investments are more strategic from the long term point of view as most of the investment initially goes for asset creation.
These African ventures have a pay-back period of 7-8 years with a projected IRR of about 18-21 per cent and above, over a 10-year time span.
Capital infusion is required initially for a period of first 5-6 years after which the project becomes self sustainable.
Funding up to the extent of 70 per cent of project cost can be availed from different Developmental Banks in Africa.
Roadmap
Ideally to start off an individual (propriety concern) or an organisation needs to scan the different land banks in Africa based on certain criteria such as agro-climatic condition, soil, socio-economic-political situation, trade treaties and benefits etc.
Conduct surveys and studies such as environment impact study, topography, land quality assessment, logistical costs etc.
Take a decision on country-crop mix; risk assessment and risk profiling; preparation of detailed project report; completion of different Government formalities such as discussion of terms of agreement (MoU) etc. and the final implementation on ground.
(The writer is Founder, Managing Director and CEO of YES Bank Ltd.)
African land grabs hinder sustainable development,Nature News,12.2.1
http://www.nature.com/news/african-land-grabs-hinder-sustainable-development-1.9955
Sales of forest land to corporations are dispossessing inhabitants and harming ecosystems.

A scramble to buy African land is threatening the continent’s sustainable development, according to reports launched today at the Royal Society in London.

Of the 203 million hectares of land deals reported worldwide between 2000 and 2010¹, two-thirds were in Africa. The acquisitions are dispossessing millions of Africans of their land, to make way for expansive forestry and mineral projects and plantations, say a series of briefs² and a report³ published by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), an international coalition of groups working to increase community ownership of forests, based in Washington DC.

“The global report shows the scale of the issue as never before: three-quarters of Africa’s population and two-thirds of the landscape are at risk,” says Andy White, who coordinates the RRI.

The land deals stretch across the continent. In Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — co-winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize — handed over one-third of the country’s land to private investors during her 2006–11 term. That included around 650,000 hectares granted to two palm-oil giants; the move will affect the land and lives of more than one million Liberians.

And soon after South Sudan gained its independence last year, investors acquired around 9% of the country’s lands, including one-quarter of the most productive land around the capital, says David Deng, research director of the South Sudan Law Society in Juba.

Most of the large-scale acquisitions occur in environmentally sensitive areas, which tend to be maintained by local communities and are owned under traditional customary-tenure law, says Liz Wily, a political economist and author of the RRI's series of briefs². Such ownership is seldom recognized by governments, so they consider the land easy to sell off, but development can be catastrophic for ecosystems.

“Even though a large investor would prefer to have his thousands or millions of hectares near a port or road, in reality, to get the intact area they want, they are directed to remote, so-called unutilized and unoccupied lands,” she says. “What are they? Forests, rangelands and wetlands. The land rush is very much jeopardizing the existence of these resources.”

In the past, the biggest pressures on locally held natural ecosystems have been agriculture and logging, but large mineral-extraction deals are now catching up. “The footprint of a mine might be small, but the road to the mine will slice and dice rural ecosystems,” says White.

But international efforts at sustainable development are also threatening these areas. Biofuels are made from crops that are often planted on former forest or marsh land, and carbon-offset projects can result in the eviction of inhabitants of wooded areas that are bought up in exchange for carbon credits. Although the official carbon market made little progress in last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, the voluntary carbon market is still dispossessing local custodians of their lands.

For example, Green Resources, a forestry company based in Oslo, has bought up hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests in Mozambique, threatening the food security and livelihoods of local populations by denying them access to their traditional lands and food sources⁴. The company has also expanded to Uganda, Tanzania and southern Sudan. A Dutch firm’s carbon-offset project in Uganda’s Mount Elgon National Park became unmarketable after sustained conflict with local farmers who contest the group's right to the land.

Large-scale acquisitions have increased since global food and oil crises in 2007. Many economists thought that the pressure would ease eventually, but the deals have continued as part of what the RRI report calls a “new world order”³, with business moving to Brazil, Russia, India and China. The growing middle class, especially in Asia, is hungry for food, oil and minerals.

Africa is most at risk because governments fail to acknowledge pre-colonial private ownership of land by villages and communities. Around 98% of forest land in Africa is administered by the government; by contrast, 35% of forests in Asia and 28% in South America are subject to some kind of community tenure³. “Most Africans are permissive tenants of the government, they don’t actually own the land,” explains Wily.

In the 20 years since the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, natural-resource management reforms have acknowledged that local communities manage forests better than governments or multinational corporations. In the run-up to the this year's United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio +20, land-tenure experts are hoping to push policy-makers one step further, ensuring that communities get ownership to and protection for the lands that they manage.

“Rio was about devolution of governance but communities need ownership to protect their resources,” explains Wily. “Rio +20 is about the devolution of ownership.”

Special Investigation Phase Two: Understanding How Land Deals Contribute to Famine and Conflict in Africa,Oakland Institute,11.12.6
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/special-investigation-two-land-deals-africa
Investigation Reveals that Bad Energy and Development Policies Contribute to Famine and Conflict in Africa
At the same time that individuals across the US and EU offer support to victims of famine and conflict in Africa, their countries' energy policies and development agendas take food and other resources away from Africans--while also harming the environment.
Read the press release here.
Take a moment to read the FAQs on How Land Grabs Contribute to Hunger and Conflict.
Research released today by the Oakland Institute demonstrates that land grabs--largely unregulated land deals involving foreign corporations and speculators--continue to be promoted as a "development" solution for African nations. Development agencies including USAID and the World Bank Group are often the architects of these deals that promise benefits for Africans but fail to deliver.
Furthermore, the research shows that US and EU energy policies that tout the benefits of agrofuels and carbon credits--key elements of these land deals--are actually making climate change a bigger problem.
Reports and briefs from the Oakland Institute's first phase of research are available at the Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa overview page.
Q&A:"Grabbing of Drylands is a Serious Concern",IPS,11.11.13
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105816
Manipadma Jena interviews DENNIS GARRITY, Drylands Ambassador, UNCCD
AFRICA:Regulating the Rush for Land,IPS,11.10.31
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105657

FREETOWN, Oct 31, 2011 (IPS) - The adoption of international guidelines to regulate so-called land grabs has been pushed to next year after negotiators failed to agree on conditions for large-scale land investments and enforcement.
The guidelines, in the making for several years, were sparked by fears that a "land rush" is leading to hunger, conflict and human rights abuses.
More and more investors have flocked to the developing world over the past decade, snapping up huge tracts of farmland. Investment has intensified since the 2008 food and fuel price crisis.
Once in place, the United Nations’s Committee on World Food Security guidelines are meant to protect people, mainly in poor countries such as Sierra Leone, from "land grabbing".
Earlier in October, a brief flurry of attention from media and civil society surrounded the sessions of the Committee on World Food Security in Rome, where a stamp of approval on the guidelines on tenure of land, fisheries and forests was expected.
However, Olivier De Schutter, the U. N. special rapporteur on the right to food, said in an email following the meetings that details of conditions for large-scale investments remained an unresolved sticking point.
"Another major potential difficulty will be how the (voluntary guidelines) shall be followed up on," said De Schutter.
Another week of negotiations should take place in January or February to hammer out a consensus on guidelines that will "hopefully" be adopted early next year.
"These are complex issues and I'm not surprised more time is required than expected," said De Schutter. "I think it is remarkable we are heading towards a very detailed text despite the wide range of interests involved, in which decisions are made not by vote but by consensus."
A September 2011 report by Oxfam International estimated as many as 227 million hectares of land in developing countries has been sold or leased since 2001. Most of that acquisition has occurred since 2008 and most has been into the hands of international investors, says the Land and Power report.
"There is a fear that arable lands will be scarce in the future and the price of land will continue to increase," said De Schutter. "There is a sudden realisation that land is something that is in increasingly short supply.
"So there is now a rush for land."
De Schutter said developing countries agree to sell or lease out large amounts of land in exchange for infrastructure and agricultural development - things cash-strapped governments could not afford on their own.
"They (feel) they have no choice," said De Schutter.
And corruption remains rife in many countries, with local elites receiving kickbacks for land and inking agreements that benefit their own interests. Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer reported that 15 percent of people dealing with land administration services had to pay bribes.
Foreign direct investment to Africa continues to rise to unprecedented levels. The growth in production of biofuels, as well as carbon credit mechanisms and speculation, are key driving forces.
The majority of land deals in Africa are for export commodities, including biofuels and cut flowers, rather than food production, according to Oxfam International's report.
In Sierra Leone, a small West African country of about six million people that emerged from a long civil war in 2002, the democratically elected government of President Ernest Bai Koroma makes no secret of its desire to lure oreign investment.
In a recent presidential address, Koroma pointed out that agriculture contributes to nearly half the country's GDP and a quarter of its export earnings, as well as employing about two thirds of the population.
While touting the government's small-scale farming programmes, Koroma hailed "huge investments" by the private, mainly foreign, sector.
"These private sector enterprises have not only made substantial investments in the agricultural sector but have created thousands of jobs for our people," said Koroma, whose government offers an array of incentives and tax breaks to foreign investors.
According to a report by the California-based Oakland Institute in early 2011, nearly half a million hectares of Sierra Leonean farmland had been leased or was under negotiation, while the World Food Programme estimates that about half the population remains food insecure.
The Sierra Leone country report of Oakland Institute's Understanding Land Deals in Africa series suggested that large-scale land acquisition is characterised by a lack of transparency and disclosure, weak legal frameworks and confusion surrounding land availability.
"Land is being cultivated for agrofuel production as opposed to food production for local markets, raising serious doubts about the value of investments for local food security," says the report.
The report stressed the conditions "are ripe for exploitation and conflict" and called for international institutions and donor partners to withdraw support for large-scale land acquisitions in the country.
Earlier in October, dozens of people were arrested in southern Sierra Leone following protests against a land deal. Locals said they were not consulted or given information regarding the deal, which leased 12,500 hectares to a Belgian company, Socfin. More than 100 protesters blocked access to the site.
Joseph Rahall, of the Sierra Leonean non-governmental organisation Green Scenery, said local government and landowners are vulnerable to exploitation.
"Sierra Leone is very new in this business, the business of large-scale investment in land," said Rahall. "I know there could be a balance, if it is properly thought out. But we have not, we're just jumping into it without critical analysis, without proper research."
He stressed any principles adopted internationally need enforcement in Africa and cannot be something companies just say they adhere to.
Employment and economic development is simply "the bell they ring to sweet talk people into accepting these things," said Rahall.
A 2009 report, "Land grab or development opportunity? Agricultural investment and international land deals in Africa", noted land acquisitions have the potential to result in loss of land for large numbers of people.
"As much of the rural population in Africa crucially depend on land for their livelihoods and food security, loss of land is likely to have major negative impacts on local people," said the 130-page report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the International Institute for Environment and Development.
"These may only partly be compensated by the creation of permanent or temporary jobs."
De Schutter said benefits are rarely spread across the board to the most needy and decisions are not necessarily transparent or in the interests of the poor.
"In general, the development of plantations increases inequality, instead of decreasing it," said De Schutter.
"The majority will not benefit."
The guidelines on the security of tenure of land, fisheries and forests "could be a significant advance," said De Schutter. "It can make it more difficult for governments to ignore the demands of the local community." (END)
Civil Society Groups Call for Action to Curb Land Grabbing,IPS,11.10.25
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105594
Accaparement des terres agricoles : Des signaux d’alarmeLe Prétoire,11.10.24
http://www.maliweb.net/category.php?NID=82394&intr=
La pression sur les terres fertiles est de plus en plus forte. Le constat de ce phénomène est à l’origine d’un projet de recherche interdisciplinaire du Kiel Institute for the World Economy de l’Université de Greifwald et du GIGA de Hambourg, avec le soutien de GREAT.
Jeudi 20 octobre, le Centre Djoliba de Bamako a servi de cadre à une conférence-débats animée par Jann Lay et Kerstin Nolte, deux Allemands, chercheurs au GIGA (German Institute of Global and Area Studies). Le thème de la conférence était : «Accaparement des terres agricoles et investissements dans l’agriculture». Ce thème est également l’objet d’une étude que les deux chercheurs se proposent de mener dans la zone Office du Niger, avec l’appui technique et organisationnel de l’ONG GREAT (Groupe de recherche en Economie Appliquée et Théorique) dirigée par Massa Coulibaly.
Le préalable : pourquoi autant de pressions sur les terres fertiles ? A cause d’une croissance accélérée des pays pauvres en terre fertile et à une surpopulation, de l’urbanisation, du changement climatique ou de la production des produits non-alimentaires. Concernant les investissements, ils proviennent des pays industrialisés, des pays asiatiques et du Moyen-Orient, pauvres en terre cultivable. D’où leur engouement pour les pays africains. Les chercheurs ont constaté que les investissements ne répondent pas à un seul reflexe, mais plutôt à des préoccupations liées à la sécurité alimentaire et à des positionnements stratégiques. Ces investisseurs étant de plus en plus présents en Afrique, ils suscitent des débats, et surtout, des interrogations relatives au mode, peu connu, d’acquisition de terres fertiles. Achètent-ils ces terres ? Si oui, avec quels arrangements contractuels ? Quelles sont les conséquences pour les populations locales ?
Lors de son séjour dans la zone Office du Niger, l’équipe de chercheurs, forte d’études similaires en Zambie et au Kenya, se propose d’analyser les arrangements contractuels (comment la terre change-t-elle de mains ?) ; d’examiner les conséquences de la cession des terres pour la population locale (les investissements étrangers ont-ils des effets positifs, par exemple, sur l’agriculture traditionnelle ou sur la productivité ?;, de savoir si les paysans locaux, à cause de ces contrats, perdent l’accès à des terres préalablement accordées selon le droit de propriété coutumière. En somme, il s’agit pour les chercheurs de potasser les modes d’accès à la terre et le droit foncier.
Concernant les conséquences, ils présument que si les investissements sont d’un apport important en capitaux pouvant relever le secteur, très faible, ils peuvent, également, se révéler dangereux en cela qu’ils privent les exploitants locaux de terres fertiles. Car, les investisseurs étrangers ne viennent pas seulement pour développer l’agriculture vivrière, mais encourager la culture de produits nécessaires aux industries occidentales. Notamment, depuis que des produits agricoles sont utilisés comme sources d’énergies. Or, ces investisseurs sont très boulimiques en terres. Sur les 2062 cas d’investissements dans le monde, 90 sont recensés en Afrique ; et chaque cas concerne une superficie supérieure ou égale à certains pays comme le Togo ou le Bénin.
Par ailleurs, les arrangements contractuels ne se font pas au grand jour, mais dans une absence totale de transparence et de retombées sur les populations spoliées.
Pour élucider les nombreuses interrogations suscitées par l’accaparement des terres, une initiative a été lancée par Coalition Internationale pour l’accès à la terre (en anglais, International Land Coalition, ILC) en collaboration avec CDE, GIZ, OXFAM, CIRAD et GIGA. Une base de données a été créée, alimentée par des articles de recherche, des blogs et des rapports. Mais, cette base de données est dans une phase de validation et ses résultats sont provisoires.

Investissements agricoles à grande échelle : Un projet allemand mène des investigations dans trois pays africains dont le Mali,L'indicateur Renouveau,11.10.24
http://www.maliweb.net/category.php?NID=82401&intr=
‘’German institute of global and area studies’’ (l’institut germanique pour les études globales et régionales) a mis il y a deux ans un projet sur pied. Il vise à une compréhension approfondie du processus et des conséquences des investissements agricoles à grande échelle. Trois pays sont ciblés par le projet en Afrique : le Mali, la Zambie et le Kenya. A cet effet, deux responsables du projet ont animé le jeudi dernier une conférence-débat au centre Djoliba.
Les deux conférenciers avaient pour noms : Dr. Jann Lay et Kerstin Nolte, tous de ‘’German institute of global and area studies’’ (GIGA). Les conférenciers ont expliqué que même si les investissements dans l’agriculture sont de plus en plus présents dans le débat public, on connait peu de choses des conséquences sur la nature de la vente des terres, sur l’échelle de ce phénomène, sur les arrangements contractuels et encore moins sur les conséquences pour la population locale. C’est donc ce manque d’information qui a motivé ce projet de recherche interdisciplinaire du Kiel institute for the world Economy, de l’université de Greifswald et GiGa d’Hambourg.
Basé sur des nombreuses études de cas dans trois pays d’Afrique (Zambie, Kenya et Mali), le projet vise à une compréhension approfondie du processus et des conséquences des investissements à grande échelle. Plus spécifiquement, il s’agit d’analyser les arrangements contractuels, autrement dit, comment la terre change-t-elle de mains ?; d’examiner les conséquences de la vente des terres pour la population locale : l’intérêt des investisseurs étrangers déclenche-t-il des effets positifs, par exemple grâce aux investissements dans l’agriculture traditionnelle ou dans une production plus efficace ?, ou au contraire, les paysans perdent-ils l’accès à la terre qui a auparavant été accordée selon le droit de propriété coutumière?
Pour Dr. Jann Lay et Kerstin Nolte, en posant ces questions, leur focus sera mis sur les financements de la manière d’exploiter la terre, sur les droits fonciers, de droit ou de fait, et sur l’accès à la terre. « C’est dire que, les investissements dans l’agriculture sont à la fois une possibilité pour les pays récepteurs mais aussi un risque, en particulier, dans le secteur agricole où il manque le capital. Un afflux des capitaux étrangers peut donc relever un secteur faible. Cependant, les investissements dans l’agriculture peuvent poser des risques sur les pays récepteurs, notamment la population rurale », a souligné Dr. Jann Lay.
Au Mali, Dr. Jann Lay et Kerstin Nolte feront une excursion à l’Office du Niger pour y comprendre le processus d’acquisition foncière sur le niveau local.
FAO tackles land grabbing in effort to increase Africa's food security,Deutsche Welle,11.10.18
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15468955,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

Germany's Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Ilse Aigner opposes the practice of land grabbing in Africa. She says states should take responsibility for themselves and their people.
Last year alone, China is said to have bought 2.8 million hectares of land in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And many other Asian, Gulf and Western states have been involved in similar deals. Investors are drawn to land grabbing by the prospect additional space on which to grow food for their own populations, and the likelihood of rising land prices. The controversial practice, which is most widespread in Africa, means countries struggle to meet their own food needs and often have no choice besides expensive imports. The issue tops the agenda of this year's Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) annual conference, being held in Rome this week. Germany's Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Ilse Aigner is taking part.
Deutsche Welle: How can you prevent land grabbing?
Aigner: I'm in Rome to negotiate with 191 other countries on voluntary guidelines which reflect responsible actions regarding land. The problem that the land is not sold by any old person, but by the countries themselves, and we need to begin by addressing that.
So would the guidelines only apply to buyers or to the vendors as well?
Both. Two years ago we agreed on the importance of ensuring food for local populations before factoring any other priorities. Unfortunately we now have an additional problem, and that is why we want to agree on these voluntary guidelines.
But that right to food has not borne fruit, because many countries, such as Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are not selling land for food production, but for things like growing flowers.
Yes, that's right and it's a problem, but it is up to local countries to farm their land in such a way that it benefits their own people. The investments being made prove that climate is not always an issue, but that what matters is knowledge, and reliable access to things such as water. And unfortunately there are major deficits on that front in Africa.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Aigner encourages locals to farm their own land
African governments earn a lot of money through sales to private investors or other governments. How will voluntary guidelines stop that?
It is a moral question. We say they have a responsibility, but we also want to influence it through development aid, by attaching conditions or charging taxes on investments in rural development and local farming.
But controlling development aid has been a problem for years, because rather than reach those who need it – such as farmers – governments hang on to it.
Investment in rural areas used to be limited, but that has changed over the past couple of years, and we've been working with the local communities we support to organize it together. We are also involved in bi-lateral projects such as one in Ethiopia where we are building a knowledge transfer center to help inform local farmers.
Fifty million hectares of African land has already been divided up. Can the FAO guidelines do anything about that or is it too late to change contracts already signed?
All we can do is to prevent the sale of more land in the future unless the sales are of benefit to the country's own population. There is no way to force countries to abide by voluntary agreements, but we use development aid to focus on co-operation, and that can be influential.
So you use it as leverage?
Yes, we need a bit of pressure.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Many crops in Africa are grown by women
Land grabbing proponents always talk about its positive effects in terms of infrastructure. How do you see that?
If that infrastructure means improved transport routes and storage possibilities for agricultural produce, that is certainly a good thing for producers. African farmers lose up to fifty percent of their goods after harvest, so secure storage and delivery are very important. And we want to support that, but it has a lot to do with knowledge and technology.
What do NGOs say about the alleged positive effects?
We have very good experience with NGOs, we support them at a local level and sometimes invite them to take part in conferences. And we are also involved in co-operations which influence and drive the success on the ground.
A further problem, especially in Africa, is making land accessible for women. How can that be improved?
Women truly are the pillars of the farming world. Seventy percent of farmers are female, and there are many development aid measures in place to support them. Access to education is key, but so is reliable access to land. There are not very many land register fields, and if a farmer plants his or her crops on one, there is no knowing if they will be able to harvest them the following year. Those are local problems which have to be tackled on the ground.

Land 'investment' deals in Africa: Say ‘no way!’,Pambazuka,11.6.30
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/74501
Food insecurity, loss of food sovereignty, the displacement of small farmers, conflict, environmental devastation, water loss, and the further impoverishment and political instability of African nations – these are among the consequences of large-scale investments in land in Africa, a special investigation by the Oakland Institute has revealed. Pambazuka News spoke to Anuradha Mittal, Jeff Furman and Frederic Mousseau about what prompted their research and what they discovered.Anuradha Mittal, Jeff Furman, Frederic Mousseau
Opinion:The new African land grab,Aljazeera,11.6.30
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/201162884240129515.html
by Joan Baxter; Senior Research Fellow with the Oakland Institute and author of its investigative reports on land deals in Sierra Leone and Mali. She is a journalist, award-winning author, and development researcher who has lived and worked in Africa for more than 25 years.

Petition calls for halt to new 'land grab' in Africa,Irish Times,11.6.22
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0622/1224299382733.html
SOARING FOOD prices and the demand for biofuels have caused a new “land grab” in Africa – this time involving agribusiness corporations, hedge funds, investment banks, commodity traders and sovereign wealth funds from oil-rich states in the Middle East.
As the G20’s agriculture ministers arrived in Paris for a two-day meeting, more than 500 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from around the world have delivered a petition calling for a halt to land grabbing under the guise of “responsible agricultural investment”.----------

The rising food prices are stimulating interest in investing in African agriculture.

But these investments have been criticised as a new form of colonialism at best and downright land-grabbing at worst.

A new report from the US-based Oakland Institute says that in 2009 alone, foreign investors leased or bought an area nearly the size of France (about 60 million hectares).

It is true that many of the land deals are not structured to benefit local communities. But it is wrong to claim that such investments will only help promote food exports at the expense of local needs.

African Land Grab: Acres for a Bottle of Scotch,The Wall Street Journal,11.6.11
http://wallstreetpit.com/77854-african-land-grab-acres-for-a-bottle-of-scotch
Everyone who eats is aware that agricultural prices have been on a tear the past few years. With this has come a sharp increase in the value of arable land. Deep topsoil farmland in Iowa has changed hands as high as $11,000 an acre recently. That’s up from about $6,000 just a few years ago.

The shortage of arable land has gone global. Africa has seen an explosion of activity since 2008. How big is the land grab? Who’s doing the grabbing? It’s hard to tell as there is no central source of information and many of the transactions are not made public. An outfit called the Oakland Institute has been compiling information on this. From their June 8 press release:

The scale, rate and negative impact of land deals is alarming. In 2009 alone nearly 60 million ha– an area the size of France – was purchased or leased in comparison to an average annual expansion of global agricultural land of less than 4 million ha before 2008.

Consider these three maps. They describe the scope of what has happened in Mali, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.

The total in these two countries alone is 460k HA or 1.14 million acres. How big is that? Big. This is an area the size of Rhode Island, It is about 80Xs the size of Manhattan. But this is small beer. Consider what is going on in one of the poorest countries in the world, Ethiopia:

The total of 5.3mm acres in just this one country is equal to the size of New Jersey. It’s the same as the combined area of both Connecticut and Delaware. If you’re thinking of a European comparison this is equal in size to about half the land of Switzerland, Denmark or the Netherlands. It’s equal to all of Israel.

Who’s playing in this big land grab? Hedge funds and other speculators are big, so are a number of US Universities. From The Oakland report:

Western firms, wealthy US and European individuals, and investment funds with ties to major banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

Several Texas-based interests are associated with a major 600,000 ha South Sudan deal which involves Kinyeti Development, LLC, an Austin, Texas-based “global business development partnership and holding company,” managed by Howard Eugene Douglas, a former United States Ambassador at Large and Coordinator for Refugee Affairs.

A key player in the largest land deal in Tanzania is Iowa agribusiness entrepreneur and Republican Party stalwart, Bruce Rastetter, who concurrently serves as CEO of Pharos Ag, co-founder and Managing Director of AgriSol Energy, CEO of Summit Farms, and is an important donor to the Iowa State University.

Major investors in Sierra Leone include Addax Bioenergy from Switzerland and Quifel International Holdings (QIH) from Portugal. Sierra Leone Agriculture (SLA) is actually a subsidiary of the UK based Crad-l (CAPARO Renewable Agriculture Developments Ltd.), associated with the Tony Blair African Governance Initiative.

In Sierra Leone official regulation requires investors to pay $5 per acre, or $12 per ha, per year.

In Ethiopia, Karuturi initially received land for just $1.25 per ha, the rate was later raised to $6.75 per ha. In comparison, rates for Brazil or Argentina are $5,000-6,000 per ha.

“The research exposed investors who said it’s easy to make a land deal – that they could usually get what they want in exchange for giving a poor, tribal chief a bottle of Johnny Walker.”

Investissements agricoles : l'acquisition de terres africaines par des multinationales alimente des inquiétudes,Les Dépêches de Brazzaville,11.6.8
http://www.brazzaville-adiac.com/index.php?action=depeche&dep_id=49861&oldaction=liste&regpay_id=0&them_id=0&cat_id=4&ss_cat_id=31&LISTE_FROM=0&select_month=06&select_year=2011
Quel regard jeter sur l'acquisition ou la cession à des compagnies étrangères étatiques ou privées de vastes étendues de terres en Afrique, au motif de promouvoir le développement agricole du continent ? Quel lien établir entre, d'une part, l'impératif de développer l'agriculture en Afrique moyennant des capitaux étrangers et, d'autre part, la nécessité de préserver les droits fonciers des communautés locales, tout en prenant en compte les défis du changement climatique ?
Ces questions et bien d'autres tout aussi pertinentes ont été abordées par un panel d'experts (photo 3) au cours d'un forum animé à Lisbonne, le 7 juin, sur « les investissements directs étrangers (IDE) en matière foncière en Afrique ».
D'entrée de jeu, dans une intervention éminemment politique (le forum l'étant aussi, bien évidemment), le professeur Abdoulaye Bathily de l'université Cheik-Anta-Diop de Dakar (Sénégal), membre de la Coalition du dialogue sur l'Afrique (CoDA), a indiqué que la « ruée vers les terres agricoles africaines » observée ces dernières années n'était que le prolongement de la « longue histoire de la colonisation du continent débutée aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles ». Elle serait dictée, d'après son propos, par les nouveaux besoins exprimés par des puissances traditionnelles ou émergentes, qui focalisent désormais leur attention sur l'accès à l'eau, la production céréalière et des biocarburants ainsi que l'exploitation minière.----------

Researchers at the California-based Oakland Institute think that Emergent's clients in the US may have invested up to $500m in some of the most fertile land in the expectation of making 25% returns.

Foreign firms farm the land to consolidate their hold over global food markets, the report said.

They also use land to "make room" for export commodities such as biofuels and cut flowers.

"This is creating insecurity in the global food system that could be a much bigger threat than terrorism," the report said.

British firms have acquired more land in Africa for controversial biofuel plantations than companies from any other country, a Guardian investigation has revealed.

Half of the 3.2m hectares (ha) of biofuel land identified – in countries from Mozambique to Senegal – is linked to 11 British companies, more than any other country.

Liquid fuels made from plants – such as bioethanol – are hailed by some as environmentally-friendly replacements for fossil fuels. Because they compete for land with crop plants, biofuels have also been linked to record food prices and rising hunger. There are also fears they can increase greenhouse gas emissions.

There are no central records of land acquisitions in Africa, but research by the Guardian revealed the scale of the biofuels rush in sub-Saharan Africa – 100 projects and 50 companies in more than 20 countries.

Crest Global Green Energy has the largest recorded landholding, 900,000ha in Mali, Guinea and Senegal. Tom Stuart, the chief executive, said: "It is true in some cases [that biofuels displace food], but in our projects we 'inter-crop', planting as much food as biofuel on the marginal land we have brought into agricultural use. There is a large social element to our projects, with all the local people needing to be in agreement, and that's normally written into contracts at government level."

Another UK company, Sun Biofuels, leased 8,000ha in Tanzania where it grows Jatropha curcas, a non-edible plant whose oil-rich seeds can be processed into biodiesel. "We'll start harvesting and producing in two years," said Peter Auge, office manager in Tanzania. "The main attraction for us is exporting to Europe."

Claims that J curcas use prevents biofuels competing with food because it grows easily on marginal and arid land unsuitable for other agriculture have been challenged even within the industry. "Growing jatropha in a profitable way on dry lands is a myth. It needs water, fertilisers and pesticides to provide high yields," Auge said. Jamidu Katima, at the University of Dar es Salaam, is critical of biofuels guidelines adopted by Tanzania's government in 2010. "There are no plans to build refineries, nor obligations for foreign investors to reserve part of their output for the domestic market," he said.

Another risk is that biofuel use could increase carbon emissions by increasing destruction of forests when displaced local farmers clear land. The Institute of European Environmental Policy recently said carbon released from deforestation linked to biofuels could exceed carbon savings by 35% in 2011 rising to 60% in 2018. Currently, this indirect impact is not considered in European sustainability guidelines.

James Smith, professor of African and Development Studies at Edinburgh University, said: "Private investment is running far ahead of our knowledge of the impacts of biofuels, such as land dispossession. This action is eroding the UK's position of enlightenment on development issues."

Unpublished research by the charity ActionAid, seen by the Guardian, confirms the picture of scores of projects amassing millions of hectares on the east and west coasts of Africa. "I suspect the estimates are actually quite conservative," said Smith.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat junior transport minister, said: "I consider the sustainability of biofuels to be paramount. No biofuel will count towards our targets unless it meets certain sustainability requirements. But we are pushing [Europe] to go further, to reduce the risk of knock-on effects, including deforestation in new areas."

He added: "Only a tiny proportion – less that 0.1% - of UK biofuel has come from Africa."

As oil prices rise, said Jeremy Woods, a lecturer in bioenergy at Imperial College London, biofuels could boom. "Once oil is over $70 a barrel, conventional and new generation biofuels become cost competitive. When oil and biofuels are competitive, we are into a different world."

Expansion of the biofuels industry has been fuelled by capital raised on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. In the Guardian survey Italy is the next biggest player with seven companies, followed by Germany (six), France (six) and the US (four). Brazil and China have been acquiring land in Africa for biofuels and food but the investigation identified only a handful of established biofuels projects. The database of biofuels projects in Africa was compiled with the help of the University of California Berkeley's Africa Reporting Project.

Some projects provide local benefits through investment, employment and local use of the produce, but many do not, says Lorenzo Cotula at the International Institute for Environment and Development, who recently analysed 12 contracts from African land deals. "Some of the contracts we analysed only contain vague and unenforceable promises." Some have 100-year leases, at very low or free rent and priority access to water, he added. "Extensive commercial plantations dislocate rural communities from their land", said Cotula. "Instead, self-managed biofuels production can offer cheaper energy and complementary sources of income".

The chief executive of Sun Biofuels, Richard Morgans said: "Our company produces sustainable and ethical biofuels – categorically yes. We would welcome higher sustainability standards, but you do have to balance this with economic development. If you are a local [in Tanzania or Mozambique] and need a job, you probably aren't worried about whether the orangutans sleep at night. It's also insulting to say African governments can't run their own affairs."

A community-based approach is embraced by a few investors. "Our farmers in Mozambique are given seedlings to grow jatropha on their own land with the option to sell the seeds back to us," says Chris Hunter, of UK-based Viridesco. "We help smaller plantations that cater to the developing world markets, as opposed to big monocultures that service the developed world's energy needs".

UK companies were the first into Africa in 2005, but this has not been without problems. D1 Oils froze its export plans and started supplying locally in Malawi and Zambia, following the failure in 2009 of its joint-venture with BP, which doubted jatropha's market potential. Last year GEM Biofuels, operating in Madagascar, suspended its LSE quotation for four months.

The revelation of the central role of UK companies in biofuels coincides with a report from Oxfam forecasting that the price of staple foods will more than double in the next 20 years. The report identifies biofuels as a factor and demands that western governments end biofuel policies that divert food to fuel for cars. "We are sleepwalking towards an age of avoidable crisis," said Oxfam's chief executive, Barbara Stocking. "One in seven people on the planet go hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone. The food system must be overhauled."

Biofuels grown in African countries
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN	NUMBER OF COMPANIES	COUNTRIES WITH LAND CONCESSIONS
UK	11	Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia
Italy	7	Congo Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Senegal,
Germany	6	Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia,
France	6	Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique Senegal, Togo
USA	4	Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda
Canada	4	DR Congo Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Zambia
Scandinavian countries	4	Ghana, Tanzania
Belgium	3	Cameroon, Ethiopia, Tanzania
Switzerland	3	Malawi, Kenya, Sierra Leone
Netherlands	2	Tanzania
Cyprus	1	Ghana, Ivory Coast
UK COMPANY	LAND CONCESSION	COUNTRIES WITH LAND CONCESSIONS
Crest Global Green Energy	900000	Guinea, Mali, Senegal
Gem Biofuels	452500	Madagascar
Equatorial Biofuels plc	80000	Liberia
Kavango Bioenergy Ltd	70000	Namibia
Jatropha africa	50000	Ghana
Cams Group	20000	Tanzania
Principle energy	20000	Mozambique
Sun Biofuels	13000	Mozambique, Tanzania
D1 Oils	5000	Malawi, Zambia
Viridesco	175	Mozambique
Sustainable Agroenergy	n.a.	Senegal
Source: data research, not including unverified projects
Remark: concessions include all negotiated land, whether it is only agreed, formally leased or already used

Increasing industrial production of oil palm in sub-Saharan African countries, carried out by foreign corporations, is destroying the livelihoods of thousands of Africans and the biodiversity of ecosystems. Despite this, industrialised countries’ governments and development agencies continue to promote such production.

Other countries believe their agricultural expertise can kickstart an agrarian revolution across the African continent

The opening line in the World Bank’s ‘World Development Report 2008 — Agriculture for Development’ goes like this: ‘An African woman bent under the sun, weeding sorghum in an arid field with a hoe, a child strapped on her back—a vivid image of rural poverty.’[1]
With all due respect to the team of World Bank experts who put together this extensive (and no doubt very expensive) 365-page report, there are problems with this picture. Conspicuously absent are the woman’s family members and other women with whom she may be chatting and laughing as she weeds. And she may be quite happy to have her baby snuggled against her back – where better for both mother and child?
But its lack of context and narrow focus are not the only problems with this World Bank ‘vivid image of rural poverty’. It’s a one-dimensional stereotype concocted to arouse pity rather than inspire the respect that Africa’s farmers deserve. It ignores their intricate knowledge of local resources, the crop varieties they have developed to cope with a wide range of soil and climatic conditions, their complex and resilient agro-ecological family farming systems. It misses the bigger picture, the myriad other crops that the woman undoubtedly cultivates on a very agro-biodiverse family farm, the valuable trees that she and her family depend on for income, food, fibre, medicine, wood and that the soils depend on for fertility and protection. It perpetuates the false notion that Africa’s family farms are inefficient and non-productive.
It ignores the importance of the family unit and the solidarity of the rural community, its advantages over urban slums. It misses the enthusiasm, ingenuity and energy of Africa’s farmers who continue to produce their own dazzling array of crops and the seeds for them. The stereotype doesn’t jive with reality of women’s farming groups like the indefatigable women of Petaka in Mali, the determined ‘Perseverance Women’s Group’ in the village of Bongor in Sierra Leone, the exuberant ‘Rural Housewives’ Group’ in the village of Ngalli II in Cameroon singing and dancing all the way to their agro-forest.
Countless more farmer groups (male and female) across the continent are working tirelessly to increase their incomes, against all the political and economic odds stacked against them, and in the face of increasing hardship of climate change that they are not causing.
But this kind of detail and perspective would spoil the stereotype the World Bank is promoting of the universally hapless, helpless African farmer, unable to do much of anything without the wisdom of World Bank and its corporate friends.

The foreign ministry has cleared the way for Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to invest in farming sector in the vast and untapped rural expanse of Africa, said an official Tuesday.
The move comes after two fact-finding missions led by the foreign secretary last year found farming in the so-called dark continent "exceedingly lucrative" for Bangladeshi investors.
The teams headed by Mijarul Quayes visited Liberia, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ghana and now foreign ministry wants the Bangladesh Bank and the agriculture ministry to take up the case for overseas farming.
"Bangladeshi entrepreneurs can invest in rice, wheat, cotton, coco and coffee farming in Africa. We want them to go fast before investors of other countries arrive," said a senior foreign ministry official.
----------

Africa's pollution and land grab threat from UN carbon market,IBTimes,11.3.1

The United Nation's carbon offset mechanism is rewarding pollution, and could lead to a land grab for industrial biofuels, tree plantations, genetically modified crops and biochar projects in Africa.

A new briefing, titled "The CDM in Africa: marketing a new land grab", produced by the Gaia Foundation in collaboration with the African Biodiversity Network, Carbon Trade Watch, Timberwatch Coalition and Biofuelwatch, examines the experience of the United Nation's carbon market, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and looks at emerging threats.----------

SIME Darby (4197), the world's biggest listed palm oil firm, is on the lookout for more land, its chief executive said yesterday, in a move sure to fuel the global grab for arable land as food prices remain high.

LONDON (Reuters) - African farmland investment has the potential to match the exponential growth of Brazil's agricultural industry, the head of business development at privately owned agricultural operator Quifel said.

Over the past few years, agribusiness, investment funds and government agencies have been acquiring long-term rights over large areas of land in Africa. Together with applicable national and international law, contracts define the terms of an investment project, and the way risks, costs and benefits are distributed. Who has the authority to sign the contract and through what process greatly influences the extent to which people can have their voices heard. Yet very little is known about the exact terms of the land deals.
Drawing on the legal analysis of twelve land deals from different parts of Africa, this report discusses the contractual issues for which public scrutiny is most needed, and aims to promote informed public debate about them.

How land grabs in Africa could herald a new dystopian age of hunger,The Guardian,11.1.28

S. Africa Farmers Shun Libya, Target Sudan Bananas, Egypt Grapes,Bloomberg,11.2.24

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s biggest farmers union, Agri SA, said its members are seeking to expand into Egypt, Morocco and Sudan while putting plans to enter Libya on hold because of violence in that country.

Members of the Pretoria-based union are already producing grapes in Egypt’s Aswan region and are considering olive farming and processing ventures in Morocco and sugar and banana operations in Sudan, Theo de Jager, who heads the union’s Africa committee, said in an interview today. An agreement to farm land in Congo Republic has already been brokered and sugar operations are being considered in Mozambique, he said.----------

Algeria invites interest from farmland investors,Reuters,11.9.21
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE78K0MW20110921
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria has for the first time formally invited expressions of interest from investors, including foreigners, seeking to acquire stakes in the country's farming sector.
Agriculture in Algeria, an energy exporting former French colony, has been largely closed to foreign investment but the government is cautiously opening up the sector to try to increase productivity and cut dependence on food imports.
The tender for expressions of interest, published on the Agriculture Ministry's web site, www.minagri.dz, states that investors will be able to take stakes in pilot farming enterprises.
But it said: "The land and buildings ... associated with these farms are, and remain, state property."
It said the tender was open to domestic and foreign investors. It did not give any details of what farms were open to investment or what surface area they covered.
Algeria's parliament last year approved a law allowing private firms to lease government farmland for the first time.
Agriculture ministry officials said at the time the law would not open the door for state-owned farmland to be sold, a politically-sensitive issue in Algeria.

S. Africa Farmers Shun Libya, Target Sudan Bananas, Egypt Grapes,Bloomberg,11.2.24

Le ministère de l'Agriculture nie avoir décidé de louer 10 mille hectares de terres agricoles, Tunisie Soir,11.6.28
http://www.tunisiesoir.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=41652:&catid=49:economie
TUNIS (TAP) - Le ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'Environnement a nié la décision de la Tunisie de louer 10 mille hectares de terres agricoles aux investisseurs étrangers. Une source auprès du ministère a indiqué dans un communiqué rendu public, mardi à Tunis, que cette information qui a circulé sur certains sites électroniques est erronée, rappelant, à ce propos, que la décision de louer des terres domaniales n'est pas liée à la récolte nationale de céréales comme cela a été signalé par lesdits sites électroniques.

Tunisia to offer farmland to foreign investors(Reuters),Arab News,11.6.24
http://arabnews.com/economy/article460991.ece
TUNIS: Tunisia expects a grain harvest of more than 2.1 million tons this year, including 1.2 million tons of durum wheat, and is to offer some 10,000 hectares of farmland to foreign investors, a minister said.

"Both parties agreed to the return to the Egyptian government of 75,000 feddans out of a total of 100,000 feddans," the Agriculture Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The company will own 10,000 feddans while cultivating another 15,000 feddans that it doesn't manage but will own in the future."

S. Africa Farmers Shun Libya, Target Sudan Bananas, Egypt Grapes,Bloomberg,11.2.24

May 17, 2012 (ADDIS ABABA) - The Ethiopian government has rejected growing accusations that it is forcibly relocating tens of thousands of indigenous people in the country's south west in order to lease the land for commercial agriculture, mainly to foreign investors.

Earlier this year, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the Ethiopian government, under its "villagization" program, has forcibly resettled an estimated 70,000 indigenous residents from the western Gambella region to new villages where there is inadequate food, farmland and access to healthcare, and education.

HRW claim resettlement has been carried out forcibly and those who refuse it face assault and arbitrary arrest at the hands of state security forces. These are allegations which Addis Ababa denies.

Government spokesperson, Shimels Kemal on Wednesday told Sudan Tribune that the accusations are “baseless” and are part of politically motivated smear campaign.

Kemal said the land being leased is only in areas that are currently agricultural, uninhabited or sparsely populated.

He conceded that relocations have taken place in the area, but said this had been done in consultation with the local populous and with their consent.

The relocated people received assistance in establishing a new lives according to Kemal.

The Ethiopian government argues that the resettlement program is part of its strategy to ensure pastoralist areas of the country benefit from development and provides them with the necessary socio-economic infrastructures.

The programs have so far seen the relocation of some 20,000 households in the Gambella region and over 100,000 have also been resettled in Benshangul and Somali regions.
The Ethiopian government has plans to resettle some 1.5 million people by 2013 in Gambella, Afar, Somali, and Benishangul-Gumuz regions, in order to establish large-scale plantations there.(ST)
Ethiopia dam project rides roughshod over heritage of local tribespeople,The Guardian,12.2.23
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/feb/23/ethiopia-dam-project-resettlement-concerns
Human rights abuse allegations as tens of thousands forced off traditional lands to make way for Gibe III dam project plantations

Agricultural developments along the Omo river valley have accompanied the building of the 243-metre-high Gibe III dam, expected to be Ethiopia's largest investment project and Africa's largest hydropower plant. But allegations of human rights abuses have marred both the dam's construction and the creation of a 140-mile-long reservoir intended to provide water for irrigation of industrial-scale plantations.

"Clearance of people and bush has started in earnest in the Omo Valley and violence against tribal people by the military, and tribal resistance, is increasing", says a Survival researcher who has just returned to London from the region.

"The tribes have been told the plan is to resettle them, and that this will happen by the end of 2012. These people are among the most self-sufficient in a country where famine and hunger are prevalent."

New sugar cane and biofuel plantations are already affecting about 10,000 people from the Bodi, Mursi and Kwegu tribes. But as the government clears more land, more people will be affected. Between 20,000 and 40,000 could be affected by one cane project alone, claims Survival.

"The plantations and resettlement of people [into new villages] will destroy their livelihoods and ability to fend for themselves," said a spokesman. "They will almost certainly end up languishing in the villages or 'camps', relying on donor aid [and] having lost all sense of identity and self worth, as has happened with other tribes forcibly resettled in many other countries."

The Omo tribes, who are among the most diverse in the world, have until now depended on the annual, three-month long flood of the Omo river, which flows from southern Ethiopia into Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, depositing fertile silt and allowing them to plant sorghum, maize and other crops. But without land for cultivation or grazing, the tribes will be destitute and foodless, say international observers.

"The government came to take the land for itself for the sugar cane plantations," said one man in a testimony given to Survival. "It never came to ask us. It came, took our land, and told us it wants to move all the people in the Omo Valley to stay in one place like a camp. It took my land. Now it beats us."

A second man said: "The government says cattle and people have to move from the Omo valley to where there are no grass and no crops. We and the cattle will die together. We are not rich people, we are pastoralists."

"There are many machines clearing the bush and the road. The government is coming to clear our houses and throw our sorghum in the river. Now we live in the bush because all the land has been cleared," said a third.

The construction of large dams has a history of insensitive relocations of people and environmental problems. More than 400,000 people have been resettled as a direct result of dam construction in Africa. But the construction of Gibe III could eventually affect more than 1.5 million people, according to watchdog group International Rivers.

Some of the greatest hydrological effects could be seen near Lake Turkana, into which the river Omo flows. When the dam is complete and the reservoir is full, possibly in 2015, the lake could shrink to one third of its present size, jeopardising the livelihoods of up to 300,000 people.

The Ethiopian government in London did not respond to the allegations this week, but late last year it strongly denied accusations of human rights abuses in the valley, saying: "The government is fully committed to rural development to benefit the people and it is equally committed to the rights of all the nations, nationalities and peoples in the country, including those in the Omo river basin. The reality on the ground in the Omo Valley shows a totally different picture to that painted by Survival International. Following consultations, local people have confirmed agreement to the plantation projects, and to the proposed resettlement; the projects, designed for everybody's benefit and well-being, are progressing smoothly."

A spokesman for International Rivers said: "The dwindling of resources caused by the dam would increase local conflicts between ethnic groups. Firearms are already omnipresent among the region's communities. But the dam is just one factor in a perfect storm rapidly descending on the Lower Omo Valley. The government of Ethiopia is exploring the area for oil and minerals and planning large-scale agricultural and biofuel schemes, which could further fuel conflicts over traditional land and water resources."

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia is forcing tens of thousands of people off their land so it can lease it to foreign investors, leaving former landowners destitute and in some cases starving, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.
The Horn of Africa state has already leased 3 million hectares - an area just smaller than Belgium - to foreign farm businesses and the U.S.-based rights group said that Addis Ababa had plans to lease another 2.1 million hectares.
The United Nations has increasingly voiced concern that countries such as China and Gulf Arab states are buying swathes of land in Africa and Asia to secure their own food supplies, often at the expense of local people.
HRW said that 1.5 million Ethiopians would eventually be forced from their land and highlighted what it said was the latest case of forced relocation in its report "Ethiopia: Forced Relocations Bring Hunger, Hardship".
"The Ethiopian government under its "villagisation" programme is forcibly relocating approximately 70,000 indigenous people from the western Gambella region to new villages that lack adequate food, farmland, healthcare, and educational facilities," HRW said, adding it had interviewed more than 100 people for the report.
"The first round of forced relocations occurred at the worst possible time of year - the beginning of the harvest. Government failure to provide food assistance for relocated people has caused endemic hunger and cases of starvation," it said.
Government officials deny the charge and say the affected plots of land are largely uninhabited and under-used, while it has also launched a programme to settle tens of thousands from the remote province in more fertile areas of the country.
"Human Rights Watch has wrongly alleged the villagisation programme to be unpopular and problematic," government spokesman Bereket Simon told Reuters.
"There is no evidence to back the claim. This programme is taking place with the full preparation and participation of regional authorities, the government and residents," he said.
Ethiopia says its prime intention in leasing large chunks of land is technology transfer and to boost production in a country that has been ravaged by droughts over the past few decades.

Landgrabbing in Ethiopia: Legal Lease or Stolen Soil?,IPS,11.11.12
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105815
ADDIS ABABA, Nov 12, 2011 (IPS/Street News Service) - Kneeling in the middle of a sugar cane field in blistering 40 degree heat, a young boy is digging up weeds while an Indian worker stands over him to make sure he does not miss any. Red is eight years old and earns 73 pence for one day’s work - less than the cost of using pesticides.
By exporting food produced by child labour in Ethiopia, an Indian farm manager hopes to earn millions within three years. "It's still total wilderness here, but we will soon start growing sugar cane and palm oil and everything will look tidy," explains Karmjeet Singh Sekhon as he drives in a Toyota 4x4 through the burning bushland on his farm.
The 68-year-old Indian is the manager of a huge farm, which covers an area of 100,000 hectares in Western Ethiopia. Soon he wants to farm 300,000 hectares, an area bigger than Luxembourg.
Since 2008 there has been an unprecedented rush to secure farmland in Africa, South America and Asia. This is a result of the rise and fluctuation in food prices on world markets, which has seen food riots in a number of countries. Countries such as India, China and the Gulf states want to feed their growing populations, but are also looking to position themselves in the race to produce bio-fuels.
The World Bank says 45 million hectares of farmland were leased in 2009 - up from only four million a year between 2006 and 2008. It is estimated that by 2030 another six million hectares will be leased annually in developing countries, two-thirds in sub-Saharan Africa and South America.
Maize, rice, wheat, soy, sorghum, sesame, sugar cane and oil seeds are the main commodities. The World Bank sees both opportunities and risks.
"These large land acquisitions can come at a high cost. The veil of secrecy that often surrounds these land deals must be lifted so poor people don't ultimately pay the heavy price of losing their land," said former World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
In the world's thirteenth poorest country, the race for the country's most productive agricultural land has only just begun and the social and environmental consequences are unforeseeable. According to the U.N., 4.5 million people in Ethiopia are currently in need of aid as a result of a devastating drought. The majority of the food aid is imported from abroad.
"No problem," says farm manager Sekhon. "Some parts of our production remain in the country, and through the export Ethiopia gains hard currency to buy at the world market."
There is no law in Ethiopia to ensure that a certain percentage remains in the country. Karuturi marketing and logistics boss Birinder Singh makes no secret of the fact that his company is commercially orientated. They will sell to those who pay most, whoever that may be.
Eighty-five per cent of Ethiopia's population of 80 million live off the land, and little has changed over the past 100 years: most of the tiny fields are still worked using ox-drawn ploughs and the yields are low.

The Ethiopian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development recently released the Land Rent Contractual Agreements for land leases between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) and twenty-four companies or individuals;now available for downloading from the SMNE’s website. This comes unexpectedly after many months of frustration among those seeking to find out the exact terms of these previously opaque deals; yet, seeing them now only raises more questions!----------

The Ethiopian government says new roads provided by large companies give small and medium-sized farms improved access to markets for their crops.
Ethiopia's ambassador to the UK, Berhanu Kebede said the Ethiopian government's absolute prime concern is ensuring food self-sufficiency at both national and household level.
The first has already been attained and we are now working towards the second. Eighty-five per cent of Ethiopia's population of 80 million are smallholder farmers who, over the past 20 years, have benefited from agriculture extension packages that have vastly improved their productivity, to the extent that food production has risen exponentially; there are now even millionaire farmers. Surpluses are sold on Ethiopia's modern Commodity Exchange and are available for areas where there is a food deficit. As a result, far fewer people now rely on food supplements – 2.8 million, down from 5.2 million in the past year.
It is essential that, parallel to its activity of scaling up the productivity of small farmers, Ethiopia must develop large mechanised agriculture to increase food production and enable the agricultural sector the crucial role it is expected to play in the implementation of our five-year Growth and Transformation Plan.
The government has put aside 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of land for this purpose of which, so far, 300,000 hectares have been leased to companies, both Ethiopian and foreign, so they can grow food crops for local sale and for export.

An international company has benefitted from a massive handout of land in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. Alemayehu G. Mariam shows what the devastating consequences of the deal will be for local people.

Supposing someone offered you the following land deal: would you take it or would you walk away believing it to be too good to be true?

Al-Amoudi to invest $2.5b in Ethiopia farm,Sauzi Gazette,11.3.24
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2011032496586
JEDDAH: Saudi Star Agri-cultural Development Plc, a food company owned by Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi, said it plans to invest $2.5 billion by 2020 developing a rice-farming project in Ethiopia.
The company, based in Addis Ababa, leased 10,000 hectares (24,711 acres) in Ethiopia’s western Gambella region for 60 years at a cost of 158 birr ($9.42) per hectare annually, Chief Executive Officer Haile Assegide said in an interview on March 18. It plans to rent an additional 290,000 hectares from the government, he said.----------

What happens when you are forced to leave the land that has fed your family for generations? What is the impact of wealthy foreigners having access to the best agricultural land in a very poor country? These questions will be addressed in Land Ownership in Ethiopia, the second Guardian film to be shown on the special website, produced in association with Christian Aid.----------

A Saudi Arabian investor has broken the culture of silence surrounding a widely criticized farmland acquisition by foreign investors in Ethiopia, which had hitherto been met with considerable silence. The investor’s comments come as his company, Saudi Star Agriculture Development Plc, awaits a decision from the Ethiopian Agriculture Ministry to expand his farmland from 10,000 hectares to 250,000 hectares.

Accusations of massive "land grabbing" activities have attracted little or no response from government and investors alike, -----------

But the silence over the land issue was recently broken when Sheik Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi — an Ethiopian born Saudi billionaire — commented on the seemingly relentless criticisms against the extensive land acquisition by foreign entities. “Land grabbing poses no harm on the environment or on the local community,” the billionaire said on February 10, while visiting his commercial farm in Gambela Regional State. A State that "has become the land grabbing hub in Ethiopia", says an Ethiopian national who spoke on condition of anonymity.----------

Agribusiness Boom Threatens Key African Wildlife Migration,Yale Environment 360(Yale University),11.3.7
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/agribusiness_boom_threatens_key_african_wildlife_migration/2377/
The Ethiopian region of Gambella is home to Africa’s second-largest mammal migration, with more than a million endangered antelope and other animals moving through its grasslands. But the government has now leased vast tracts to foreign agribusinesses who are planning huge farms on land designated a national park
Development or Exploitation? Foreign Investment in Ethiopia’s Agriculture,Aiga Forum,11.3.4
http://aigaforum.com/articles/mofa_on_land_lease.php

In terms of area, Gambela is 25,802.01 sq. km (2.9 million hectare = 6.4 million acre), the magnitude of which is best realized by thinking of it in terms of 57 Cairos or 27 metropolitan New Yorks or 24 Moscows being its equivalence.

Throughout its history, studies have shown, the Gambela region of Ethiopia has known little else than low level of existence and inter-communal conflicts, mostly driven by local economic interests (land, water, forests, cattle, women) and tribal dominance. There are five ethnic groups in Gambela claiming to be indigenous. Therefore, the first level competition and rivalry has been between the two major ethnic groups—Nuer, representing 40 percent of all inhabitants, and the Anuaks 27 percent, according to the 2007 census. Of the three remaining, Majangir is estimated at 6 percent, the Opo and Komo 3 per cent each.

In terms of faith, over 70 percent of Gambelans are Protestants (215,092), followed by Orthodox Christians (51,454), Catholics (10,356), and Islam (14,919), traditional (11,682) and other (3,413), as registered in the census data. Gambela is the least developed and historically most neglected part of Ethiopia, for which successive governments had little interest other than being frontier with neighboring Sudan, with whom Ethiopia used to have difficult relations and anticipates an uncertain future. Moreover, Ethiopia on one hand and the Khartoum government and the Southern Sudan liberation forces on the other have used one group against the other, deepening the seeds of conflict in the region.

By the estimates of the 2007 Ethiopian population census, Gambela’s inhabitants are 306,916. This number includes 144,703 migrants. These are locally referred to as “highlanders” with the animosity the word entails, as they are a resettled group escaping drought and famine from all affected parts of Ethiopia. The resettlement project, an initiative of the World Bank, is sill continuing, as the most feasible response to the recurrent cycles of drought in the country, and has been supported by both past and present governments. Since that census, the number of internal migrants from drought-affected parts of Ethiopia has significantly increased, deepening Gambela’s woes as a boiling pot, instead of a melting pot.

Unlike its past, today Gambela is in uneasy calm; so was told UN-IRIN last September by a “well-placed local source.” Unfortunately, as if the heavy lid placed on the unresolved inter-ethnic problems of the region is not enough, all the more people have been made uncertain about their future, following their rude awakening since 2009 by a new form of disenfranchisement by international agri-capital. Today, Gambelan villages are swarmed by a high number of Asian and Arab entrants with large farms here and there. The guests seem determined to displace the people from their natural environs. Between the areas they have lived in and are attached with have now come huge plantations, seemingly rushing to touch horizons of the skies they have known all along.

The tense political environment in Gambela is also an amplification of the multi-layered struggles within Ethiopia, where the individual citizen is repressed, deprived of human and civil rights, judicially short-changed wherein the nation remains politically unsettled and economically endlessly distressed. This view would bring criticism of obliviousness to the changes that have been taking place until now. That criticism may be legitimate, if the attributes of citizenship and what it entails are differentiated by some criteria or measures. Otherwise, such criticism arises from pure turf protection of a political and economic nature, the specifics of which may reflect possible alignment with either the power center or proximity to the economic pot.

For a good reason, the situation in Gambela has offered everyone issues to pick from. We have seen for over a decade local and international human rights groups fighting in defense of the human dignity of all Gambelans. Defenders of indigenous people’s rights have picked the rights of minorities for over two decades, seemingly narrow, but very important for a country such as Ethiopia that has pockets of minorities not only as entities in its hinterland, but also with all its implications along the shared frontiers with more unstable neighbors. Not only that the latter group underline the responsibility of the national government under international law to protect minorities. But they also stress the delicacy of the issue and the dangers of forced acculturation or assimilation as Gambela’s tinderbox.

Like all other hostilities and conflicts in Ethiopia, past and present, governments have systematically chosen to tip their hands to serve their interests of control and exercise of power. Also, neighboring Sudan and its internal rebel forces have played far more harmful roles than can be described, owing to the conflicts they exported into Gambela. Perhaps Gambela is one region where the formation of modern states, Ethiopia and Sudan, against the canvas of ethnicity has exposed the heavy-handedness of the processes that resulted in the split of same ethnic groups, for instance as in the case of the Nuers of Ethiopia and the Sudan.

While the border is invisible for these people, it has also reminded them its presence in times of clan conflicts. Today, the sum of all these has shortened the fuse for escalation of conflicts at anytime, especially in future, depending on developments in the soon to be borne nation of Southern Sudan and what would be left of the divorce in the north and the Nile River flowing north. In the meantime, Gambela’s political problems remain unaddressed, as forced assimilation remains. In a June 2007 publication of the Centre for Policy Research and Dialogue (Gambela: The impact of local conflict on regional security, 2007) and, having conducted field studies in Gambela, Medhane Tadesse sees the problems as consequences of past and present actions and inactions.
He observes, “Successive projects of state building and wealth accumulation driven from the centre have targeted their peripheries, entrusting client groups with the task of policing the frontiers. This combines with the increasing availability of guns and veterans to help militarise ethnicity, weakening civil dispute and traditional conflict mechanisms.” He adds further states:

This is attributable in part to the nature of the state, which presides over unequal distribution of political power and natural resources. Owing to misguided or failed nation-building processes, most of the states in the sub-region [Horn of Africa] do not reflect the interests and character of all their citizens. This is compounded by the nature of coercive powers of the state, the projection and use of power by governments to suppress conflict (mainly along their peripheries), and ultimately the strength of militarism as a political culture. Throughout the Horn, certain ethnic groups, typically living in borderlands, have become tribes-in-arms, their social structure and even sense of identity closely bound up with their military organisation and the AK 47.

Although calm has returned, Gambela is far from having found the ultimate solution to its problems that all along have mired it into conflicts. The ethnic federalism in which the TPLF prides itself and was recently celebrated for its “miracles” in “ending decades long conflicts” with an international conference, in Medhane Tadesse’s assessment, it has not provided the concerned “local actors” [I take it he means the people] the power and influence to prevent conflict. He describes the problem as follows:

The primary reasons that the new political structure has so far failed to bring stability to the region is because the post-1991 political order produced new political minorities, and the various groups have failed to strike a political bargain and articulate a regional interest. Instead, they have sought to capture fragments of the regional state and its institutions.

I wish Prof. Medhane Tadesse had ventured further to find out whether that is intentional on the part of the architects of Ethiopia’s regional decentralization and federalism due to their own political interests or a reflection of the limits of their of vision! To my mind, this problem would linger as long so long as Ethiopia does not establish by law and culture clear separation between the state and government, political party and the nation. This continued lumping together of these has only encouraged in anyone that seizes power the attitude “we own everything and can do anything under the Ethiopian sky.” This has enfeebled citizens and made the country booty for the few and prison for the majority.

Modern agricultural and earth moving machineries of all sorts, owned and run by agri-companies, are turning the soils inside out, destroying forests and beginning to pollute the environment in that hitherto mostly unopened land to get more produces. Even the much-awaited World Bank report on farm renting was reasonably transparent in stating that in Ethiopia “few agricultural investment projects had an environmental impact assessment (EIA) as required by law. Key reasons were a lack of capacity and a rush to approve projects by the investment authority that precluded sectoral agencies from performing due diligence”(Rising Global Interest in Farmland: Can it yield sustainable and equitable benefits? 2010).

Naturally, the locals feel completely helpless and resent their guests, for they have mercilessly destroyed the forests legacy of generations. Further, limits are set on fishermen, farmers regarding grazing lands and in general what they can and cannot do or use and cannot. It was reported that persons with police and military backgrounds armed with AK47 are protecting the investments. After interviewing local framers, Addis Fortune (23 August 2009) wrote:

The farmers, however, claim that they are no longer able to farm teff and nigger seeds to support their lives, albeit the land does not belong to them. Their access to grazing land has been taken over, leading to a rush to sell their herds, they say. Local farmers have told Fortune that the price of cattle in a nearby market has gone down from ETB 2,500 to 1,500.
After examining the land contracts, a report by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) confirmed the concerns of the locals noting, “The long-term nature of the leases – commonly up to 100 years – mean that local communities will be separated from the land for generations. This threatens to eradicate longstanding livelihood strategies and agricultural knowledge. Also, some contracts grant investors priority rights over water, which can have adverse impacts on other water users in times of water shortage.” In unusual candidness, the above-mentioned World Bank report also states, “some large investors not only received land and water free of charge, but also got tax benefits. This gave them an advantage over local smallholders who had to pay land taxes and various other fees but, to the extent that compensation is paid only for improvements rather than land itself, also constituted a regressive subsidy from the poor to the rich.”

The government has often reiterated the purpose of farm renting as a vehicle for job opportunities for the local people. True, some have been offered jobs for meager pay by any standard, about which a former Indian sugarcane cutter, now an employer within Karuturi Global, opined with a mix of shock and a ‘do gooder’ sense, “People here are very poor. They would work for 1 birr ($0.060) and no one else pays more than 5 birr ($0.30). So we are paying double" (Ethiopia – country of the silver sickle – offers land dirt cheap to farming giants, The Guardian, 15 January, 2009). He was actually shedding crocodile tears. Farmers told Addis Fortune that his company promised ETB 20 -25 [$1.78 to 2 then, now $1.20 to 1.50]. When Karuturi started work they were only offered ETB 7 to 8 a day.

Again, in that regard, the unvarnished conclusion of the World Bank’s report establishes, “Expected job creation in Ethiopia is similarly limited, with an average of 0.005 jobs/ha for cases where figures are given. Planned capital investments also vary widely, from US$27/ha for mixed livestock farming to US$21,000/ha for sugarcane.” The view circulating with high frequency in the corridors of power in Addis Ababa is to continue to give more lands to solve the problems of peace and poverty in the country. That was the purpose of the mission of the minister of agriculture to India from end January to beginning of February. So far Indians have received 1.8 million hectares in Ethiopia, the bulk of it in Gambela, without including the hundreds and thousands of hectares more requests already in the pipeline (Walta Information Center, 2 February 2011).

The government thinks such remote and long neglected people could only change with more jobs promised, now at a rate of $0.030 an hour (2011 rate), promises of cheaper food being sold by agri-companies in the local market. For instance, Sheik Al-Amoudi told the press his offer to sell 40 percent of his production in the local market. Al-Amoudi’s offer is not part of the farm rent deal, nor is it also clear for how long he would do that. Surely, it would help him soften the criticisms against him. For instance, when this story of selling part of the produce to the local market arose, an irked Indian investor-farmer recently said he was not bound by any of that, pointing to his contract with the government. How could a government count on this, instead of helping local farmers to improve their productive on capacities? After the collapse of its agriculture-led industrialization policy, the TPLF-led EPRDF government has turned to eradicating poverty, without building capacity of individual farmers to produce for themselves, to the market and build assets for themselves.

I have not stopped wondering what makes farm-investors this time around any different from oil companies? All the same, e.g. Shell produces oil, mainly to benefit the company and its investors. Large-scale food produces have also done the same, paying meager subsistence wages to farm workers. Their contribution to poverty eradication is negligible, if not non-existent, limited to fattening the pockets of elites in power. Since the 2008 escalating food prices, investors have moved in with vengeance to produce more and more food with modern machinery and technologies. I have no doubt that food production would dramatically increase, without the food and oil producing developing countries ever benefitting.

Countries such as Ethiopia—the epitome of famine and poverty the world has associated with emaciated people—looks forward to changing the lives of its people by renting farmlands and producing cash crops to buy food with the earnings, as the State Minister of Agriculture Abera Deressa told Bloomberg in October. Because of that, policy positions one hears from Ethiopia and the actions the policies they operationalize do no indicate that in future food prices would repeat the same price unaffordability with increasingly shorter spans of time. What the current policy of farm renting does in Ethiopia is denying future generations any options, locked in century-long contracts and every time opening new lands in the process accelerating environmental damages

In contrast, the dividends of investors in agri-companies, such as private equity capital or any of those several investment vehicles or networks of funds or the vast wealth of individual tycoons such as Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi or Mohammed Al-Amoudi increase all the time, taking more and more control of peoples lives across countries. For instance, Sheik Al-Amoudi is a wealthy person with businesses in many countries around the world and has made agribusiness his latest platform through Saudi Star aiming at his next billion(s). In 2010, his net worth, according to Forbes list of billionaires, is estimated at $10 billion. Between the last publication of the list in 2009 and 2010, the sheik has made another billion dollars, demonstrating his keen awareness of where fortunes lie—which the Ethiopian government cannot see. With no malice, I say good for him!

Needless to state major beneficiaries from the existing model of food, oil, mineral, and etc. production are investors (companies and wealthy individuals). They should, because they have put their wealth and knowhow into the production processes. Nevertheless several decades of experiences have shown that the lives of common peoples in the countries where food, oil or minerals are produced have not changed and are unlikely to change—because they are not beneficiaries or are not helped into becoming asset owners. Otherwise, had that not been the case, the level of global human distress and the sharply rising level of poverty at the end of a decade of the UN Millennium Development Goals should have shown a different picture.

The problem is in the quality of the deals and the secrecy behind them. These deals are made between companies and individual investors on one side and the elites in power that are the second line beneficiaries. For a simple relative quality differences one should compare the Ethiopian farmland deals with that of Liberia. The key here is what IIED’s Lorenzo Cotula has put his fingers on:

Very large land deals are bound to impact on existing rights, even if the intensity of current resource use is low. Dealing with these situations fairly requires careful weighing of individual and societal interests. But the gap between legality – whereby the government may formally own much if not all the land – and legitimacy – whereby local people feel the land they have used for generations is theirs – exposes local groups to the risk of dispossession and investors to that of local contestation. The fact that many land deals are negotiated behind closed doors and without local consultation compounds these problems, with negative impacts not just for local people, but ultimately also investors and host governments (source: IIED, Why it makes more sense to invest in farmers than in farmland, July 2010).

On 11 February 2011, I felt hammered on the head. That was the time I read the announcement on the state-owned Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) that the Ethiopian-Saudi tycoon Sheik Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi owner, among others, of the Saudi Star Agricultural Development Company would develop more than 250,000 ha of land with rice in Gambela State. For the last two years, he has already been operating, among others, 10,000 ha of land in Gambela state, whose rice was exported to Saudi Arabia. Al-Amoudi said the rice development project for the 250,000 ha has now cost him more than $450 million.

Saudi Star was established on 20 August 2009, with a capital of ETB 500 million [about $394 million at the time], according to Addis Fortune of 13 Dec. 200. At the time, Mr Al-Amoudi had requested the Investors Support Directorate of the agriculture ministry to take 200,000 ha more land. With a promise that he would be given more when he was ready and was granted then only 10,000 ha. Esayas Kebede, head of the investors’ support directorate of the agriculture ministry officially confirmed at the time for the media, “We will give them [Saudi Star additional] land in the same area once they have started operation.” Saudi Star’s long-term plan is said to be to develop 500,000 ha. Saudi Star promotes itself as the first rice producer in Ethiopia and is also planning to grow maize, wheat and sugarcane, possibly in the Benishangul Gumuz Regional State and the Amhara Regional State.

On his part President of the regional state Umod Ubong indicated 1.2 million hectares of land has been identified in the state for potential investors. In dismissing as propaganda of anti-development forces the concern that the present model of development chosen for Gambela and other regions Ethiopia would impede balanced development for individuals working hard, the president expressed his elation at the fact that the flow of local and foreign investors [far renters] has been increasing in the region.

The fact of the matter is that Afar, Somali Gambela and Benishangul Gumuz Regional states are far behind than the others in underdeveloped Ethiopia. They are also among the five that do not have areas demarcated for development purposes nor for national forests, or certification available for landholders. Therefore, it has been seen with sufficient evidences even in states with land certification, where small farmers are pushed off their lands in favour of agri-developers.

It is unfortunate that we lack capacity to recognize crisis situation and call it by its real name, as it happens. Often, we only acknowledge it, after it has affected several lives. One may say that this view is missing the point. However, that would not change the reality that crisis is in the making in Gambela and elsewhere farm renting has taken place under shady deals. Still there may be some who might wonder why we could not cheer for the immense investments to develop Gambela and benefit Ethiopia?

The simple answer is that with $0.030 cents an hour labor cost, the whole venture is only designed to benefit the investor, but not the people of Ethiopia. Secondly, as mentioned above, the lives of the people would not improve without being able to hold assets and become producers. With this model of development, the workers would not make reasonable earning, even if on the side to supplement their income. That is not possible.

Thirdly, in this envisioned structure of production, the people in the region and in the country elsewhere would be left with weak and undeveloped labor force and underdeveloped agrarian system. The country cannot cope with further diminution of its vital resources—the small-scale farmers—natural resources, rare biodiversity assets, some of them new to science. We have repeatedly been given the baloney of job creation and technology transfer. Instead what we see is the beginnings of accelerated environmental destruction and destitution.

We need to worry today as more and more foreign companies and investors take possession of agricultural lands in developing countries. For in Ethiopia, while some protected forests and national parks have already been defined, designated and demarcated, according to some studies the latest including by Imeru Tamrat, even some of those that are designated have not been demarcated nor protected by law. The main problem, as these studies have found out, is lack of human resources, institutional capacities and visionary leadership that is willing to see beyond immediate foreign exchange needs and is in the habit of resorting to expedient measures.

In view of these inadequacies, gambling with unbridled human encroachments is likely to impede protection and preservation of the few remaining forests and wildlife sanctuaries. Already the record of the TPLF-led EPRDF government in the development, protection and preservation of forests and natural resources has been terribly bad, as can be seen from the tables below, compiled on the basis of FAO data sources. More appropriately, in its Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 the FAO has designated Ethiopia as one of the eleven countries in the world an example of “largest volume of wood removals.” In terms of ranking on that score, it stands in seventh place between China and Indonesia.

CONCLUSION
Investment is not a question of charity. The driving vehicle of any investment is money making. Sheik Al- Amoudi’s charity of putting 40 percent of his produce to the domestic market is, let say, a good gesture in difficult times such as severe problems with availability of food for the government to buy and distribute. As a businessman, he is fully aware that this will not empower the Ethiopian people or stop hunger and poverty. The best solution, as the saying has it, is to give fishing tools and equipment, instead of fish. That cannot be emphasized sufficiently as the primary role of government to create conditions for that.

A little over a year ago, we heard from Asegide Haile, a former Ethiopian government minister, now a senior official in Al-Amoudi’s company saying, Saudi Star is “examining the possibility of handing over some of the land in Gambela to local families once it has been developed,” according to the Irish Times of 31 January 2010. Mary Fitzgerald, who travelled to Gambela and interviewed MIDROC officials as well as Sai Karuturi, further heard from Asegide saying, “We are doing a study on it at the moment,”… assumed to be probably “allocating one hectare per family….It will be a type of outsourcing . . . Our interest is not only to harvest rice, wheat and corn, it is also to develop the region.” If they stick by this pledge, it is an idea whose time has come, subject to the small prints.

Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi of the Karuturi Global is at least frank. He said in 2010, he wants to become the largest global food producer. He sees himself as person on a mission. He told Mary Fitzgerald, “We are on a mission to make a difference . . . when we produce three million tonnes it will be nearly half a per cent of the world’s cereal production,” he says. “How many people will have the opportunity to do something which meaningfully impacts on humanity like that?”

I have no problem with that, so long as he builds his food empire without denying possibilities to others, especially those who work or him and their families, and does good by the region.

Punjab farmers set to grow pulses, oilseeds in Ethiopia,Hindu Business,11.2.15

A group of Punjab-based farmers today said that they are going to grow pulses and oilseeds on 5,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia and import their farm produce to India.

“We will start cultivating 5,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia from September this year and plan to cultivate pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane and maize which are always in short supply in India,” the Confederation of Potato Seed Farmers (Poscon) Secretary General, Mr Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha, said here today. Additionally, the group wants the government to exempt their farm produce in Ethiopia from duty when imported to India in order to curtail country's dependence on import of such farm products.

Owner of the Saudi Star Agricultural Development Plc Company Sheik Mohammed Hussien Al-Amoudi said the company is interested to develop more than 250,000 hectares of land with rice in Gambella State.

Al-Amoudi has visited the rice development on 10,000 hectares of land in Abobo woreda of the state on Thursday.

On the occasion, Al-Amoudi said the company has planned to expand the rice development on more than 250,000 hectares of land with over two billion birr capital.

He said the rice development is being undertaken at a cost of more than 450 million US dollars.

Al-Amoudi said 40 percent the rice production would be for domestic consumption.

The investment activities of the company would benefit the local people and would not take any advantages of the people, he said.

However, he said some are rumoring that the ongoing development with land grabbing which disrupt the development of the region and the country.

Investor’s extra-large project manager Haile Assegide on his part said the construction and study works are well underway to develop the stated portion of land.

He said the 10,000 hectares of land would be fully developed until 2012. More than 15, 000 people would get jobs during the first phase of the development project.

State Chief, Umod Ubong said 1.2 million hectares of land has been identified in the state for potential investors.

He said the flow of local and foreign investors has been increasing in the region.

The chief dismissed the rumor that some dispatching anti development propaganda aims at impeding the development of the state.

The destruction of western Ethiopia forest must be stopped,Anyuak Media,11.2.10

The ruling party in Ethiopia is going ahead with the destruction of 3,012 hectares of forestry land in the Gambela region over the objection of local population, officials, and environmental groups .
The land has been leased to an Indian company for 70 years to be used for growing tea. The beneficiaries of such investment are only members of the ruling party and the foreign investors, while the people are left with destroyed land.

Local elected officials in southern and western Ethiopia are bitterly opposing the selling away of farm land by the Woyanne ruling junta to foreign investors. Some of the local officials who take a stand are receiving threats and being summarily dismissed by Meles Zenawi’s puppets who are installed as regional administrators. One of these officials is Ato Tamiru Ambelo, chairman of the Gumare Kebele in Gambella, western Ethiopia.

Ato Tamiru and people in his kebele have been protesting the leasing of a large tract of land to an Indian company to be used for tea farming. even though there is a severe food shortage in the country. Read the threats and dismissal letters here. Also read Timiru Ambello’s letter here. It is a testimony by a local official of how the Woyanne junta is destroying the country’s irreplaceable forest.

"So far we have transferred 307,000 hectares of land to foreign and domestic investors. Some 79 percent of this land has been transferred to Indian companies. This land is made available on a 70-year lease," said visiting Ethiopian Agriculture Minister Tefera Derbew .
"We are now proposing to transfer another 3.6 million hectares of land to investors from overseas. And I am confident that more than half of the 3.6 million hectares land will go to Indians," Derbew, who is here on a three-day official visit, told IANS in an interview.
The land offered by the East African nation, at the horn of the continent, equals nearly 50 percent of the cultivable land of Punjab, often called India's granary, accounting for 23 percent of its wheat and 10 percent of paddy output.

Chadha Agro Plc, one of India’s giant operators in agro business, is set to get hold of land twice the size of Addis Ababa to invest in what has already become a popular field for foreign investors and a priority area for the government of Ethiopia. The company has requested a 100,000 ha land to invest in sugar development project while the Ministry of Agriculture has provided it with 22,000 ha land in Guji Zone in Oromia Regional State, according to information gathered from the Oromia investment Commission. The company is set to receive the rest 78,000 ha land after its performance on 22,000 ha land availed is evaluated.
Chadha will be engaged in what is projected to become a massive sugar development investment venture on the 22,000 ha land involving a vast area of sugarcane plantation fields and a modern mill.

Vadodara-based ACIL Cotton Industries today said it plans to invest nearly $15 million (Rs 68 crore) to start contract farming of crops like pulses and coffee in Brazil, Congo and Ethiopia.

The farming of crops including coffee, pulses, oilseeds, cereals, potato, sugarcane and vegetable would be undertaken on lease-hold agricultural land in these countries, it said.

ACIL also said that it will set up subsidiaries in these three countries and a consultant will be appointed to prepare a feasibility report on the planned agri-business.

Saudi Arabia gets two million acres from Sudan for tax-free farming,Sudan Tribune,12.4.10
http://www.sudantribune.com/Saudi-Arabia-gets-two-million,42186
April 9, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – A prominent Saudi businessman announced last week that the Sudanese government agreed to give his country two million acres of land as a farming investment that would allow the Arab Gulf state to ensure safe and steady food supply.
The chairman of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce Saleh Kamel told the Saudi-based al-Sharq newspaper that the project, if successful, may allow Riyadh to achieve a food surplus that can be exported elsewhere.
Kamel disclosed that the Khartoum will make the farmland a free zone that is not subject to any form of taxation or duties and is not covered by Sudanese laws.
The world’s largest oil exporter would no longer need to import food from Argentina, North America and Australia when the plantation scheme becomes fully operational, he added.
Since the 2007-2008 global food crisis, Saudi Arabia has been encouraging private and public firms to invest in farm projects abroad. In 2008, the government there also abandoned a 30-year self-sufficiency in wheat programme.
Saudi Arabia wants build stocks of basic commodities such as wheat, rice, oil and sugar to avoid the implications of rising global food prices and also to meet the needs of the population that is growing at a rapid pace.
The government-owned Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) offers credit guarantees to companies wishing to invest in farming projects abroad.
Kamel explained the choice of East Sudan for launching the project is due to its proximity to Port Sudan which allows the products to be easily shipped to Saudi Arabia just across the Red Sea. He said that he would discuss the matter with the Saudi ministers of agriculture and finance.
"The return [on investment] of agriculture in Sudan will reach 15% of the capital in the first year, a return that is more than good and better than investing in any another business sector" he said.
It remains to be seen whether the Saudi farming venture will be successful. Saudi businessmen, including Kamel, have complained in the past that investing in Sudan faces too many hurdles.
China refused to fund agricultural project in Sudan for lack of oil collateral: Bashir,Sudan Tribune,12.3.11
http://www.sudantribune.com/China-refused-to-fund-agricultural,41864
March 10, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – An agricultural project in Sudan’s Nile River state has been put on hold because China cancelled a loan that was needed to extend electricity in the area, president Omer Hassan al-Bashir revealed.
In an interview with the Sunday edition of the Doha-based Al-Raya newspaper, Bashir said that his government gave Qatar 250,000 acres of land in the state to encourage investments from the rich Arab Gulf state.
"But the project stalled due to China not following through on its funding for the project of extending the electric grid because the Chinese loan was in return for oil shipments which stopped after the secession of the South” the Sudanese leader said.“And so China stopped the financing [the project]” he added.
UAE investors urged to start developing farmland in Sudan,The National,11.7.27
http://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/uae-investors-urged-to-start-developing-farmland-in-sudan

New Fear of Civil War in Sudan,IPS,11.6.13
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56039
CAIRO, Jun 13, 2011 (IPS) - The escalation of violence around the north-south border in the run-up to Sudan’s big divide has sparked fears of a new civil war, but experts contend that the issue is more about land and water rather than oil

South Sudan imperiled by land-grabbing: report,Sudan Tribune,11.3.24
http://www.sudantribune.com/South-Sudan-imperiled-by-land,38381
March 23, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Large-scale and rapidly growing farmland investments in South Sudan hold potential risks for the nascent state if not properly and transparently regulated, a new report has warned.
The oil-producing yet grossly-underdeveloped region of south Sudan voted almost unanimously in a referendum earlier this year to secede from the north as part of a 2005’s peace deal which ended more than two decades of north-south civil wars.
A high incidence of violence in different parts of the region has stoked fears about the viability of the new state and the future of its agriculture-based economy ahead of the region’s formal independence in July this year.
Prepared for the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), the report titled "the New Frontier, a baseline survey of large-scale investment in Southern-Sudan" presented data showing that during the last four years, 28 foreign companies sought or acquired a total of 2.64 million hectares of land (26,400 km2) in the agriculture, forestry and bio-fuel sectors alone.
Adding to the already existing domestic investment, the report said that the figure has risen to 5.74 million hectares (57,400 km2), or nine percent of Southern Sudan’s total land area.”
According to the report, one United Arab Emirates (UAE) company called Al Ain Wildlife has leased the entire area of Boma National Park at 22,800 sq km, while an American company, Nile Trading and Development, has leased 6,000 sq km of land outside the southern capital Juba.
Land disputes have fueled deadly communal clashes in the south and caused displacement of local population. The region’s government was urged to intervene in land disputes on more than one occasion.
The report cited "serious deficiencies" in the extent to which local communities were being consulted over land investment and said that lease amounts tended to be rather low compared with the value of the land.
It also cautioned against potential displacement of local population in view of the fact that most projects are based in densely populated areas.
However, it noted that so far there were no reports of forced evictions due to the projects.
Whereas the report acknowledges that this influx of land investment could, in theory, provide development opportunities for rural communities, it warned that “without the appropriate procedures in place there is a danger that it will serve to undermine livelihoods.”
The report puts forward a series of recommendations to the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), its international partners, civil society, companies, investors, and rural communities in the region to address potential risks of large-scale land-investment.
It includes disclosure of all documents associated with large-scale land investment projects and review existing contracts.
The report further asked the government to consider a temporary ban on all large-scale land acquisitions until government institutions are better established.
S. Africa Farmers Shun Libya, Target Sudan Bananas, Egypt Grapes,Bloomberg,11.2.24

Asian palm oil companies go back to the future in Africa,Financial Times,2011.2.2,p.17

Agriculture : 1 200 hectares de terres à Malolo confiés à des fermiers sud-africains,Les Dépêches de Brazzaville,12.4.12
http://www.brazzaville-adiac.com/index.php?action=depeche&dep_id=58705&oldaction=liste&regpay_id=0&them_id=0&cat_id=4&ss_cat_id=31&LISTE_FROM=0&select_month=04&select_year=2012
La terre confiée par le ministre de tutelle, Pierre Mabiala, à la société sud-africaine Congo-agriculture, a permisd'expérimenter la culture du maïs à Malolo, dans le département du Niari
C'est ce qui a été annoncé le 12 avril, par le président de Congo-agriculture, André Botha, à sa sortie d'audience avec le ministre de l'Agriculture, Pierre Mabiala. Il était accompagné de l'ambassadeur d'Afrique du Sud au Congo, Manelesi Gengé.
Selon André Botha, l'expérience s'est montrée positive, deux mois après la signature du contrat avec le ministère. Les fermiers sud-africains installés le 7 décembre 2011 à Malolo, ont cultivé en deux mois sur 1 200 hectares, des cultures comme le maïs.
Au cours de leur entretien, le président de Congo-agriculture en a profité pour expliquer au ministre l'implication de sa société dans le domaine social. En effet, Congo-agriculture a apporté de l'eau potable à la population de Malolo. Outre la contribution en eau potable, l'on note également la création d'un centre de charge des batteries de téléphones, ainsi que des activités commerciales pour permettre à la population locale de s'approvisionner en aliments. Congo-agriculture s'est par ailleurs préoccupé de l'accès à l'emploi des jeunes, enorganisant des rencontres au cours desquelles ces derniers ont pu échanger leurs expériences.
André Botha a conclu ses propos en mettant l'accent sur le rôle de Congo-agriculture à Malolo, à savoir apporter de quoi se nourrir à la population, donner de l'emploi aux jeunes, et former des fermiers au Congo afin qu'ils créent leurs propres fermes. Il envisage depoursuivre son expérience pendant plusieurs années au Congo.
Industrie agroalimentaire : des investissements espagnols dans les deux Cuvettes,Les Dépêches de Brazzaville 12.2.25（スペイン－コンゴ共和国、パームオイル、バイオ燃料）
http://www.brazzaville-adiac.com/index.php?action=depeche&dep_id=57329&oldaction=liste&regpay_id=0&them_id=0&cat_id=4&ss_cat_id=31&LISTE_FROM=0&select_month=02&select_year=2012
Biocongo Global Trading compte atteindre 60 000 hectares de plantation de palmiers à huile pour un investissement de 150 millions d'euros en cinq ans. En attendant, le partenaire est en pourparlers avec le ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'élevage pour situer les zones d'exploitation dans la Cuvette et la Cuvette-Ouest
Son président-directeur général, Eugène-Hubert Obba, l'a affirmé le 24 février à Brazzaville à l'occasion de la signature de l'accord de principe avec le ministre du Développement industriel et de la promotion du secteur privé, Rodolphe Adada.
Les deux parties s'engagent à développer des plantations de palmiers à huile, et Biocongo créerait ensuite deux usines, l'une pour le traitement de l'huile et l'autre pour la production de biocarburant. La société espagnole entend promouvoir, en partenariat avec le Congo, des activités agro-industrielles grâce à son expérience dans la filière du palmier à huile.
Ce projet est salutaire, car il contribue à assurer la sécurité alimentaire du pays par le développement de la culture du palmier à huile. Ainsi le gouvernement s'engage à mettre à la disposition de la société une concession de 60 000 ha, les permis et autres autorisations requis pour l'exploitation d'une palmeraie et des usines concernées. ----------

Les Sud-Africains investissent des milliards pour l'agriculture au Congo,Les Dépêches de Brazzaville,11.12.17
http://www.brazzaville-adiac.com/index.php?action=depeche&dep_id=55395&oldaction=liste&regpay_id=0&them_id=0&cat_id=4&ss_cat_id=31&LISTE_FROM=0&select_month=12&select_year=2011
Quelques fermiers blancs sud-africains, venus pour d'importants investissements agropastoraux, ont été installés le 15 décembre au village de Malolo II, situé à cinquante-six kilomètres de Dolisie, préfecture du département du Niari
La première tranche de l'investissement de ces agriculteurs et éleveurs sud-africains s'élève à un montant de 100 milliards de francs CFA. Ils vont s'installer à Malolo II, dans les anciennes habitations qui abritaient les employés de la Société es fibres du Congo (Sofico).
Sur les quatre-vingt mille hectares de terre, ces agriculteurs cultiveront en quantité industrielle maïs, riz, soja, pommes de terre, tomates et d'autres produits encore.
Danses et rituels ancestraux ont été organisés par les habitants du village en témoignage de leur hospitalité. «Nous scellons ce rituel pour remettre symboliquement et physiquement cette partie de terre du département du Niari et plus précisément du village de Malolo II à la société Congo Agriculture dont l'autre partie est dans la Bouenza, mais ce rituel concerne les deux départements ? À vous d'en faire un bon usage», a indiqué le ministre Pierre Mabiala.
Outre l'installation d'une firme agropastorale, ces fermiers vont investir dans l'infrastructure socio-sanitaire en construisant des dispensaires et des écoles publiques, à la grande satisfaction des habitants du village.
Rappelons que cette délégation sud-africaine, conduite par le vice-président de la société Congo Agriculture Du Toit Wynand, rencontrera le président de la République très prochainement.

La convention de mise à disposition de ces terres a été signée le jeudi 10 mars à Pointe-Noire par les ministres Pierre Mabiala, des Affaires foncières, et Rigobert Maboundou, de l'Agriculture et de l'Élevage, André Botha, président de la société Congo Agriculture ainsi que Tho De Jager, vice-président de la corporation des fermiers sud-africains Agri SA

S. Africa Farmers Shun Libya, Target Sudan Bananas, Egypt Grapes,Bloomberg,11.2.24

South African farmers ready to venture into the Congo,How we made it in Africa,11.2.13

A group of South African farmers is getting ready to go up to the Republic of the Congo and start with commercial agriculture in the central African state.

The process started in 2009 when the Congo extended a formal invitation to South African farmers to investigate the possibility of farming in the Congo. The country’s agriculture sector has been described as very underdeveloped.

An organisation called Congo Agriculture has been established. Congo Agriculture, which is affiliated to South African farmers union Agri SA, will facilitate and drive the process of setting up farmers in the Congo.

Gert Rall, CEO of Congo Agriculture, said the first farmers are set to travel to the Congo in March to pick their farms and register local companies. The group has been asked to start operations on a farm of around 80,000 hectares, although according to Rall, the area of land available is so vast that one cannot put an exact size on it. “Practically half of the country is available for the development of agriculture,” he said.

The farmers will initially focus on maize, all of which will be produced for local consumption as it is expected that no crops will be exported within the first five years.

One of the largest challenges the farmers will face is the Congo’s lack of infrastructure. “One big problem is there is hardly any infrastructure, so . . . whatever we want, we need to put it there,” Rall said.

The Congo’s favourable climate and incentives offered by the government should, however, make up for some of the difficulties. The region has a rainfall of between 1,500mm and 2,000mm a year. In addition the farmers will receive a five-year tax holiday and can bring in their equipment duty-free.

Rall said they will also receive much better prices for their maize than currently in South Africa. “There is a formula to calculate the price, but I can tell you the price we are negotiating at this stage is much, much higher than the South African maize price,” he said. Production costs in the Congo are also expected to be much lower than in South Africa.

Congo Agriculture is ideally looking for farmers to run their operations in the Congo as an extension of their businesses in South Africa. “It would be very difficult for a guy to go up on his own there, without capital or without the necessary back-up support from home,” Rall noted.

Egypt's Citadel to grow staple crops in South Sudan,Reuters.12.3.20
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE82J08J20120320
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South Sudan needs a moratorium on land leases, says legal expert,Deutsche Welle,12.2.18
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15744091,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf
In the second instalment of our series on land grabbing in Africa, the spotlight is on South Sudan, the continent's newest country.
South Sudan became independent from the north last July. It's rich in arable land and natural resources, and foreign companies have been flocking to the country in response to an invitation to invest in the agricultural sector to boost the new country's economy. But it seems that some foreign investors are abusing the opportunity. According to data collected by the South Sudan Law Society, nine percent of South Sudan's land has been leased for large-scale investment without the consent of local communities. DW talked to the Society's Research Director David Deng in Juba.
DW: Isn't large-scale agro business and development in that sector a good thing in terms of increasing food security in South Sudan?
David Deng: Not necessarily. One would need to look very carefully at the kinds of agreements to know whether they would enhance local food security or reduce it. For instance, if land is taken away from people in order to grow food for export, that would clearly do nothing to improve local food security and would most likely undermine livelihoods. Another important point to note is that the most important systems for improving local food security are local farming practices, smallholder agriculture systems, which are already in place. These are the people who are feeding themselves in South Sudan. Unless one is able to build up their capacity, there's no guarantee that these large-scale industrial models will do anything to improve local food security.
What would you like to see the government put in place in order to make this a more equitable way of investing?
What we really need now are limits on foreign private investment, particularly in land. Probably the most important thing the government could do now is to put in place a moratorium on large-scale land leases. Any lease above a certain size would have an all-out ban on it for a certain period of time, the idea being that this would give the government some space in which to establish its regulatory system.
What would you say are the most important things that need to be implemented in order to have this framework?
Whereas the moratorium is a forward-looking solution, you also need something to handle those investments that are already in place. We've been lobbying the government to conduct a review of the lease agreements that were made during the interim period over the last six years in South Sudan. And we were very happy to see the president announce last September that the government would in fact be conducting a review of land sales during the interim period.
This shows that the issue has garnered the attention of the highest level of government in South Sudan and that's a good step forward. So that's the first thing, to conduct this review and make sure the lease agreements comply with domestic law in South Sudan. Another tremendously important measure that could be introduced very quickly is the issue of transparency. Memorandums of understanding, leases, contracts, impact statements, feasibility studies, all these documents should be made available to local communities, to the public, to civil society. The idea is that this would create the conditions needed for stronger contracting.
Another thing that's needed across the board in government is to clarify the jurisdictions of all the institutions involved. Clarifying the jurisdiction between the central government and state-level government would make plain who has the right to do what. One thing we recommend for local government is to put in place graduated land ceilings so that, from the county to the state to the central government, each would be able to approve successively larger land areas for lease and then the central government itself would have a ceiling above which it could not transfer land to an individual.
What we're recommending is that the legislative branch should be involved in any land acquisition above a certain size, the idea being that this would add transparency to the process. Also, these state-level assemblies are the closest to the constituencies and it would be a way to bring people into the process and generate discussion prior to leasing land away for long term leases.

S.Sudan seeks food and farmland investments,Reuters,11.12.23
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE7BM00S20111223?sp=true
JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan hopes to attract investors from Gulf Arab states, Israel, China and fellow African countries to boost production of basic food items, a government official said on Thursday.
Created in July after a 2005 peace agreement with Khartoum, Africa's newest nation faces food shortages and grave economic challenges such as annual inflation at almost 80 percent in November.
Around 2.7 million South Sudanese will need food aid from next year as widespread violence and crop failures have hit hard farm production, according to the United Nations' food programme.
South Sudan has held talks with investors from Gulf Arab states, Israel, China, Uganda and the Netherlands to invite them to invest into agricultural production, said Elizabeth Manoa Majok, undersecretary in the ministry of commerce, industry and investment.
"The government has made food production the top priority...80 percent of South Sudan depend on agriculture," Majok said in an interview in the capital Juba.
"No serious commitment has been made so far....(but) interest of investors is big," she said.
South Sudan wants with the help of investors to increase production of basic food items such as sugar, rice, cereals and oilseeds, livestock as well as cotton, she said.
"We import everything, even tomatoes. We should produce this ourselves," Majok said. "We have the farmland, the resources."
The government was preparing tenders to invite investors to revamp food factories damaged during the civil war and was also open to other partnerships such as farmland investments, she said without giving details.
Desert Gulf Arab countries have been trying to buy or lease farmland in Africa and Asia to secure food supplies but local famers have opposed such investments in some countries.
EAST AFRICA TRADE
Civil war waged for all but a few years since 1955 has left South Sudan with an almost complete lack of infrastructure and industry, aside from oil. The country has few paved roads outside Juba and large parts become inaccessible by ground transport during the rainy season.
Often described as one of the world's least-developed nations, it has high levels of poverty, illiteracy and maternal mortality rates. Hospitals and schools are scarce.
South Sudan is also under pressure to diversify its economy away from oil generating 98 percent of state revenues. Oil reserves will halve by 2020 if no new finds are made, according to the International Monetary Funds (IMF).
To facilitate trade with East African countries such as Uganda and Kenya the government is considering setting up free trade zones in border areas, Majok said.
"Consultants are doing a study on free zones. We haven't announced it yet," she said.
Landlocked South Sudan depends for most of its needs on imports which are driving up inflation. Roads to Uganda and Kenya are poor and tensions with Khartoum have disrupted supplies from the north.
"Their loss is bigger than ours because we are a big market," Majok said of tensions with Khartoum hitting bilateral trade.
Majok also said the government had passed new investment laws and was about to approve another package of bills to improve legal security for foreign firms.
Analysis: Land deals "threaten South Sudan's development",IRIN,11.12.12
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94453

When farmers start to plant chickpeas in a remote spot of South Sudan this month, they may well sow the seeds of a backlash.
South Sudan seceded from the north in July and this Egyptian-run plantation is the most advanced of several farming deals decried as “land grabs” in the world’s newest nation.
Foreign investors are buying and leasing land across east Africa to grow, for export, cereals, vegetables and crops for biofuels. Campaign groups say food-for-export schemes will displace people and degrade the environment, ultimately increasing conflict in fragile regions.
Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital, which has leased 259,500 acres for farming in oil-rich Unity state, is among dozens of foreign entities to have struck large land deals in the new country for everything from forestry to tourism. Many such deals were struck before independence. Agreements made since 2007 amount to 9 per cent of South Sudan’s land, at 5.74m hectares, says a report this year by Norwegian People’s Aid.
Citadel managing director Karim Sadek admits the mechanised farm, near state governor Taban Deng’s hometown 45 kilometres from the state capital, is “not a heavy employer”. Most of its 60 or so employees are Zimbabwean. But he denied that the deal was exploitative and said the food would be sold locally. “The big bad wolf theory – the land-grab proposition – I don’t see it applying,” he told the Financial Times.
He said the government of South Sudan had approved the deal and Citadel would pay the state government $125,000 a year for its 30-year lease. “We’re not owning the land; this is a rental. We have produced a sizeable investment so far that will be seen in the field, and the plan is for this project to sell locally.”
The plantation has, to date, provided little local employment, with the 60 or so staff mostly Zimbabwean. Mr Sadek said Citadel subsidiaries had invested $24m, mostly on equipment, and hoped to scale up planting from the 1,500-acre trial of chickpeas this year to 130,000 acres after five years. Citadel would also plant maize and sorghum and introduce on-site processing, such as milling, to add value.
“Our plan is to slowly fill up the demand gap, replacing imports [by] a much cheaper proposition,” said Mr Sadek.
Local production would lower costs, he added. Imported maize was selling for $1,000 a tonne, more than three times the international market price, he said. Given the size of Citadel’s plantation, it could meet local demand for maize and still export.
Land deals agreed by Citadel and others are complicated by the scale of the challenge faced by the new country. Fighting continues along the border and this year the north blockaded deliveries to the south, delaying maize planting.
South Sudan is struggling to deliver benefits to those who spent decades fighting the north in pursuit of independence gained on July 9.
It wants to diversify an economy that derives 98 per cent of revenues from oil. At the same time it needs to subdue local militias and feed an army that soaks up 40 per cent of state spending.
Citadel plans to negotiate local food sales directly with the government, which, critics say, could mean maize is diverted to feed soldiers, not civilians.
“People didn’t fight Khartoum [the north] only to lose their land,” said Anuradha Mittal, executive director of Oakland Institute, a think-tank, who has visited the Citadel site and will next month report on the impact of land deals.
She fears that some land licences had been acquired as a conduit to explore for oil and minerals. “It’s very important to halt and step back, [to] protect the valuable resources of the country instead of having these free-riders who are rushing in,” Ms Mittal said.
Some foreign investors have found South Sudan a difficult environment. Jarch Capital of the US struck a deal for 800,000 hectares, which, lacking government approval, has stalled.
It may require a battle for land in South Sudan to stay locally owned, according to Ms Mittal. “The communities say they’ll chase [foreign interests] away or there’ll be conflict.”
Investors such as Citadel argue that they offer an opportunity South Sudan should not ignore. Mr Sadek said the country would lose out if virgin land were not developed. “This is not the Riviera,” he said. “We’re not talking about real estate value here; we’re talking about productivity.
“The land can remain as it is for the next 200 years, producing nothing. Or you go in and risk money and produce – and for that you need to be rewarded.”
Indian agribusiness sets sights on land in east Africa,The Guardian,11.8.24
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/aug/24/indian-agribusiness-land-east-africa
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The combined force of the U.S. based Oakland Institute's research and advocacy on African land deals and local, democratic activism in South Sudan has effectively stalled plans for the largest land deal in the area.
Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute, who returned last week from South Sudan, announced a major win for local leaders and senior government officials opposed to the unfair and exploitive land investment deal of the Texas-based Nile Trading & Development, Inc. (NTD).
"This is a rare example of a community viewed by investors as near-squatters and essentially dispensable who are getting their voices heard by the highest officials in government. It is an important democratic action in South Sudan and we are happy to have played a role."
--Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director, Oakland Institute
OI's Brief on the land investment deal of Nile Trading & Development, Inc. (NTD) in South Sudan exposed the largest land deal in the country and made the contract available on the Institute's website. The details of NTD's 49-year lease of 600,000 hectares--nearly 1.5 million acres, with a possibility of almost 1 million acres more--for USD 25,000, include unencumbered rights to exploit all natural resources in the leased land.
Following OI's Brief and the resulting media coverage, the community of Mukaya Payam in Lainya County, Central Equatoria State (CES), was made aware of the deal and mobilized against it. The traditional and senior government leaders including county authorities launched a joint protest in July 2011, rejecting the lease to American investors. (Watch Hon. Robert Isaiah Lomude Moses of the South Sudan Parliament speak on land grabs.)
In early August, a committee comprised of the Payam Parliamentarians in the CES Legislative Assembly, Payam Chiefs, and senior government officials at the state level traveled to Juba to voice their concerns to the state governor and the President of the Republic of South Sudan, H.E Salva Kiir.
Their message: "We the chiefs, elders, religious leaders, and the youth of Mukaya Payam unanimously with strong terms condemn, disavow, or deny the land lease agreement reached on 11 March 2008 between the two parties." (Read the community's complete letter.)
Response of President Kiir to the community: "This issue has to be addressed according to your will. You are the government and you have powers." (Read the full article here: http://www.gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ID/5582/Default.aspx)

Une entreprise chinoise du Groupe Greater KingDom s’intéresse à la production du Jatropha en République démocratique du Congo. Elle envisage d’exercer la culture de cette plante, précisément à Banana, Matadi (Bas-Congo), à Lubumbashi (Katanga), Goma (Nord-Kivu) et Bukavu (Sud-Kivu).

Selon une source du ministère du Développement rural qui a dernièrement livré cette information, l’entreprise chinoise exige, notamment un minimum de sécurité dans les sites champêtres, une superficie de 10 000 hectares par province concernée et l’exonération de ses équipements.

Foreigners owning huge tracts of land, whose lease is about to expire, are likely to lose their prized assets as the government starts to enforce the law on land ownership.
The move will affect multinationals and individuals with tea, sisal and coffee estates in some of the most arable lands in the country on 99-year leases.
Lands Minister James Orengo said they were working on a law that would allow the government to review the expiring leases, especially those held for speculative purposes.
“There are some leases of 99 years, which are expiring, and some more are to expire. We will interrogate them afresh, and if we find that they have been held for speculation purposes, we will not renew them,” he said on phone from his Ugenya constituency.
Article 65 of the Constitution states that a person who is not a citizen or a company with at least one shareholder who is not a citizen may only hold land for a 99-year lease tenure at most.
The Sixth Schedule of the Transitional Clauses says: “On the effective date (promulgation of the new Constitution), any freehold interest in land in Kenya held by a person who is not a citizen shall revert to the Republic of Kenya to be held on behalf of the people of Kenya, and the State shall grant to the person a ninety-nine year lease at a peppercorn rent.”
Pay for the lease
Peppercorn rent is the lowest or minimal fee a person will be required to pay for the lease.
The Constitution also requires that any other leases, which are beyond 99 years, be reduced to the former.
However, foreigners who would have successfully applied for dual citizenship, as allowed under the new Constitution, will be spared.
Mr Orengo said the changes were meant to ensure efficient land use and correct anomalies that saw foreigners being awarded thousands of hectares of land as Kenyans were reduced to squatters.
Between 1900 and the 1940s, most Kenyans living in Rift Valley and parts of Central Province Highlands were kicked out of their fertile land, which was given to white farmers on leases of 999 years by the colonialists.
The locals were settled in what was called reserves — which have bred the present squatter problem in Kenya.
After independence in 1963, the government through the Million Acre Scheme begun to resettle Africans in the former White highlands at the same time reducing most of the leases to 99 years.
On Monday, Lands Commissioner Zablon Mabea said the affected parcels include tea and coffee estates in Nandi, Uasin Gishu, Kiambu, Naivasha and Nakuru counties. Others are in Nyandarua and Thika.
This means that some of the tea and coffee companies listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange could be affected by the move.
Mr Mabea said the ministry was compiling a list of land on 999-year leases.
“We aim to complete the exercise in a month,” he said.
Mr Orengo warned that some foreigners had started to subdivide their large tracts of land for sale to beat the new law.
“Over the years, some of them have seen what the law says and have subdivided their land wanting to sell it. They should know that we are not keen on such moves and will not allow them,” he said.
The minister said the public will have a chance to contribute to the law in order to address the perennial disputes over the scarce resource.
“We want issues of land debated publicly so that we can find the solution to it,” he said.
Biofuels land grab in Kenya's Tana Delta fuels talk of war,The Guardian,11.7.2
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/02/biofuels-land-grab-kenya-delta

500 Luweero farmers protest pending eviction,The Montor,12.3.2
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1357454/-/axw2vpz/-/index.html
About 500 farmers under the Bulemezi Rice and Wheat Growers Cooperative in Luweero are protesting a pending eviction from their farmland by a multinational sugar company.
The company was reportedly granted a 44-year lease for the 120 hectares public land located at Kagoye Village in Luweero Sub-county by the district land board in October 2011.
According to the treasurer of the cooperative union, Mr Matiya Mulumba, their efforts to secure a new lease for the land in question were hindered by district land board officials.
Mr Mulumba said they recently learnt that the same land had already been offered to a multinational company to establish a sugarcane plantation.
“We learnt from a newspaper advertisement that the lease offer for this land had expired and quickly mobilised to renew the lease but our efforts were always frustrated by the District Land Board officials who have eventually leased the same land to a foreign company,” Mr Mulumba told Daily Monitor on Tuesday.
According to documents seen by Daily Monitor, Goodman International Limited has been offered a 44 -year lease for the land in question.
This was reportedly effected on October 5, 2011, at the Luweero District Land Board offices.
The District Natural Resources Manager, Mr Hood Luyima, signed the lease offer while Mr Usamagubara Erikhadir and Mr Khadir Omar signed on behalf of the company.
Mr Luyima said: “It is true that Goodman International have been granted a 44-year land lease for the mentioned blocks of land located at Kagoye Village but I have no information regarding the project.”
He added: “The lease offer went through proper channels and we do not think that these people will just be evicted by this company because they are already aware of the guidelines on land matters.”
The farmers have petitioned the Luweero Woman MP Brenda Nabukenya to intervene. Ms Nabukenya told Daily Monitor: “I will soon meet the district leaders to get an explanation on this matter because land matters in Luweero are now posing a danger as many continue losing land due to illegal evictions.”
British forest firm that evicted Ugandan peasants closes shop,The Monitor,12.1.10
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1302802/-/b235xsz/-/index.html

A British firm accused by Oxfam International of illegally evicting some 20,000 Ugandan peasants from arable land to plant trees yesterday suspended operations, a decision it said stemmed from loss of $14m (Shs33.6 billion) by its new investor.
In a statement e-mailed to Daily Monitor from London, the New Forest Company (NFC)’s partner Anthony Silverman claimed they lost an additional $1m (Shs2.4 billion) financing from the World Bank.
Oxfam, an aid and development charity, caused ripples last September when it alleged that NFC forcibly evicted poor villagers in Kiboga and Mubende districts, depriving them of livelihood and money to send their children to school.
Oxfams’s Executive Director Jerry Hobbs at the time said the Ugandan case “clearly shows how land grabbing is slipping through the net of existing safeguards, which are intended to ensure the protection of vulnerable people.”
In response, NFC promised to investigate the allegations it described as “extremely serious” but made no reference to outcomes of the probe, if it ever occurred, in yesterday’s statement.
The ironic twist to poverty fight
“Having planted millions of trees annually for the past six years and led the creation of a modern Ugandan forestry industry, we are sad to suspend tree-planting and laying off workers, forcing people back into poverty,” NFC Chief Executive Julian Ozanne was quoted.
Ironically, last year’s evictions raised alarm because the victims were vulnerable people unable to leverage on a foreign company backed by Uganda government that said the area in contention was a gazetted forest reserve.
National Forestry Authority licensed NFC’s operations in 2005 and permitted the company to dislodge the Mubende and Kiboga residents in February and July 2010, respectively.
People living on the land were encroachers and kicking them out was justified, the statutory forest authority said then. The UK firm on the other hand said eviction of the villagers was negotiated and followed adequate compensation.
Yesterday, NFC’s Silverman said job creation is critical to poverty alleviation and losing jobs, as has happened to its 560 employees, is a “negative development for Uganda’s economic growth.”
The company plans to resume its activity in 2013, but said a final decision awaits an outcome of a mediation process by International Finance Corporation.

Northern Uganda has offered Indian agricultural investors land to carry out commercial farming. This offer will be under joint venture agreements with the locals.
“Agricultural investors are free to come and use our land if they are willing to engage the local community before setting up businesses,” said Mark Moro, a representative of the region’s landowners.
Moro is also the head of the Gulu Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He pointed out that there were over one million hectares available for commercial farming in the region.
Land ownership in the north is communal.
“The businesses should be registered in the names of the villages where they will be located to encourage the communities to own up to the task of providing raw materials for processing,” Moro advised.
Moro was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting between the landowners and an Indian trade delegation at Kabira Country Club in Kampala recently.
Soumen Ray, India’s high commissioner to Uganda, pointed out that alliances between local farmers and their Indian counterparts would make Uganda a vibrant food exporter.
“India transformed from a food importing nation in 1947 to a top food exporter today because of adding value to our agricultural produce.
“I hope that the collaboration between the Ugandan and Indian business communities will spur substantial development in Uganda’s agricultural sector,” he said.
The Indian investors pledged to invest over $2b (about sh5.6 trillion) in the agricultural sector over the coming years by setting up processing plants.

Government seals ministers’ lips on Mabira Forest give-away,Monitor,11.8.20
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1221942/-/bjxhc3z/-/index.html
Kampala. If a tree in a forest falls and there is no one to hear it does it still make noise? That philosophical question has been brought to life after Cabinet passed a resolution stopping ministers from making public comments about President Museveni’s proposal to give away 7,100 hectares of Mabira Central Forest Reserve to Mehta Group.
Cabinet also agreed to support the give-away after Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi told colleagues during a Wednesday meeting that Mehta approached President Museveni claiming that there was land in Mabira suitable for sugar growing.
“We have agreed in Cabinet to proceed systematically and go through the legal process of de-gazetting part of the forest for sugar growing,” said a minister, who requested not to be named due to the sensitivity of the meeting. “We also agreed that the NRM Caucus sits as many times as possible until the President removes a few ‘snakes’ from the Caucus. And the decision is that the degraded part of Mabira Forest must go for sugarcane growing.”
Gagging ministers is the latest move after President Museveni, during a meeting with city traders and business people on Tuesday, said he was ready for ‘war’ on sugar.
‘Deaf ear’
The President said he is not ready to listen to anybody, including environmentalists, agitating for the preservation of the forest reserve.
Before a decision was made, ministers were reportedly given opportunity to give their views on the Mabira Forest give- away deal.
According to sources, most of the ministers expressed concern that Mabira issue had caused apprehension in the country and suggested that alternative land be obtained to produce the sugar the country needs and save Mabira.
However, Mr Mbabazi said Mehta told Mr Museveni that the land he has is far from Mabira Forest Reserve, which requires him to put up another factory, thus incurring more expenses.
Mehta reportedly said insufficient sugar is an issue that affects many Ugandans and must be solved once and for all. The Cabinet also set up a six-person inter-ministerial committee chaired by Mr Mbabazi to seek views on the proposal and advise the President.
Other ministers on the committee are: Ms Betty Bigombe (Water and Environment), Adolf Mwesige (Local Govt/NRM lawyer), Tress Bucyanayandi (Agriculture), Fred Ruhindi (Justice) and Hilary Onek (Internal Affairs).
2007 riots
Mr Mbabazi could not be reached for a comment but his deputy Moses Ali said the committee’s work would inform government’s decision. “The government policy on de-gazetting the degraded part of Mabira Forest is under review. When this is completed, government will inform Parliament and the country on the decision. Until that happens, the government appeals for patience,” Gen. Ali said. The first attempt by Mehta to take part of Mabira in 2007 led to riots in which three people were killed.
Environmentalists fear the eco-system will be disturbed and hundreds of animal and plant species in the forest endangered if the forest is given away. Buganda Kingdom and the Anglican Church in Mukono have opposed the deforestation plan and offered alternative land for cane growing. With government keen on Mabira, any trees that are felled are likely to cause a lot of noise.
Government denies leasing farmland to Bangladesh,The Monitor,11.6.3
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1174140/-/c0vlwgz/-/

Bangladeshi companies say they have leased thousands of hectares of farmland in Africa as part of their efforts to avoid future food shortages.

Two Bangladeshi companies have already signed deals to lease unused cultivable land in Uganda, Tanzania and Gambia.
Another agreement to lease around 30,000 hectares for 99 years will be signed with the Tanzanian government later this week.

DHAKA - BANGLADESH has leased tens of thousands of hectares of farmland in Africa as part of a government drive to improve food security in the poverty-stricken South Asian nation, an official said on Tuesday.

Two Bangladeshi companies have leased 40,000 hectares of land in Uganda and Tanzania and another firm will sign a deal for a further 10,000 hectares in Tanzania this week, foreign ministry director Farhadul Islam said.

'The government strongly supports companies leasing farmland in Africa. The aim is to bring most of the farms' output back to Bangladesh to ease food shortages,' he told AFP.

Bangladesh's 150 million citizens have been hit hard by sharp increases in the price of rice, the staple grain, which was up by an average 50 per cent year-on-year in April, according to official figures.

The country was once self-sufficient in rice, but industrial expansion and population growth mean farmland has been eaten up by factories and new residential areas.

Over the last few years, Bangladesh has become a major importer of rice and wheat, with grain imports up 86 per cent year-on-year to US$882 million (S$1.1 billion) for the last seven months of 2010, according to the central bank. -- AFP

Asian palm oil companies go back to the future in Africa,Financial Times,2011.2.2,p.17

Muleba. Local leaders in Muleba District have been accused of pocketing more than Sh16 million from illegal sales of land plots belonging to the Kishulo Village.
Some of the plots from an area of about 850 hectares were allegedly bought by foreign nationals, thus prompting the former Kagera Regional Commissioner, Mr Mohamed Babu, to order an immediate inquiry into the matter.
The huge piece of land was allegedly sold to 17 persons, according to minutes of the village meeting convened following a letter from the RC with reference number CFA.51/132/01 ‘C’ 7 towards the end of last year.
During the meeting it was discovered that the sale of land in Omubinyungu sub-village did not abide laid down procedures. These require that village authorities should seek green-light from the village assembly before embarking on such transactions.
The village meeting resolutions contend that a few members of the village government embarked on a dubious sale of a huge piece of land. They did so without abiding by an earlier resolution that required them to first visit the site before further instructions.
“The village leaders abused their powers by selling a huge piece of land contrary to former instructions by the village community and pocketed about Sh16,050,000,” reads part of the minutes.
These were from a meeting convened by the Muleba District Commissioner, Ms Angeline Mabula, in an attempt to settle the dispute.
The minutes further indicated that until July 2011, about Sh16.619 million had been deposited into a private bank account in Muleba.
However, an impeccable source told The Citizen recently that some leaders were behind the move to clandestinely sell such a huge piece of land. Even the village assembly had no right to sell such a huge piece of land, according to the laws.
Directives from the Muleba District commissioner regarding the dispute insisted that the village government had no authority to distribute or sell the piece of land whose size exceeded 50 acres.
The DC stopped Kishuro village authorities from spending the money obtained from the illegal sale of land until the village assembly with a quorum of two thirds attendance passed such resolutions in line with existing legislations.
Agrisol’s $100 million land deal opposed by US environment group,The East African,11.11.27
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Agrisol++100+million+land+deal+opposed+by+US+environment/-/2558/1280222/-/x7lrs6z/-/index.html

A leading US environmental group is opposing the planned purchase of 325,000 hectares of land in Tanzania by an American company.
The Sierra Club, which says it has one million supporters in the United States and Canada, is urging Tanzania Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda to “step away from this ill-advised project.”
Tanzania’s parliament is debating the government’s willingness to lease the land in the Rukwa and Kigoma regions to Agrisol Energy Tanzania Ltd, which is backed by a consortium of US investors and is part of an agribusiness enterprise based in the state of Iowa. Agrisol Tanzania is also partnered with Serengeti Advisers Ltd, a Tanzania investment and consulting firm led by Iddi Simba and Bertram Eyakuze.
Opponents charge that the deal amounts to a “land grab” that would result in the displacement of 160,000 refugees from Burundi, some of whom have lived on the land for 40 years. “Very productive smallholders” would be replaced by “large mechanised farms” growing genetically modified maize to be used as biofuels in developed countries, says Anuradha Mittal, a researcher with the California-based Oakland Institute.
Agrisol says its $100 million investment over the next 10 years is intended to produce staple crops and livestock that “will help stabilise local food supplies, create jobs and economic opportunity for local populations, spur investment in local infrastructure improvements.”
The company denies that it plans to grow crops for biofuel production. It adds, however, that “as crop production increases over time, excess crops that are not needed for valued-added food products could become available for other uses.”
As part of its current negotiations with Tanzanian officials, Agrisol is seeking a change in regulations to allow it to grow GMO maize, Ms Mittal says.
Agrisol says only that it intends to introduce “modern seeds” to Tanzania. Tax holidays for the investors, repatriation of dollars out of Tanzania and a waiver of duties on project-related imports are also being negotiated, the Oakland Institute says.
Mr Simba, the founding director general of the East African Development Bank, defended the deal in a July letter, saying it is “consistent with the vision of President Jakaya Kikwete to transform the country’s economy through significant, long-term investment in agriculture. The ambitious Kilimo Kwanza strategy is central to Agrisol’s mission to forge a partnership with the government and with farmers to ensure that Tanzania rises above subsistence farming,” Mr Simba added.

Arusha. Pastoralists yesterday told Prince Charles and his wife Camilla that the current land tenure system was marginalising them.They also complained that foreigners were acquiring huge tracts of land in many areas across Africa for cultivating biofuel plants and for caring out conservation programmes at the expense of the indigenous people who were left landless.
“The customary pasture land has been taken over for conservation and by large-scale commercial farmers in the pretext of promoting investments,” said the executive director of the Arusha-based Maasai Women Development Organisation, Ms Ndinini Kimesera.She said the government was allocating vast tracts of land to commercial farmers, leaving rural people in Tanzania in the lurch.
She noted that fears were growing about further land losses taking into consideration the fact that local communities were often not consulted in such undertakings.
“The loss of land has been a major threat to property rights. It has fuelled migrations and is threatening safety, security and sanitation,” she said during a brief stopover by Prince Charles of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at a Maasai boma near the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA).
Ms Kimesera is one of campaigners for girl education among traditional livestock keepers.Another civil society official, Mr Francis Shumet, said problems facing pastoralists had been compounded by a misconception among the policymakers that land in areas they inhabited was unoccupied.
Believing so, such policymakers had been giving the same land to investors.“That is not true at all because we have our traditional system of mobility,” he said, calling on the government to engage MPs on matters pertaining to pastoralism and the donor community to support those advocating for the rights of the nomadic herders.
Mr Shumet is a programme officer with TAPHGO — a non-governmental organisation for the indigenous groups of people.
UK firm's failed biofuel dream wrecks lives of Tanzania villagers,The Guardian,11.10.30
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/30/africa-poor-west-biofuel-betrayal

THE ENERGY DEBATE

Biofuels are petrol and diesel substitutes produced from plants. Their great attraction is that they can be used by existing cars and lorries and, because the plants absorb carbon dioxide when they grow, burning them does not fuel global warming - in theory.

Many studies have now shown that existing biofuels, such as petrol substitutes produced from corn or diesel replacements from soya or palm oil, are actually worse for the environment than petrol, once you have factored in all the fertilisers, processing and transport. Furthermore, converting food into fuels has been widely linked to the rising food prices which have driven millions around the world into hunger.

So-called second-generation biofuels, which produce fuels from plant waste such as stalks or wood chips, would avoid the competition with food but are only at the research stage. Even further away, and perhaps even more promising, is producing fuels from algae grown in ponds or tubes. But the volumes of fuel currently used are so vast that, even with some environmentally friendly biofuels, we will need more efficient and more electric vehicles as well as better public transport if we are to tackle climate change.

‘Land grabbers’ worry gender activists,Daily News,11,9.14
http://dailynews.co.tz/home/?n=23648&cat=home
PARTICIPANTS at the 10th Gender Festival (GF) on Tuesday called for deliberate efforts to curb land grabbing by foreign investors, saying locals deserve to benefit from equal distribution of the resource.
The Festival which was coloured by various testimonies from all over the country kicked off on Tuesday at the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) grounds in Dar es Salaam and is scheduled to reach its climax on Friday this week.
It is organized by the Feminist Activist Coalition (FemAct) in collaboration with other members of the gender and human rights movement.
TGNP Executive director Ms Usu Mallya said over the weekend that the festival would focus on participants' own experiences and knowledge, as well as documenting and sharing feminist struggles and contributions to the public debate.
Speaking during the festival, discussants warned that the existing gap between the rich and poor was a result of unequal distribution of resources particularly land, saying a greater percentage of people depends on agriculture for survival.
''Foreign investors are making our lives miserable. We can hardly afford to earn our daily bread. Since the establishment of a cement industry in our district, we have become a displaced people,'' said Faidha Paschal from Mbeya.
Participants from Hanang District in Manyara Region raised their concerns over a conflict between investors and locals, and called for government intervention.
''In Hanang, some women have been sleeping in the bushes. Some may have already been killed by wild animals. We need to be helped out, said Jumanne Pastory.
Other participants said that land policies should be reviewed and harmonised for the benefit of all Tanzanians, especially women and other disadvantaged groups.
Label Madundo from Shinyanga said artisanal miners were in a danger zone and were in conflict with big miners.
Earlier, the GF chairperson Ms Mary Rusimbi said as Tanzania celebrates 50 years of independence, the country was yet to be independent politically, economically, socially and culturally.
''Tanzania still depends on the west, something which has affected the national policies,'' she said.
Ms Rusimbi said the policies of globalization and free export of goods have created a smooth environment to capitalist companies, and marginalized local companies.
''Women are the most affected by the current system because they are petty producers who are exploited by capitalists and the patriarchal system.
Prof Dzodzi Tsikata from Ghana noted that there was a need to celebrate the miracle of survival, anchored by the women whose reproductive activities according to her, have produced and reproduced many families.
''Feminist leadership is more necessary than ever before. This is because in spite of its limitations and the difficulties of the terrain, feminist analysis of the challenges of land and labour in the making of livelihoods remains the widest, deepest and most encompassing analysis,'' she said.

Karuturi Global Plans $500 Million Investment in Tanzania Food Production,Bloomberg,11.8.18
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-18/karuturi-global-plans-500-million-investment-in-tanzania-food-production.html
　→インド
Camp opposes land licence to investor,The Citizen,11.7.27
http://thecitizen.co.tz/news/5-political-news/13180-camp-opposes-land-licence-to-investor.html
Dodoma. The opposition camp in parliament wants the government to shelve plans to grant an investment licence to over 327,755 acres of land in Mpanda to a US firm, Agrisol Energy.The Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives shadow minister, Mr Meshack Opulukwa, told parliament on Monday that the government decision was against human rights.
He said if the government goes ahead with its plan more than 162,000 wananchi will vacate their areas. Mr Opulukwa said the opposition camp was against the reasons that have been given by the government to justify its decision.“They say the investment by Agrisol Energy will boost food production and provide employment opportunities to wananchi, but everyone knows that the problem with our agricultural sector is poor infrastructure,” he said.
Mr Opulukwa said it was important for the government to find investors who would invest in infrastructure, especially rural areas.The opposition also questioned the secrecy that surrounded the agreement between the government and the investors.
The government recently sealed a deal with Agrisol Energy under which Agrisol Energy will invest $700 million (Sh1.05 trillion) in the country’s agricultural sector, a move which experts said was a major boost to Kalmia Kwanza.
The US investment focuses on increasing productivity in food crop farming. The huge project would be implemented in Mishamo and Katumba areas in Mpanda District, Katavi Region, and Rugufu area in Kigoma Region, all former homes to Burundi refugees.
During the contract signing ceremony, the firm’s country chairman, Mr Iddi Simba, said the US investor will work out visible and practical mechanisms to ensure that farmers living around the project benefit. They would have access to farm inputs, expertise and reliable markets for their crops, he said.

US agro-tech firm ‘grabbing land’ in Tanzania,East African,11.6.12
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/business/-/2560/1179030/-/bs0h3az/-/index.html
The Tanzanian government is on the verge of concluding a deal with international investors that will result in evacuation of refugee resettlement areas to make way for cultivation of biofuels and genetically modified crops, a US-based research institute charges in a report released last week.

Under the land deal now being negotiated, AgriSol Energy Tanzania would develop 325,000 hectares in western Tanzania consisting of three refugee camps: Lugufu in Kigoma Province (25,000 ha); Katumba (80,317 ha) and Mishamo (219,800 ha), both in Rukwa Province.

“While Lugufu is now empty, Katumba and Mishamo sites are being evacuated by the Tanzanian government to make way for the project,” says the report by the Oakland Institute, which investigated internationally financed land deals in seven African countries.----------

Bangladeshi companies say they have leased thousands of hectares of farmland in Africa as part of their efforts to avoid future food shortages.

'The government strongly supports companies leasing farmland in Africa. The aim is to bring most of the farms' output back to Bangladesh to ease food shortages,' he told AFP.

The country was once self-sufficient in rice, but industrial expansion and population growth mean farmland has been eaten up by factories and new residential areas.

A recent study on biofuel investments in Tanzania has, among other things, revealed that there was no effort by the districts or the Tanzania Investment Centre to prepare the villagers in the decision making process and about the implications of the investments. In some instances, villagers were forced to make un-informed decisions by the district land offices while in some cases they were forced to make decisions in emergency meetings instead of the normal village assembly meetings.

Experts who carried out the study told OUR STAFF WRITER that there were times when power was used where villagers were ordered to make decisions in favour of the investors. In these cases, “authorities took advantage of the villages being the lowest level of decision making.” Experts further observe that most of the decisions to grant land to the investors had already been made at higher levels and that involvement of the villagers was just a formality to show that they had taken part in the decision making process.

WHILE some scholars warn on the possibility of land grabbing by foreign investors in biofuel in the country, it has been learnt that only a few people in the investment areas gave their blessings to the projects in the first place.

A final draft report on a study in ‘Biofuel Investment in Tanzania: Awareness and Participation of the Local Communities’ by Dr Opportuna Kweka of the University of Dar es Salaam shows that a large number of the respondents in her study were not informed of the coming of the investors. Neither were they aware of the investors’ activities in the areas. The 2010 study was done in Kisarawe, Bagamoyo, Rufiji and Kilwa districts.The study findings were presented at the recently ended Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA)’s 16th Annual Research Workshop in Dar es Salaam.----------

BRUSSELS and DAR ES SALAAM, Mar 9, 2011 (IPS/Freereporter) - An ambitious project to produce clean energy for the Netherlands and Belgium has degenerated into a controversial abuse of natural resources in Africa

By Timothy Kitundu The Citizen Correspondent
Dar es Salaam. The production of biofuel in Tanzania has been meeting obstacles day come day go. Critical thinkers, academicians and experts have in most cases discovered that nonchalantly, it is believed by the majority Tanzanians that it is a blessing and a means of alleviating poverty whereas it is the opposite.

The advent of biofuel production was introduced using sweet languages by investors and Tanzanian politicians, of good-looking promises of supporting important sectors such as social services development and other make-believe offers that later on were never implemented.

It is essential that before embarking on the cons and pros of biofuels production in Tanzania, its better to know what in reality biofuels are.

Biofuels are broadly defined as liquid, solid or gaseous fuels that are predominantly or exclusively produced from biomass. The main types of biofuels include biodiesel, ethanol, or purified biogas derived from crops, plant residues or wastes. All of these can be used as a substitute or supplement for the traditional fossil fuels used for transportation, domestic, and industrial uses.

Having known that let us touch on the reasons of the spread of biofuel production in Africa especially in Tanzania. External interest in biofuel production in African countries is driven largely by the low cost of land and labour in rural Africa.

Investors are targeting many areas of land which are perceived as being ‘unused’ or ‘marginal’ in terms of their productivity and agricultural potential. With interest in allocating such areas for biofuel increasing, the security of land tenure and access or use rights on the part of local resident communities across rural African landscapes is potentially at risk.

Land tenure in rural Africa is often characterised by a high level of insecurity, as a result of the colonial legacy of centralised ownership of land by the state, coupled with weak mechanisms for accountability and enforcement of land rights.

As the commercial potential of marginally productive rural lands increases across Africa due to growing interest in biofuels, the risk of large-scale dispossession of customary lands belonging to farmers and pastoralists may increase.

In addition, expansion of biofuel production may lead to other negative impacts such as environmental damage, for example due to deforestation or industrial pollution, and indirect impacts from rising food prices where food crops are cultivated for biofuel production.

As a result of these manifold factors, there is widespread concern about the adverse impacts of commercial biofuel production in rural Africa. The concerns by civil society organisations (CSOs) about the adverse impacts of biofuel projects, as well as continuing private interest in biofuel investments, have led to a substantive dialogue between CSOs and government in Tanzania about the development of policy guidelines for biofuels.

There has also been a flurry of applied research reports produced by CSOs on biofuel development in Tanzania, some of which focus on land tenure concerns and others which provide broad overviews of the full spectrum of social, ecological, financial, and policy issues surrounding biofuel development.

A special interview conducted to farmers in Kisarawe district under a special TMF funded programme reveals some shocking findings which the villagers, who are the land owners faced some sort of being ‘conned’ through a hail of promises of employment creation, construction of schools and health centres that proved futile.

According to Athumani Mkambala the Chairman of Muhaga village Kisarawe district Coast region, the biofuel investors arrived in October 2006 and made a series of promises purporting to develop them in the forms of construction of deep well, building of hospital structures and schools and improvement of roads.

The said promises have never been fulfilled even partially. The investor’s sites are different from the villagers’. This means that they have all better facilities that include clean water, medical facilities and good infrastructure – drivable roads.

“When we query about the unfulfilled promises, the investors stay mum, whereas their deputy employees in the mid-cadre say that the issue of promises made is complex as it involves budget matters that are done abroad, so be patient on that,” Mkambala said.

According to him, a total of 1,705 hectares have been leased to these investors out of a total of 8,000 hectares, a property of the 11 villages but he says the total focus of the investors is to own 4,000 hectares as the project of biofuel (jatropha) crop growing is expanding in the said villages.

According to him, the worst thing that pressed for the investor’s to be given were local politicians who emphasisied that if the villagers wanted development in social services, and alleviate poverty, they should give the land to these investors.

The push for land to investors was, according to Mkambala, was also advocated by a voters’ representative (MP) a factor which motivated villagers to give out their land without thinking of the aftermath of the impact thereof.

A reputable academician and adamant advocate against land grabbing in Tanzania, also a former lecturer of the University of Dar es Salaam Prof. Issa Shivji recently said that it is worse because after privatizing other property we have now turned to the most precarious thing – food, which is depended upon by every human being.
Players in the agricultural sector recently advised the government to suspend biofuel production pending establishment of suitable legal framework that will govern investment decisions and the energy’s overall generation process.

Actionaid Tanzania, Oxfam and Haki Ardhi delivered the advice in Dar es Salaam on at the launch of a report titled: “Implication of biofuels production on food security in Tanzania.” The organizations said formulation of a policy and legislation was important to ensure sustainability of biofuel production in Tanzania.

“Biofuel production should not compete with food security in terms of land, water and labour force. There should be clarity on the procedures of investment,” the organizations noted in their joint statement.

In the absence of a policy and legal framework, biofuel production will have direct implication on food security, land rights, the socio-economy and the environment.

The three organizations demanded, during the function which coincided with the World Food Day, that the government should increase its budget for the agricultural sector to at least 10 per cent as per the Maputo Declaration, as currently, the government allocates 9 per cent of its national budget to agriculture.

A study conducted by a team of experts from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in six districts including Kisarawe, Rufiji, Lindi, and Kilwa in Tanzania on biofuel production reveals one crucial issue is the country allowed investment in area ‘blindly’ or ‘hurriedly’.

This means that Tanzania gave a green light to biofuel investors without formulating a proper policy framework to guide development of the sub-sector. In the absence of guidelines on how the investments should be established, the projects undertaken so far have resulted into more problems that it was expected, the study reveals.

Recently, the government formed the National Biofuels Task Force (NBTF) under the ministry of Energy and Minerals aimed at navigation a process of formulating biofuel guidelines as an ad-hoc resolution while waiting for the process to formulate a national policy.

According to the study, the NBTF that took off in 2008 released draft guidelines for sustainable development of liquid biofuels and co-generation in Tanzania which are still subject to discussion in order to solicit more contribution fro various players.

The borrowed policies contain “blanket statements” that have no action plans and do not pinpoint a specific organization vested with coordinating biofuel production. Moreover there is no solution aimed to regulate the already haphazard nature of biofuel production.

The Global Change Course Students of 2010 (Action aid Tanzania) who recently made a field research in the Kisarawe and Rufiji districts where a huge chunk of land has been grabbed by biofuel investors for producing biofuel have advised the government to stop allocating land for biofuel production without a policy that ensures food security and that is implemented.

JEDDAH: Saudi company Menafea Holding intends to invest $125 million in a 5,000-hectare farm in Zambia in the North-Western Province this year and in building 2,000 housing units in Lusaka South multi-facility economic zone (MFEZ).

SAUDI firm Menafea Holding intends to invest US$125 million in a 5,000-hectare farm in North-Western Province this year and in building 2,000 housing units in Lusaka South multi-facility economic zone (MFEZ).
The project is expected to create employment opportunities in Lusaka and North-Western Province and link up indigenous small-scale farmers to a ready market through outgrower schemes.
ZAMBIE • Les investisseurs étrangers bienvenus,Courrier Internatuional,11.2.17
http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2011/02/17/les-investisseurs-etrangers-bienvenus

With an estimated 36m hectares of land available for agriculture – an area larger than Belgium – Mozambique has long attracted the attention of foreign commercial farmers eager to exploit its fertile heartlands.

But until now, the interest has not been matched by concerted action on the ground, with projects failing, upsetting local farmers or not getting off the ground.

Now, however, the government intends to map out millions of hectares of under-used land as part of a scheme dubbed ProSavana to identify which crops should be grown where.

With just over half of Mozambique’s 23m population living below a poverty line of $0.50 a day, the government is prioritising agriculture in its battle against poverty. Hopes are high that the project, which covers 5.5m hectares, could spark a fresh wave of investor interest in Mozambican agriculture.

Brazil is providing technical support as the terrain and climate is considered similar to its savannah region, where Brazilian agriculture was transformed, while Japan is assisting with financial support.

The land zoning should be completed this year, says Armando Inroga, Mozambique’s trade minister.

“We will say this land is for soya (beans) . . . this is for rice, this is for beans, and everybody who has a specialisation and wants to come to Mozambique and be part of the project can go there,” he says.

“We want land with high productivity to support the domestic market, support the southern African market and also support the international market if needed.”

Yet past experiences in Mozambique, as elsewhere in Africa, illustrate how sensitive, and at times controversial, large scale agricultural development can be – particularly when it involves foreign companies that risk being labelled “land grabbers”.

“When foreign companies come in they are not focusing on [local] food production,” says Diamantino Nhamposse, a former farmers’ union head working at a non-governmental agency. “That is why the issue has become very controversial – is the country becoming once more a place to create raw materials for Europe?”

This dilemma is illustrated by the fact that while experts say Mozambique could produce enough rice for export – the bulk of its annual rice consumption of 550,000 tonnes is imported, an industry official says.

Turning agricultural schemes into profitable enterprises can be a challenging affair. Mozfoods, a UK-owned company set up in 2004 producing rice and horticultural products, provides insights into the difficulties businesses face. Hit by unpredictable weather conditions and high freight costs and grappling with poor infrastructure, it has yet to make a profit.

Mozfoods provides local farmers with seeds, fertilisers, herbicides and other inputs – the preferred model of development officials. Yet that means the company – which has invested more than $35m in the country – holds all the risk.

It now plans to work with local credit agencies and non-governmental organisations to share some of that risk. It is also producing more horticulture products for the local market rather than exotic exports to the UK to reduce freight costs.

“The problem was we were basically taking 100 per cent of the risk and each year we were being hit by problems – early rains, late rains, problems with birds, it’s very risky,” says Philip Ashcroft, Mozfoods’ chief financial officer.

“There is a lot of land here that has great agricultural potential, but it is about money and it is about knowledge.”

Mozambique granted concessions to investors for more than 2.5m hectares between 2004 and 2009, with 1m hectares going to foreign investors, according to a November report by the Oakland Institute, a US-based think-tank. But about 1m hectares is not being used, the report says, and a number of projects have run into conflict with local communities.

With ProSavana expected to encourage more foreign investment, experts say the key will be finding the balance between commercial farms that raise productivity and developing local farmers struggling to make ends meet as they lack capital, technology and access to markets.
“It’s not a question of whether or not they are going to do this [open up to commercial farming]. It’s more about how it’s done,” says Christopher Tanner, an expert at the Food and Agriculture Organisation. “What we are working towards here is a situation where large-scale investment can help, but in a way that brings concrete benefits to locals.”

Minister denies sale of land to Brazilians,AMI,11.9.20
Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco has dismissed as a “false alarm” media claims that the government is preparing to sell six million hectares of arable land to Brazilian farmers.
Speaking to reporters on 6 September, immediately after a meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), Pacheco said there are no plans for any sale of land to Brazilians (in fact, any land sales would be illegal and unconstitutional, since the Mozambican constitution states that all property in land vests in the state)./
“There is no sale of land”, stressed Pacheco. “What exists is a trilateral agreement between Mozambique, Brazil and Japan to promote the development of agriculture”.
Under this tripartite agreement, Mozambican farmers will be empowered to increase their production capacity, he added.
Asked about the claims of land sales made in the Brazilian press, Pacheco said the reporters concerned had not understood the nature of the agreement.
It was, however, true that six million hectares of arable land that can be used for agricultural development projects had been identified along the Nacala Corridor, which links the northern port of Nacala to Malawi. But anyone acquiring this land would have to do so in terms of Mozambican law – which clearly states that land cannot be sold or otherwise alienated.
The normal practice with land concessions is that they are granted in the form of a lease or a specific period, which could be as long as 50 years. Small allocations of land, of up to 1,000 hectares, can be granted by provincial authorities. Projects that require between 1,000 and 10,000 hectares must be approved by the Minister of Agriculture, while anything in excess of 10,000 hectares can only be granted by the Council of Ministers.
At the Cabinet meeting, Pacheco presented the results of the 2011 harvest. He described the 2010-2011 agricultural campaign as positive. 96.5 per cent of the production targets had been met – even before taking into account all the second sowings.
“We are complying with the plan, since there are still second sowing harvests to be included in the figures”, he said. “The indicators are positive”.
Pacheco announced that the official launch of the 2011-2012 agricultural campaign will be held on 16 October, in Barue, in the central province of Manica. The government’s target for the 2012 harvest is an increase of 10.9 per cent in food crops.

SAO PAULO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Mozambique invites Brazilian soy, corn and cotton growers to plant on its savanna and introduce their farming know-how to sub-Saharan Africa, the head of Mato Grosso state's cotton producers association Ampa said on Monday.

Brazil has been successfully growing crops on its center-west plains since a breakthrough in tropical soybeans in the 1980s unlocked the productive potential of the expansive region by breeding soy to grow closer to equatorial regions.

While Mozambique possesses similar climatic and soil characteristics, Amapa President Carlos Ernesto Augustin told Reuters that some areas in the country on the southeast coast

Augustin, who added that the risks inherent in buying Brazilian land as a producer were enormous because of high costs and stiff environmental regulations.

Producers who are granted concessions to plant would be required only to pay a tax of 21 reais per hectare ($5.30/acre), and would receive an exemption from import tariffs on farm equipment.

Prime productive land in Brazil's developed south can runv to 35,000 reais a hectare, compared with 5,000 reais in the extreme frontier regions of the center-west and northeast

savannas, where infrastructure is poor. Brazil's import tariffs on farm equipment can also be steep.

Mozambique's Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco made the offer after a visit to Brazil three months ago.

The country is offering 50-year concessions for Brazilian producers to develop 6 million hectares (15 million acres) of its savanna. Brazil currently plants 24 million hectares of soybeans and another 18 million of corn and cotton.

Augustin said producers interested in lots smaller than 1,000 hectares could get a lease granted by the local governor.

Those interested in lots smaller than 10,000 hectares could obtain them through application with the Agriculture Ministry and those interested in lots bigger than 10,000 hectares would vneed approval from the country's lawmakers.

Ampa has organized a group of 40 local growers to visit the Portuguese-speaking country in September.

Brazilian growers, especially of soybeans, are frustrated by what they call excessive government and environmental regulation that has made expansion of farmland costly.

The high price of soy and corn of late and the cheap land costs may be essential for overcoming what are widely seen as the political risks and uncertainties of farming in Africa.Mozambique has limited domestic demand, aside from corn and common beans for human consumption.

Much of the soy and cotton produced there would be exported, Augustin estimated, and the freight costs for shipping to China would be less than in Brazil.

"Mozambique is probably going to look a lot like Mato Grosso (Brazil's leading soy state) forty years ago," Augustin said. "We are well acquainted with the challeng es of this type

　　「セラード開発」は、ブラジルの土地と日本の資本・農業技術が一体となって行われた一大農業開発プロジェクト。１９７９年に始まり２２年間で６８４億円を投資し、熱帯サバンナ地帯に東京都の１．５倍の農地を生み出した。この成功を基に、日本とブラジル両国がアフリカ・モザンビーク政府の要請を受け農業開発に着手する。４月２５日、サンパウロ市内で３カ国の共同企画「モザンビーク農業投資セミナー」が開かれた。各国の政府、知事、民間企業関係者ら１７０人余りが参加した。
　モザンビークのジョゼ・パシェコ農業大臣は「わが国では３６００万ヘクタールが耕作可能だが、現時点で４５０万ヘクタールしか利用されていない。農産物自給国から輸出国へと変えていきたい」と述べ、農業生産の拡大に向けた協力を訴えた。
　モザンビークで活用されていない熱帯サバンナの農業開発を、日本とブラジルが行うという構想は、２００９年から動き始めた。ブラジルが参加したのは、同じポルトガル語圏であるほか、開発対象地帯がセラードと共通することが多いためだ。日本では国際協力機構（ＪＩＣＡ）が中心になり、現地の中小、零細農家などへの支援を通じ、貧困削減と食料安全保障を実現し、同時に輸出志向型の農業開発も目指す。
　セミナーでは。多くの発言者が「モザンビーク開発は有望だ」「ブラジルの経験が役立つ」などと強調。しかし、機械メーカーから投資に対する利点や計画書の有無など具体的な質疑に入ると政府関係者から明確な回答がなく、実施に向けた調整が詰め切れていない印象を受けた。ＪＩＣＡの大島賢三副理事長は会議終了後に「ブラジルのダイナミックな力を感じた。このプロジェクトに強い関心を持っている。ブラジル在住の日系農業専門家も参加し、世界に展開していけたらと思う」と感想を述べた。

Accaparement des terres à la zone office du Niger : «Nous allons attaquer le gouvernement malien devant la justice...», dixit Ibrahima Coulibaly, président de la CNOP,Le Combat,11.11.22
http://www.maliweb.net/category.php?NID=83567&intr=

Lors de la clôture de la première conférence paysanne internationale tenue dans notre pays, à Selingué du 17 au 19 novembre dernier, le président de la Coalition nationale des organisations paysannes du Mali (CNOP), Ibrahima Coulibaly, a déclaré que le monde paysan attaquera le gouvernement malien devant les juridictions face à l’accaparement des terres à l’Office du Niger, mais aussi de réclamer la libération des détenus à l’issue des affaires foncières, avant de réclamer leurs droits.
Le monde des paysans appartenant aux organisations paysannes de la Via Campesina a tenu, la semaine dernière, une grande conférence paysanne internationale à Selingué au centre Nyéléni. Le thème central était : « Stop à l’accaparement des terres ». Au total plus de 250 associations paysannes, venus de 30 pays du monde, ont participé à cette première rencontre internationale afin de lutter ensemble contre l’accaparement des terres. Les représentants des institutions internationales (ONU…), des défenseurs des droits de l’homme et des milieux de médias internationaux ont, aussi, massivement répondu à l’appel.
A l’issue des trois jours de travaux, une alliance internationale a été mise en place contre l’accaparement des terres. Laquelle alliance qui sera dirigée par les paysans et les paysannes en collaboration avec de nombreux mouvements sociaux et organisations.
En effet, l’accaparement des terres est un phénomène mondial dont l’ampleur et la vitesse sont inégalées. Dans notre pays, au cours des dernières années, plus de 800 000 hectares de terres arables ont été cédées par le gouvernement aux investisseurs par le biais de baux de 30 ans, renouvelables. Ces terres sont déjà transférées aux élites nationales, aux multinationales et aux fonds financiers qui cherchent à faire des bénéfices ou à spéculer au moyen des projets d’agriculture industriels, etc.
A cet effet, devant la gravité de la situation, les organisations paysannes se sont réunies au Mali pour créer une alliance permettant de renforcer et de soutenir les communautés paysannes dans leurs luttes contre cette offensive. Ainsi, les participants à cette première conférence paysanne internationale se sont engagés à travailler ensemble, de toute urgence, pour mettre fin aux accaparements de terres.
La libération des détenus du foncier à l’Office du Niger en question
Les initiateurs de ladite conférence s’engagent avec la dernière rigueur pour tout mettre en œuvre afin d’arrêter l’accaparement des terres au Mali d’une part. Et de l’autre, obtenir la libération des paysans emprisonnés en zones Office du Niger. Des paysans qui ont été battus à sang par des gendarmes, avec à l’appui des femmes enceintes torturées jusqu’à faire des accouchements forcés. Pour la simple déraison qu’ils se sont opposés à l’accaparement de leur terre. Et jusque-là, ces derniers croupissent en prison.
En réponse à cette situation, la conférence a décidé que force reste à la loi.
« Nous allons attaquer le gouvernement malien devant la justice… même s’il faut aller à la commission des droits de l’homme de Genève… on ne va pas s’assoir pour dire simplement le nombre des paysans tués», a martelé Ibrahima Coulibaly le président de la coalition nationale des paysans du Mali par rapport à la situation qui prévaut en zone Office du Niger. Pour lui, le gouvernement du Mali aura des ennuis. Car, soutien-t-il : « on va l’attaquer pour violation des droits de l’homme, ou tentative de prise de contrôle sur les ressources qui font vivre les communautés ». Pour ce faire, le président des paysans de notre pays précise qu’ils ont des arguments sûrs de gagner les procès. « Nous avons des avocats internationaux, des associations d’entre aide juridique qui veulent nous aider… beaucoup de gens sont déterminés et engagés à nous aider à avancer…même des avocats maliens… parce qu’ils voient la vérité en face… », a-t-il révélé.
Pour sa part, le président du réseau des organisations paysannes et des producteurs agricoles de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (ROPPA), Djibo Bagna, un nigérien, le cas de Kolongo ne restera pas impuni. « Il n’est pas question de déguerpir 80 000 paysans pour seulement un individu ou parce que tout simplement à la Libye…si l’Etat peut trouver d’autres zones pour ces investisseurs…sinon pas des terres qui sont déjà à la disposition des paysans… », a estimé le président du ROPPA. Avant de lancer qu’aucun homme au pouvoir n’accepterait jamais de déterrer le cadavre d’un membre de sa famille pour satisfaire un individu. Comme le cas de Kolongo. D’autre part, Djibo Bagna a aussi insisté sur la loi.
« Nous amenons l’affaire devant les juridictions… surtout que la démocratie nous permet quand nous avons raison de nous défendre…et reconnaitre lorsque nous avons tord… maintenant comme on nous a créé du tord, nous allons nous défendre tout en utilisant tout ce que la loi nous permet », conclu-t-il.

Office du Niger : Mais que cache donc le gouvernement ?( Le Républicain),maliweb,11.2.24
http://www.maliweb.net/category.php?NID=71611&intr=
Après la sortie remarquée du parti pour la renaissance nationale (Parena) sur la cession des terres de l’Office du Niger aux investisseurs privés étrangers et nationaux , rendue publique le 7 février 2011, et malgré les réactions du gouvernement à travers le ministre délégué en charge du développement intégré de l’Office du Niger, M. Abou Sow, des questions restent en suspens.

Communiqué de presse du PARENA : « Le gouvernement doit édifier la nation sur ce qui se passe à l’Office du Niger »,Le Républicain,11.2.17
http://www.maliweb.net/category.php?NID=71323&intr=

Mémorandum Parena sur la cession des terres agricoles de l’Office du Niger aux investisseurs privés nationaux et étrangers,Mali Web,11.2.10

13.Divers groupes étrangers parmi lesquels la multinationale Lonrho, des capitaux saoudiens, soudanais, chinois ont obtenu ou sont en voie d’obtenir de grandes superficies, certaines allant jusqu’à 50.000 hectares pour les saoudiens. La Lonrho convoiterait 100.000 hectares.

14.Au total quatre cent soixante douze mille hectares (472.000ha) ont déjà été cédés aux investisseurs étrangers. Les privés nationaux sont bénéficiaires de plus de deux cent trente trois mille hectares (233.000ha). Selon nos informations plus de vingt six mille hectares (26.000ha) ont été attribués à une dizaine de particuliers maliens.

15.En outre, si certains investisseurs étrangers aménagent les terres pour y installer des exploitants maliens (cas du Millenium Challenge Account) d’autres envisagent une exploitation directe en utilisant la main d’œuvre paysanne.

16.L’examen des conventions, lettres d’accord et baux par lesquels des centaines de milliers d’hectares du patrimoine foncier national ont été cédés au privé suscite interrogations et parfois indignation.

17.La facilité avec laquelle les terres agricoles ont été distribuées est étonnante. On a l’impression que la terre du Mali est cédée à titre gracieux, les signataires maliens ne prenant presque pas de précaution.

Communauté rurale de FANAYE : Un Collectif dénonce l’accaparement des terres,Le Soleil,11.10.27
http://www.lesoleil.sn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8586:communaute-rurale-de-fanaye--un-collectif-denonce-laccaparement-des-terres-&catid=51:economy&Itemid=63
Une partie de la population de la communauté rurale de Fanaye s’oppose à l’octroi des terres pour un projet agricole sénégalo-italien. A la suite des explications des promoteurs dans notre édition du 28 septembre dernier, un Collectif pour la défense des terres de Fanaye apporte sa position sur cette affaire.
Le Collectif pour la défense des terres de Fanaye (département de Podor) précise dans un document parvenu à notre rédaction que les 47 villages de leur localité n’ont jamais accepté d’octroyer 20 000 hectares de terres au projet sénégalo-italien pour la culture de tournesol. Selon les membres du collectif, les populations sont opposées à ce projet. Ils ont rappelé que les populations de Fanaye sont confrontées, depuis quelques mois, à ce problème d’accaparement de leurs terres.
Le Collectif explique qu’il s’agit de l’attribution à titre privé d’un terrain de 20 000 ha dans la communauté rurale à la société Senethanol. Dans le mémorandum, le groupe des conseillers ruraux a fait savoir que c’est dans le courant du mois de juin que le président du conseil rural de Fanaye leur a fait parvenir des convocations en vue de délibérer sur l’attribution d’un terrain d’une superficie de 20 000 ha au profit de la société citée plus haut. Cette société devrait utiliser ces terres pour la réalisation d’un projet de production d’éthanol à partir de la culture de la patate douce et non de tournesol.
Selon le Collectif, le président de la communauté rurale, dans sa démarche, a mis les conseillers et les populations devant le fait accompli car les convocations ont été envoyées à ces derniers à moins de 24 heures du jour de la réunion de délibération. Le Pcr, poursuit le Collectif, a ainsi réussi à créer sa petite majorité en faisant voter le projet avec 23 voix pour et 21 contre.
Malgré l’opposition d’une bonne partie des conseillers ruraux pour vice de forme et pour nécessité de se concerter avec les populations en particulier les chefs de villages, cela n’a pas été possible de faire revenir le Pcr à la raison, ajoute le Collectif. Pourtant, les populations de la communauté rurale ont jugé inadmissible l’attribution d’une si grande superficie à une seule personne dans une zone dite agro-pastorale, lit-on dans le document. Un tel projet engendrait d’immenses dégâts économiques, sociaux et environnementaux car les éleveurs et les cultivateurs qui vivent depuis des siècles dans cette zone devront être déguerpies des lieux où elles disposent de pâturage pour le bétail, des terres cultivables, des lacs et des forêts qui risquent en même temps de disparaître, lit-on dans le mémorandum.
Le Collectif informe que les populations de la communauté rurale se sont fortement mobilisées pour dénoncer ce projet d’accaparement de leurs terres, ce qui les avait obligés à organiser au mois de juillet denier une marche pour manifester leur mécontentement.
Le collectif déclare ne pas croire aux promesses du Pcr annonçant que le projet apportera à la communauté rurale la somme de 800. 000. 000 francs Cfa. Selon le Pcr cette somme permettra de construire deux hôpitaux, douze forages, des collèges, des lycées et plusieurs autres infrastructures. Malgré cette promesse, les populations n’accepteront jamais que leurs terres soient bradées, précise le Collectif.
Sénégal : Les CRCR contre l’accaparement des terres,Le Griot,11.10.6
http://www.legriot.info/4336-senegal-les-crcr-contre-l%E2%80%99accaparement-des-terres/

Récemment, le gouvernement sénégalais vient d’octroyer 20 000 hectares de terre dans la localité de Fanaye à des investisseurs italiens pour y développer des biocarburants, ce qui a mécontenté le Conseil Régional des Coopération des Ruraux (CRCR), lequel craint la montée du phénomène de l’accaparement des terres dans ce pays ouest-africain. C’est pourquoi il a organisé un atelier d’échanges et de réflexion à Ndioum. Sécuriser les exploitations familiales constituait l’une des principales préoccupations émises lors de ces travaux. Pour aller plus loin, il a été même question de réfléchir à des stratégies locales de résistance au phénomène de l’accaparement des terres. Pas d’argument plus éloquent que ceux-là pour stimuler les autorités de tutelle à mieux écouter les raisons du ras-le-bol de leurs administrés.

En effet, ces sénégalais du monde rural vivent de leurs terres, en y pratiquant, notamment, de l’agriculture. Mais, de plus en plus, ils sont expropriés sans ménagement par l’Etat. Celui-ci avait promis une réforme du cadre foncier, qui tarde toujours à se concrétiser. Pendant ce temps, les investisseurs étrangers gagnent du terrain. Mais, les ruraux ne sont plus dupes. Lors de cet atelier, les participants ont été informés et formés sur le cadre juridique et institutionnel foncier, par exemple. Un bagage qui leur permettra, à coup sûr, de réclamer leurs droits quand besoin se fera sentir. Des alliances pour mieux lutter contre l’accaparement des terres ont également été proposées. Enfin, les organisateurs de ces travaux ont à nouveau appelé l’Etat à accélérer le processus de réforme foncière afin de mieux sécuriser les exploitations familiales

Selon des études menées sur le foncier au Sénégal, 700 mille（700,000） hectares de terre ont été attribués entre 2006 et 2010 à des étrangers, dont les 400 mille (400,000)sont destinés à la production d'agro-carburant. Ainsi, la responsable du programme droit à l'alimentation de l'Action Aid soutient qu'on ‘nourrit les véhicules et non les ventres humains’. Face à cette situation, ‘il faut continuer à prôner la souveraineté alimentaire’, indique Mme Mbaye. Cependant elle se pose la question de savoir ‘s'il faut interdire ou réguler cet état de fait’.

Bangladeshi companies say they have leased thousands of hectares of farmland in Africa as part of their efforts to avoid future food shortages.

The Swedish aid organisation Swedfund invested millions of dollars in companies that are supposed to produce ethanol in Sierra Leone. But since the company took over farmland the local population faces a lack of food. Now the poor inhabitants are turning to Sweden for help. "We are asking for help. We have nothing," Mari Fona told Swedish Radio News.
Land used by Fona and other villagers to grow food was taken over by Addax bioenergy, which has planted sugarcane that's used for bioenergy and sold in Europe.
"We don't have any rice to eat. People go to bed hungry," Fona says.
In November last year the state-run aid organisation Swedfund invested $1.5 million US dollars in the Addax bioenergy in Sierra Leone.
Swedish Radio News took a closer look at what the aid money is being used for. The poor farmers say that they were talked into approving the contract that allows the company to rent the land for 50 years. The farmers earn 3.20 US dollars a year per acre of land. The same is happening in all of the villages.
Anders Craft, acting president of Swedfund, says the company is putting a lot of resources into solving the problems. "I'm not saying there aren't any problems, but the company's intentions are good," Craft told Swedish Radio News.

Alusine Kortu says he hasn't seen any big, new agricultural investments in the Bonthe district of southern Sierra Leone. But the local chief has heard rumours about large-scale land deals in other parts of the west African country – where estimates suggest nearly 20% of farmland has been snapped up by investors – and says he wants to be ready if and when companies come to his area.

Ten years after the end of civil war in Sierra Leone, the government is taking great pains to attract large-scale agribusiness investments, which it says will help boost exports and employment opportunities. But some local NGOs and civil society organisations argue the recent influx of investors has failed to deliver promised jobs and income to local communities.

Last week, Kortu joined more than 100 farmers and land rights activists from across the country in the capital, Freetown, for a national assembly of communities affected by so-called land grabs. Delegates at the conference, the first of its kind, urged the government to immediately review all recent land deals and institute new measures to balance the scales between rural communities and powerful foreign investors. The assembly also saw the launch of a new civil society watchdog to monitor agribusiness investments

"There is need for investment in agriculture to ensure food security and sustainable development," insists the assembly's final communique. But, it adds, a lack of transparency around contracts, and the frequent exclusion of women and other key stakeholders from negotiations, has produced a string of deals that threaten the livelihoods and the long-term futures of local farming communities.

Eddy Amara, the spokesperson for the Malen Land Owners Association, travelled to the assembly from the country's southern Pujehun district, where a controversial palm oil investment has become a symbol of rising tensions over large-scale agribusiness investments in the country.

Last March, Socfin SL, a subsidiary of the Belgian investment company Societe Financiere des Caoutchoucs (Socfin), secured a 50-year lease for 6,500 hectares of farmland in Malen chiefdom for an annual rent of $5 per hectare. Socfin is one of the world's largest plantation investors and a founding member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Amara, who says he's been pushed off his land by the deal and now struggles to feed his family, claims the project has failed to bring promised jobs and income into local communities and that government officials haven't responded to complaints about the lease agreement and working conditions on the plantation.

In a letter to local authorities in October 2011, the Malen Land Owners Association denounced working conditions at the plantation as "near-slavery", with labourers earning just over $2 a day in temporary jobs. The association said arbitrary dismissals are common and that workers have been denied medical care.

Calling for a "peaceful resolution of the land crisis", the group said the annual payments of $5 per hectare were "unacceptable" and that local farmers have not been adequately compensated for valuable trees and plants destroyed in clearing the land.

Late last year, protests culminated in a blockade of the main road to the plantation and 40 people were arrested. Amara, who was among the 15 protesters charged with public disorder offences, says the district's paramount chief has effectively blocked the community from negotiating directly with the company and has left no avenue for recourse. "He's trying to say we are the enemy of progress in the chiefdom, that we are not supporting development," says Amara.

On Monday, a report published by the Oakland Institute, a US-based thintank, to coincide with the national assembly in Freetown said the deal is heavily skewed in favour of the company. It warns that "the long length of the lease, together with the lack of proper documentation and marking, is likely to make the lease permanent", as boundaries where not clearly marked before clearing began and families will find it difficult to identify their land after 50 years.

The institute's executive director, Anuradha Mittal, said the government runs the risk of fuelling future conflict if it doesn't respond quickly to farmers' concerns. "When communities are denied their access and control over land and natural resources they depend on for survival, [the] conflict-ridden history of Sierra Leone and other African nations is a testament to what might be an outcome," she said.

Gerben Haringsma, Socfin SL country co-ordinator, dismissed the Oakland Institute report as "one-sided". He said it would be impossible to set up a project of this scale without significant buy-in from local communities. He added that the project had already brought schools, bridges and roads to the district, and would boost local industry and food security by producing thousands of tonnes of cheap vegetable oil for the local market.

Wages and working conditions on the plantation could be improved, he said, but these issues need to be negotiated with local trade unions and the ministry of labour. "You can't do it overnight," he said. "The whole country would have a huge problem as everyone would want more. The whole agricultural economy would crumble."

The deputy minister of agriculture, Ali Mansaray, said the government always ensures local communities and landowners "rigorously negotiate" with private investors. He said the government is working on a strategy to better monitor agribusiness investments, and that a team of officials will visit all investments to evaluate whether investors are complying with signed agreements and to solicit feedback from local communities.

Last week's assembly, organised by local NGO Green Scenery and the recently-formed Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Land, is the latest in a string of attempts by local groups to draw attention to the impacts of unregulated land-based investment in Sierra Leone and comes at a time of growing global concern about the race for prime farmland in the world's poorest countries.
Last year, the International Land Coalition estimated that the global rush for land had claimed more than 200m hectares between 2000 and 2010, the majority in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Oakland Institute, 17% of Sierra Leone's arable land had already been snapped up by investors by early 2011.

SIERRA LEONE: Land deals beginning to stir discontent,IRIN,12.3.20
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95112/SIERRA-LEONE-Land-deals-beginning-to-stir-discontent
FREETOWN, 20 March 2012 (IRIN) - In southeastern Sierra Leone’s Pujehun District, the small village of Kortumahun sits at the edge of orderly rows of hundreds of thousands of bright green palm oil seedlings. Small groups of women weed the pots while men spray fertilizers and pesticides across the nursery.
It has been 30 years since large-scale oil palm plantations operated in this chiefdom. But in March 2011, the agro-industrial company Socfin Agriculture Company Ltd., a subsidiary of the Belgian company Bolloré, signed a 50-year land lease with the government of Sierra Leone to produce palm oil on 6,500 hectares of land in Pujehun’s Malen chiefdom.
Tommy Silman, landowner and resident of Kortumahun, says he wishes he had not given up his land: One month ago he leased all 3.04 hectares (ha) of his land for the next 50 years to the government. He used to cultivate oil palm trees for direct sale to process into the cooking oil used by most Sierra Leoneans. “It was not a fair deal,” Silman says, explaining that he received no receipt for the land sold and now has no idea of where he stands.
Flocking in
Foreign land investment is on the rise in Sierra Leone and, as with many of its neighbours, the government wants more companies to come in to boost the economy and spur much-needed agricultural development in rural areas. Sierra Leone ranked 180 out of 187 countries on the UN human development index in 2011.
The country’s Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA) advertises “over 4.3 million ha of cultivatable land available”, high local demand for staple food crops and opportunities for the production of biofuels for the global market.
According to Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Lands, around 70 percent of arable land is available for investment, outside of protected forest reserves. “Foreign land investments are a good thing,” says William Farmer, director of surveys and lands in the Ministry of Lands. “Civil society makes a lot of noise about land-grabbing. But if the investment is well-planned then it can create employment and improve lives.”
The US-based policy think-tank the Oakland Institute’s 2011 country report on Sierra Leone counts 15 large-scale land deals totalling 500,000 ha. This was published before the largest-yet recorded deal in 2012 with the Chinese Hainan Natural Rubber Industry Group which signed a US$1.2 billion deal with the government in February to lease 135,000 ha for rubber and rice plantations.
The Hainan group has promised to plant 35,000 ha of rice for sale on the local market, establish a rubber-processing factory and create approximately 100,000 jobs. Rubber plantations will stretch over 100,000 ha, across three districts - Moyamba, Tonkolili, and Port Loko.
But as more and more companies flock to the country to lease large tracts of land, murmurs of protest and unrest are cropping up among local populations who are unhappy with the way the deals are done; and civil society groups are growing increasingly concerned that foreign land deals are not producing the win-win scenarios they had hoped for.
Lack of regulation, transparency
The problems arising are the same as in many other developing countries: the power imbalance between negotiating parties and the lack of regulation means local communities can lose a lot through land deals, says Joseph Rahall, director of Green Scenery, an NGO working on environment and human security issues in Sierra Leone.
“There are so many ways companies are coming into the country… When communities are so weak [compared to big companies] that they don’t have lawyers, they cannot afford lawyers and government is not providing them, this is problematic.”
Kortumahun village chief Bockarie Juana says he was not involved in negotiations on the land lease with the company. He told IRIN he received money for his land, but was given no documentation such as a copy of the land lease or a receipt for the amount paid.
“One of the difficulties is that the Paramount Chief [district chief] came to us and asked us for our land on lease. But they have now uprooted everything [all the trees] and this is what we were using to look after our responsibilities [live off],” he told IRIN.
Sahid Abu-Dingie, who works on land reform at the UN Development Programme (UNDP), told IRIN: “The whole process is not clear. If it were transparent, then nobody would grumble. But if people are not getting the right information this will definitely lead to chaos and that is what we are starting to see in Pujehun.”

There are currently no laws regulating large land deals in Sierra Leone. The Ministry of Agriculture has produced guidelines suggesting a land lease payment of $5 per acre per year ($12.36 per hectare per year) to landowners who agree to give up their land for a lease period of up to 50 years, with an option to renew for another 21 years. But Rahall says the amount is far too small.
“Even where companies pay the full amount, the government is taxing the people 50 percent,” he says. “Half of the company’s payment goes to the District Council, the traditional leader and to the central government.”
Abu-Dingie agrees: “It is not possible for [former landowners] to survive on the amount of money they are given per acre,” he says. “Even the nuclear family will find it hard, let alone the whole extended family who have rights to the land.”
Several landowners in Pujehun told IRIN that before these deals they had been managing to support their families through the revenues they earned by cultivating palm oil. Tommy Silman, for instance, calculated he earned on average $861 annually from the three harvests produced on his 3.04 ha.
It is the landless farmers who get the worst end of the deal, Abu-Dingie adds, as they lose the land they farm and do not get any compensation.
Land tenure reform must take place before large land deals can benefit local communities, says UNDP. A draft land reform policy is currently under review by parliament which UNDP hopes will lead to laws to regulate the practice.
Back at the nursery
In October 2011 residents of Malen blocked Socfin’s operations in protest over low labour costs ($2.30 per day) and the amount paid for compensation and surface rent.
Socfin’s general manager, Gerben Haringsma, says some local community members are being difficult. He told IRIN he wanted “do something good for the people and combine it with the interests of our company”. The process for investing in land in Sierra Leone is very unclear, he said.
According to Haringsma, Socfin has purchased an ambulance for the community, built 22 water wells, is renovating schools, and constructing two bridges and feeder roads. Haringsma says the company also has $75,000 a year for community development, but is waiting for the formation of a chiefdom committee to decide how to use the funds.
Such funds need to be independently monitored to make sure they benefit whole communities and not just a few individuals, say NGOs.
In the meantime, in Malen community spirits are low as 15 Malen residents who were charged with “riotous conduct” for their protests over wages await their court hearings.Sierra Leone arrests 39 in oil palm land lease dispute,Reuters,11.10.12
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/12/sierraleone-protest-idUSL5E7LC43D20111012

* Locals protest farmland deal with SOCFIN
* Police take some of those arrested to Bo
* SOCFIN part of France's Bollare Group
By Simon Akam
FREETOWN, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Sierra Leone authorities have arrested 39 protesters in the south of the West African nation, following tensions between the local population and a unit of international agro-investor Socfin .
The locals were protesting a multi-million dollar land deal in which the government is leasing to Societe Financiere des Caoutchoucs (Socfin) 12,500 hectares for oil palm production in the Pujehun district.
The initial phase of the deal is worth $112 million.
Green Scenery, an NGO in Sierra Leone, said some locals have complained they were not properly consulted and were not given information concerning the deal, signed in April.
Farmland in many developing countries has attracted foreign investors in recent years, but a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation official last year warned some big land lease deals might risk deepening poverty and ramping up social tensions.
Green Scenery said in a statement locals had blocked Socfin operations in the area since Oct. 3 because they were angry about not receiving information on the lease agreement, in which a local chief was involved.
The statement did not give details of what information the farmers said they were deprived of.
Gerben Haringsma, the general manager of Socfin Agricultural Company Sierra Leone Ltd, told Reuters the company was investing in social projects and the protesters were in the minority.
"We tried for weeks to reason with these guys (the protesters)."
"The government decided to stop it, saying this was getting out of hand," he added.
Socfin, part of France's Bollore Group , owns more than 51,000 hectares of palm estates in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Cameroon.
David Sesay, assistant inspector general of police for the southern region of Sierra Leone, said officers arrested 39 people on Tuesday and took 27 to the country's second city of Bo for questioning.
"The people were continually rioting, blocking the road, and impeding people from going to work," he said.
Sierra Leone was devastated by civil war between 1991 and 2002, and held presidential elections in 2007.
Since the end of hostilities the minerals-rich country with abundant resources such as iron ore, bauxite, diamonds and titanium ore, has attracted a number of foreign investors.
African Minerals is developing a site at Tonkolili in the centre of the country which it has said is potentially the world's largest deposit of the iron ore magnetite.
In the agricultural sector, alongside Socfin Swiss commodities trader Addax, has leased a large area for sugarcane for biofuel use near the town of Makeni.
"In some ways the renewed interest in agriculture is a welcome reversal of decades of underinvestment in the agricultural sector that has contributed to rural poverty and urban migration," Oli Brown, environmental affairs officer with the United Nations in Freetown, said in an email.
"However agricultural investment needs to be carefully managed and designed to ensure that it contributes to rural development and does not exacerbate food insecurity." (Editing by Bate Felix and Matthew Jones)
Swiss Commodities Trader Expands Into Ethanol in Africa,The New York Times,11.6.16
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/business/global/16ethanol.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Asian palm oil companies go back to the future in Africa,Financial Times,2011.2.2,p.17

‘Indigenous People, Gov’t. Both Have Right to Land’, Land Commission Chair on Sime Darby Saga,Liberian Observer,12.2.18
http://www.liberianobserver.com/index.php/news/item/520-‘indigenous-people-gov’t-both-have-right-to-land’-land-commission-chair-on-sime-darby-saga
The Chairman of the Land Commission, Dr. Othello Brandy, has acknowledged that the indigenous people at Sime Darby Plantation have a right to their land, while the government also has rights to the land.
Residents of 17 communities in Grand Cape Mount County have accused Sime Darby, a Malaysian oil palm company, of clearing their reserves and desecrating their creeks and waterways, thus leaving them with no farm land to cultivate their crops and no safe drinking water and streams in which to fish.
At a meeting with the aggrieved citizens, however, Dr. Brandy appealed to them to remain calm and law-abiding, as the government was doing all it could to resolve the problem.
An inter-ministerial team, headed by the Land Commission, over the weekend met with residents of the affected communities at the Sime Darby Plantation Company.
The meeting, which took place in Gonda Town, brought together chiefs, elders, women and youth groups of the affected communities.
They discussed with government representatives the way forward in resolving the impasse that exists at the plantation between Sime Darby and the indigenous land owners.
The meeting, which was described as peaceful and successful by the Chairman of the affected communities, Mr. Mustapha Foboi, focused primarily on three main issues of contention.
Firstly, to improvise livelihood support for the affected residents; secondly, to allow the company to restart the planting of the oil palm seedlings, and thirdly to retract the letter that was sent to the Responsible Sustainable Palm Oil Production (RSPO).
The RSPO ensures that palm oil is produced according to set standards of responsible production practices and sustainable palm oil production, which should lead to a major reduction of negative environmental and social impacts.
At the meeting, the residents said Sime Darby has cleared their reserves and desecrated their creeks and waterways, thus leaving them with no farm land on which to cultivate their crops and no safe drinking water and stream in which to fish.
According to a release from the Land Commission, some of the residents expressed thanks and appreciation to Chairman Brandy and his team for their mediatory role and considered the meeting in Gonda Town the most successful since negotiations started between the residents and Sime Darby.
A follow-up meeting with key representatives of the affected communities took place Wednesday February 15, 2012 at the Land Commission’s Office in Monrovia, the release said.
The Head of Mission of Sime Darby Oil Palm company in Liberia, Azmi Jaafar, told journalists yesterday in Monrovia that representatives of his company and the aggrieved residents in Grand Cape Mount County have been deliberating on the issues, and that the discussions have so far been fruitful.
For his part, the executive director of the Environmental Lawyers of Liberia (Green Advocates International, Cllr. Alfred Lahai Brownell, who represents the legal interest of the affected communities, also confirmed that they have been dialoging on the issues raised by the citizens against the company.
“There has not been a breakthrough on the issues but we have had fruitful discussions,” Cllr. Brownell told journalists.
Cllr. Brownell and the Sime Darby Head of Mission jointly talked with journalists yesterday in Monrovia. Both officials said the discussions were still ongoing.
LIBERIA: Land grab or development opportunity?,IRIN,12.2.17
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=94882
MONROVIA, 17 February 2012 (IRIN) - Hundreds of villagers and town residents of Liberia’s Grand Cape Mount Country have attracted nationwide attention in their bid to recover what they say is land seized from them and turned over to a Malaysian agro-industrial concern.
A petition sent to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s office in January by the aggrieved people’s political representatives demanded the return of their land.
“This is unbearable,” Mary Freeman, 42, of Sinje Town said. “Our government must care for us and don’t allow these people to kill us silently. What have we done to go through all of these sufferings? This land belongs to us. We were born here and we give birth to our children here too. This is the only place we know.”
Malaysian company Sime Darby Plantations was granted a permit on 21 April 2010 to cultivate 10,000 hectares of palm oil in Bomi and Grand Cape Mount counties. Now, the company has applied for an additional 15,000 hectares for palm oil cultivation in Garwular and Gola Konneh districts, in the Grand Cape Mount County, and another 20,000 hectares in Gbarpolu County.
The attorney representing the aggrieved parties of Cape Mount County, Alfred Brownel, has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to reject these additional requests. He vowed his rights group, Green Advocates, would continue to support those who had lost their land.
“These things must stop,” he said. “Our people deserve the right to survive. They shouldn’t be denied their land. We will not stop until their lives are transformed and the situation changed.”
Critics say the concession is a land grab. When unresolved, land disputes could plunge the country into “serious chaos”, said Jerry Lomah, president of Lomah National Law Firm in Monrovia.
“The government must set up an active land commission to keep eyes on these issues,” Lomah added.
Liberia has a history of land conflicts, especially since the end of the civil war in 2003. In the northeastern town of Ganta there is a long-running conflict over land between the Mandingo and Mano people. Lomah said a land commission could speed up resolution of such disputes and the Sime Darby case.
Mistakes made
A seemingly receptive two-term president reacted immediately to the Grand Cape Mount County concerns by visiting the area and meeting residents of Kon Town, Garwula District. She admitted the government should have gone about the negotiations differently.
“Everybody made mistakes on this one,” she told villagers, “but the thing to do is to correct the mistakes. Now, something could have been done better when it comes to Sime Darby. More consultations and more talks with the people should have taken place.”
She told them that before the government signs an agreement, the legislature conducts public hearings so that views and objections can be raised before an agreement is concluded. However, the residents said they were unaware of any such hearings.
Johnson Sirleaf said the government would now correct this oversight and seek the views of county residents.
“I've come to start the process,” she said. “I came with the ministers of justice, internal affairs, labour, and agriculture because all of them have [a] part to play in the process.”
However, she also told residents of Grand Cape Mount County that when government, including legislators, signed documents with foreign companies or countries, these could not be changed. She said the constitution gave government the authority to sign agreements on behalf of the country, and people should not be directing their frustrations at Sime Darby.
“So, if your government made a mistake, that’s your government. You have to come back to it so we can settle it,” she said.
She said the citizens’ concerns, especially those about jobs and land-grabbing, would be addressed. She said government would ensure locals were given preference when it came to employment with Sime Darby in Grand Cape Mount County
The president has set up a committee, co-chaired by officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Justice, to look into the citizens’ complaints in an effort to resolve the dispute with Sime Darby.
Most of those who lost their land have relocated to nearby villages and towns unaffected by the concession. Most are unskilled labourers.
Sime Darby responds
Meanwhile, Sime Darby has denied seizing land. It said it paid fairly for the land and that it had not used force to evict anyone, as landholders had earlier contended.
Sime Darby Board Chairman Tun Hitam said the company had been serious about being part of the community in Grand Cape Mount County since it came to Liberia in 2010. The firm said it expected to invest US$3.1 billion in its Liberian estates by 2025.
In addition, so far, it has rebuilt and refurnished 15 primary schools, and paid teachers the government rate. Sime Darby said it had also refurbished three new school buses, bought one ambulance and expanded hospital wards in its estates.
Sime Darby plantation senior vice-president of the agribusiness division, Helmy Basha, said the firm had already established four plots of nurseries that would generate 780,000 oil palm seedlings. These would kick-start the first planting of 5,200 hectares at Grand Cape Mount County. He said that by 2025, the firm would have planted up to 170,000 hectares with oil palms in the counties of Grand Cape Mount, Bomi, Bong and Gbarpolu.
"For the next 15 years, we're scheduled to invest in infrastructure like roads, bridges, electricity and piped water. We'll also put up the mills," he said.
Basha said Sime Darby would undertake social and environmental impact assessments before the start of any development. For example, it would maintain riparian buffer zones between water bodies and planted areas.
By 2015, the group would start to put up 15 mills - one for every 10,000 hectares. They would extract crude palm oil, be fuelled by biomass, and be self-sustaining, he said.
The firm expects its business in Liberia to be fully-operational by 2035; 35,000 jobs would be created.
“There will also be spillover impacts in uplifting the livelihoods of surrounding communities of the estates," Basha said.
Liberians use palm oil to prepare meals. “If Sime Darby supplies some of the oil to the Liberian market, it will reduce the price of palm oil locally,” said Monrovia businesswoman Sarah Sando

Malaysia's Sime Darby, the world's largest listed palm oil producer, said Wednesday it will make its first foray into Africa, with plans to establish plantations in Liberia in April.

The company, which was granted a 63-year concession in 2009 to develop 220,000 hectares (543,500 acres) of land in the west African country, will begin planting oil palm on 10,000 hectares in the first phase.

Cape Mountainaians have accused the Malaysian Company here, Sime Darby of engaging in unfair (bad) labor practices against them, including its own employees. With this, the Cape Mountanians have given the government of Liberia and management of the company (Sime Darby) 60-day ultimatum to initiate and organize a general meeting with them (citizens) in deciding the future of the county.

----------.In Ghana, development agencies have reported that the spread of jatropha is pushing small farmers, and particularly women farmers off their land. Valuable food sources such as shea nut and dawadawa trees have been cleared to make way for plantations. Some 50 per cent of the Ghanaian population work on the land, mostly growing food for local consumption.
A total of 769,000 ha has been acquired by foreign companies such as Agroils (Italy), Galten Global Alternative Energy (Israel), Gold Star Farms (Ghana), Jatropha Africa (UK/Ghan), Biofuel Africa (Norway), ScanFuel (Norway) and Kimminic Corporation (Canada). According to the CIA World Fact Book Ghana has 3.99 million ha arable land with 2.075 million ha under permanent crops. This means that more than 37 percent of Ghana’s cropland has been grabbed for the plantation of jatropha.
Farmers have found that the much vaunted wonder crop jatropha, rather than bringing a guaranteed income, in fact takes valuable water resources and needs expensive pesticides. In some cases, food crops have been cleared to plant jatropha, leaving farmers with no income and no source of food.
This situation was reported as far back as May 2009 by one Emmanuel K. Dogbevi where he posed the question “Any lessons for Ghana in India’s jatropha failure?”
Jatropha is seen as a particularly suitable crop for agrofuel production because unlike other feedstocks, it is not a food source. Promoters argue that it does not therefore compete with food or contribute to food shortages. It can also grow on marginal land in relatively dry areas, making it suitable for drought-prone regions.
In 2006 D1 Oil from the UK said that it aimed to produce 2.7 tonnes of oil per hectare from areas planted with its new E1 variety, and 1.7 tonnes of oil from normal seed. That is equivalent to about 8 tonnes and 5 tonnes of seed per hectare respectively, or 3.5kg and 2kg a plant.
Reports from India, however, indicate that yields of 1kg per plant have been difficult to achieve. Food Security Ghana is yet to hear of any commercially viable biofuel production from Jatropha, and it looks more and more as though the jatropha frenzy is a big bubble waiting to burst.
Only this month a new revelation was made by Emmanuel K. Dogbevi when he reported that a new study says biofuels from the non-food plant, Jatropha are dangerous to the environment. These fuels seen as an alternative energy source, according to the study by three groups, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, ActionAid and Nature Kenya, could cause up to six times more carbon emissions than fossil fuels.----------.

Asian palm oil companies go back to the future in Africa,Financial Times,2011.2.2,p.17

An Indian renewable energy company, Abellon CleanEnergy Ltd., says it intends to grow biofuels on 10,000 hectares of land in Ghana.
Abellon says it will set up a factory to produce solid biofuels and as a result create 25,000 jobs in Ghana, the Bloomberg News has reported citing the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).According to the report, Abellon will grow crops that require little irrigation. The crops the company plans to grow include bamboo, palmarosa and sweet sorghum, and these will be cultivated on derelict land, the UNDP says.---------

A United States firm, Dominion Farms, has acquired 3ectares of swampy land in Gassol Local Government of Taraba State for commercial rice farming.
The land, which has been lying fallow for decades, belongs to the Federal Government.
It was a property of the Upper Benue River Basins Development Authority (UBRBDA), an agricultural scheme established by former President Olusegun Obasanjo during his first tenure as military Head of State.
Chairman of Dominion Farms Mr. Calvin Burgess inspected the land at the weekend.
Burgess said the firm would invest an initial $40 million.
He was accompanied by Obasanjo, the Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Ayo Adeshina, Governor Danbaba Suntai, some Kenya-based rice farmers, and other dignitaries.
Burgess described the land as fertile, with “key advantages like wetness of land and access roads.’’
He said Dominion Farms grows rice in Kenya, but he noted the in Taraba looks more endowed and attractive.
The company chief said his firm might begin plowing by December.
He said the company would establish an airstrip in the area for easy linkage.
Obasanjo regretted that the programme was abandoned immediately he left office.
He said: “When I was the military Head of State, I established 11 River Basins, including UBRBDA, to acquire lands for mass cultivation of food and cash crops but the vision failed as soon as I left office.”
Adeshina pledged to facilitate the release of relevant documents on the land.
Suntai promised to build a 10-kilometre road in the area to link up the Wukari-Yola road.
He said: “The Taraba State government will provide Dominion Farms with silos for storage.”
Caretaker Chairman of Gassol Alh. Ibrahim Liman urged the firm to employ the indigenes to work on the farm project.
He solicited the cooperation of the community.
The monarch of Gassol, Idi Chiroma, said “the rice project by Dominion Farms would be a blessing to the people of Gassol and Taraba state.”

Asian palm oil companies go back to the future in Africa,Financial Times,2011.2.2,p.17

Commercial Agriculture: Poorly Negotiated Land Leases Condemned,Camaroon Tribune,12.2.22
http://www.cameroon-tribune.cm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67065:commercial-agriculture-poorly-negotiated-land-leases-condemned&catid=2:economie&Itemid=3#contenu
This is contained in a report presented by the NGO CED in Yaounde on February 14, 2012.
A report on land concessions granted to foreign agro-industries says that in agreeing the terms of the contracts, the Cameroon government tends to give more rights and fewer responsibilities to the investors. The report is based on the SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon Plc (SGSOC) that signed a contract with government in 2009 to develop 73,086 hectares of oil palm plantations and construct oil mills in Ndian and Kupe Muanenguba Divisions in the South West Region.
But the project that has to produce 400,000 tonnes of crude palm oil and 40,000 tonnes of palm kernel oil per annum is opposed by local communities and Non-governmental Organisations, NGOs. They are fearful of the negative social and environmental impact that the setup of the plantations could have on local people. According to the terms of the contract, SGSOC has the exclusive right to farm within the concession, meaning it can relocate the inhabitants at will.
The CED report argues that because the duration of the lease is 99 years, means the future of the people living around the project site has been mortgaged. According to Brendan Schwariz, a programme assistant with CED, government has to be more careful when accepting agro-industrial investments in the country. He says government tends to shoulder many responsibilities but receives few benefits from such transactions. For instance, such firms are exempted from taxes in the first ten years of operation after which they only pay an annual corporate tax of 15 per cent or less; instead of 38.5 per cent.
All this represents great losses to the state and if government must attain its vision of becoming an emerging country by 2035, more revenue needs to be generated. To improve on the system of granting land leases for mechanised agricultural purposes, CED proposes renewable leases of 30 years for a maximum of 50,000 hectares. It also insists on more transparency in land leasing and the identification of potential land for leasing, accompanied by established maps.
Le Cameroun glisse sur une peau de banane documentaire,Marchés Tropicaux & Méditerranéens,11.4.27
http://www.mtm-news.com/en/node/3187

Asian palm oil companies go back to the future in Africa,Financial Times,2011.2.2,p.17

Renewable Energy: Gov’t Partners with Forbes Energy to Boost Supply,Cameroon Tribune,11.1.27

Through this project, Forbes Energy Cameroon’s financial partners, “Groupe Financing Consulting Ltd,” is proposing to develop an agro-industrial pool in Dja and Lobo Division in the South Region in which it could set up a 20,000 hectare cassava farm and four industrial complexes to produce starch, bio-ethanol and electricity. Over 3,500 direct jobs are expected to be created; all, at the cost of FCFA 59 billion.

Foreigners get nod on land ownership,Business Day,11.8.26
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=151760
CAPE TOWN — The government appears to have abandoned the notion that foreigners should not own land in SA by proposing that foreigners enjoy freehold title but with conditions applied.

The green paper on land reform approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday proposes freehold for foreigners but with obligations and conditions attached.

Earlier leaked drafts of the green paper contained only precarious tenure for foreigners.

Previous statements from President Jacob Zuma and Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti also hinted that foreigners would be restricted to leasing land in SA.

Sunday Ogunronbi, the head of policy research and legislation development at the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, told a post-Cabinet news briefing that the intention was to regulate foreign ownership of land and that this would be done with "different scenarios for different areas".

In this way different conditions would apply in cases of coastal or agricultural land.

He said a possible condition to buying large tracts of agricultural land could be the inclusion of a South African partner or that all the produce from the land could not be exported.

Democratic Alliance (DA) national spokeswoman Lindiwe Mazibuko said she was pleased at the signs that the government was backing off a ban on foreign land ownership but stressed that without having had sight of the green paper or the regulations — which will come later — she was unable to comment in detail.

Ms Mazibuko said that anything less than freehold title for foreigners and South Africans alike would be a burden.

She said the only real concerns for the DA were growth, prosperity and food security.

Mr Ogunronbi said that there was no mention in the policy document of a land ownership ceiling on the basis of race.

The other elements of the four- tier tenure framework are leasehold only for state and public land, freehold with limited extent for privately owned land and communal tenure with institutionalised rights for communally owned land. "The communal land tenure system, because of its complexity and, the nullification of the Communal Land Rights Act by the Constitutional Court, will be treated in a separate policy articulation," the green paper says.

It also says two imperatives for land reform were that the government has to "improve on past perspectives, without disrupting agricultural production and food security; and to avoid or minimise redistribution and restitution which do not generate sustainable livelihoods, employment and incomes".

S.Africa may put limits on sale of land to foreigners,Reuters Africa,11.8.25
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE77O0O320110825
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa may put restrictions on the sale of land to foreigners as it aims to transfer ownership to blacks as part of a drive to correct racial imbalances in land distribution, a draft policy showed on Thursday.

After the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa set a target of handing over 30 percent of commercial farmland to blacks by 2014 but progress has been slow, prompting the government to review the policy.

Land reform is a sensitive issue in South Africa and has been brought into focus by the decline in agriculture in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where many white-owned commercial farms were seized by President Robert Mugabe's government.

The South African programme has caused unease and slowed investment in the agricultural sector as white commercial farmers consider whether to reinvest in their farms. This has implications for food security and inflation at a time when food prices have been rising steeply

The department of land reform proposed in a draft green paper posted on its website that "sale of land to foreigners no longer be freehold titles but be leasehold titles subject to limiting regulations."

Freehold means a person owns the land, while in leasehold one owns the property on the land but not the land itself.

The draft policy also proposed restrictions, such as stopping foreigners going into partnership with locals and excluding foreigners from buying in sensitive areas such as coastal and agricultural, be placed on leasehold titles held by foreigners.

It further said South Africans should continue to exercise freehold rights over land although this would also be subject to regulatory limitations.

The draft paper also proposes the establishment of a Land Management Commission to monitor the execution of the policy and an office of valuer-general to provide "fair and consistent" land values and determine compensation after an expropriation.

New curbs for foreign land ownership,Business Day,11.6.8
http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=145128
THE government is soldiering on with plans to restrict foreign land ownership in SA and to prescribe conditions for land use, Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti said yesterday.

Rather than preventing foreigners from owning land, a policy on "precarious tenure" for land ownership by foreign nationals would be developed "to determine the basis on which foreigners can lease or utilise land", he said

Jamaica sells 3 sugar estates to Chinese firm(AP),Chron,11.8.15
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/7698657.html
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica's government signed over its three remaining sugar estates to a Chinese company in a privatization deal Monday that has been a long-standing goal of Prime Minister Bruce Golding's administration.

Under the agreement, China's Complant International Sugar Industry Co. Ltd. will be leased roughly 18,000 hectares (44,478 acres) of cane fields for the next 49 years and will own the three sugar estates and their surrounding properties.

Complant paid $9 million for the Monymusk, Frome and Bernard Lodge factories and control of surrounding sugar cane lands under the lease. The deal also calls for the Chinese company to rehabilitate the sugar mills.

"We have been very careful to ensure that the critical assets of Jamaica are protected and therefore the ... acres of land which have been earmarked for sugar will be leased to the company," Golding said.

Agriculture Minister Robert Montague said Jamaica expects the Chinese company "will play its role in other areas and aspects of the Jamaican economy."

The chief of the Complant group of companies, Tang Jianguo, said Jamaicans will still participate in management of the three sugar estates and promised to "set up collaborations with Jamaican counterparts to promote the development of the whole industry."

The divestment comes some three years after the global financial crisis forced the Brazilian corporation Infinity Bio-Energy to drop a multimillion-dollar deal to take over Jamaica's debt-ridden sugar company.

The Caribbean island's government in 2007 began efforts to sell the five companies that made up the Sugar Company of Jamaica because of mounting financial losses and years of rising debt.

In 2005, officials announced a plan to restructure the sugar industry to focus production more on ethanol and molasses. But the majority of the Caribbean nation's cane fields remain focused on sugar.

Like other Caribbean nations, Jamaica was squeezed by deep cuts in sugar subsidies by the European Union for producers in the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific.

In recent years, Trinidad and St. Kitts both abandoned their centuries-old sugar industries, blaming high production costs and cuts in subsidies for sugar imports.

Dans ce petit pays d'Amérique centrale, des Indiens sont évincés de leurs terres pour céder la place à la monoculture de la palme ou de la canne.
Eitan Haddok, envoyé spécial pour "Le Monde Magazine", raconte cet exemple d'accaparement des terres du Sud par des pays et des sociétés du Nord.

* Gov't wants bigger share of healthy profits
* Farm minister says cabinet yet to discuss tax rise (Adds agriculture minister's comment)

Investors in Brazil feel tied on land issue,FT.com,12.3.26
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/49ca9b92-66c4-11e1-9d4e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1qCf2Y6IU
Billions of dollars of private sector investment shudders to a halt amid a legal hiatus over a ban on foreigners buying large tracts of farmland
Brazil groups say farmland rules choke investment,Reuters,12.3.9
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/09/brazil-land-investment-idUSL2E8E9ETE20120309
* Limits on foreign land buying slow agricultural investment
* Sugar, grains and paper industries say they miss out
* Government source says more flexible rules in works
By Fabiola Gomes
SAO PAULO, March 9 (Reuters) - Restrictions on foreign companies buying Brazilian farmland will deprive the agricultural sector of around 100 billion reais ($56.15 billion) in investment, according to estimates drawn up by the sector.
"The (attorney general's) restriction on foreign-controlled Brazilian companies has thrown up a lot of obstacles ... It is jeopardizing many land sales," Marcos Jank, head of the sugarcane industry association Unica, said on Friday.
The sugarcane sector is hungry for land to expand cane planting with the potential for big growth in domestic demand for cane-based ethanol which became popular with the launch of flex-fuel cars in the country nearly a decade ago.
Jank presented the estimate at the inaugural meeting of the commission for legal affairs in agribusiness, at the Brazilian Institute for Corporate Law in Sao Paulo. He did not say over what period this sum was to have been invested.
He said the ethanol industry needed 150 billion reais in investment to meet future ethanol demand through 2020. About a third of this sum, or 45 billion reais in foreign capital, was expected to be poured into the sector but investments were frozen after rules on foreign land purchases changed in 2010.
The 100 billion reais figure looked mainly at agricultural industries which produce crops on their own large plantations or that lease land. Beyond the cane sector, those most dependent on foreign capital to bolster investment are soy producers and the paper and pulp industry.
Limits on the area of land foreign companies can buy were imposed when the attorney general's office issued in 2010 a new interpretation of an existing law, enabling the rules to be changed without drafting a new law that would be put to a vote.
The change meant foreign-controlled companies were no longer considered Brazilian when headquartered in the country, a status they had previously enjoyed. Foreign company status means they must now adhere to tighter rules for land purchases.
The result is that foreign-controlled companies cannot own more than 25 percent of any municipality or lease more than 100 "modules" of land - the size of which varies depending on the region, from 100 to 10,000 hectares.
The agriculture ministry wants tweaks to the rules to discriminate between productive investments and speculative land grabbing -- the trend that alarmed the government and prompted the attorney general to impose the restrictions.
A senior government official told Reuters last year that these exceptions would soon be incorporated into a revised law that would be voted on in congress, but the draft bill has still to surface nearly six months later.
($1 = 1.7808 reais) (Additional reporting by Jeferson Ribeiro; Writing by Peter Murphy; Editing by David Gregorio)
Bunge to boost investments in Brazil agriculture,Reuters,12.2.23

China’s Interest in Farmland Makes Brazil Uneasy,The New York Times,11.5.27
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/world/americas/27brazil.html?_r=2
URUAÇU, Brazil — When the Chinese came looking for more soybeans here last year, they inquired about buying land — lots of it.

Officials in this farming area would not sell the hundreds of thousands of acres needed. Undeterred, the Chinese pursued a different strategy: providing credit to farmers and potentially tripling the soybeans grown here to feed chickens and hogs back in China.

“They need the soy more than anyone,” said Edimilson Santana, a farmer in the small town of Uruaçu. “This could be a new beginning for farmers here.”

The $7 billion agreement signed last month — to produce six million tons of soybeans a year — is one of several struck in recent weeks as China hurries to shore up its food security and offset its growing reliance on crops from the United States by pursuing vast tracts of Latin America’s agricultural heartland.

Even as Brazil, Argentina and other nations move to impose limits on farmland purchases by foreigners, the Chinese are seeking to more directly control production themselves, taking their nation’s fervor for agricultural self-sufficiency overseas.

“They are moving in,” said Carlo Lovatelli, president of the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries. “They are looking for land, looking for reliable partners. But what they would like to do is run the show alone.”

While many welcome the investments, the aggressive push comes as Brazilian officials have begun questioning the “strategic partnership” with China encouraged by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Chinese have become so important to Brazil’s economy that it cannot do without them — and that is precisely what is making Brazil increasingly uneasy.

“One thing the world can be sure of: there is no going back,” Mr. da Silva said while visiting Beijing in 2009.

China has become Brazil’s biggest trading partner, buying ever increasing volumes of soybeans and iron ore, while investing billions in Brazil’s energy sector. The demand has helped fuel an economic boom here that has lifted more than 20 million Brazilians from extreme poverty and brought economic stability to a country accustomed to periodic crises.

Yet some experts say the partnership has devolved into a classic neo-colonial relationship in which China has the upper hand. Nearly 84 percent of Brazil’s exports to China last year were raw materials, up from 68 percent in 2000. But about 98 percent of China’s exports to Brazil are manufactured products — including the latest, low-priced cars for Brazil’s emerging middle class — that are beating down Brazil’s industrial sector.

“The relationship has been very unbalanced,” said Rubens Ricupero, a former Brazilian diplomat and finance minister. “There has been a clear lack of strategy on the Brazilian side.”

While visiting China last month, Brazil’s new president, Dilma Rousseff, emphasized the need to sell higher-value products to China, and she has edged closer to the United States. “It is not by accident that there is a sort of effort to revalue the relationship with the United States,” said Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “China exposes Brazil’s vulnerabilities more than any other country in the world.”

China’s moves to buy land have made officials nervous. Last August, Luís Inácio Adams, Brazil’s attorney general, reinterpreted a 1971 law, making it significantly harder for foreigners to buy land in Brazil. Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, followed suit last month, sending a law to Congress limiting the size and concentration of rural land foreigners could own.

Mr. Adams said his decision was not a direct result of land-buying by China, but he noted that huge “land grabs” in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, including China’s attempt to lease about three million acres in the Philippines, had alarmed Brazilian officials.

“Nothing is preventing investment from happening, but it will be regulated,” Mr. Adams said.

A World Bank study last year said that volatile food prices had brought a “rising tide” of large-scale farmland purchases in developing nations, and that China was among a small group of countries making most of the purchases.

Foreigners own an estimated 11 percent of productive land in Argentina, according to the Argentine Agriculture Federation. In Brazil, one government study estimated that foreigners owned land equivalent to about 20 percent of São Paulo State.

International investors have criticized the restrictions. At least $15 billion in farming and forestry projects in Brazil have been suspended since the government’s limits, according to Agroconsult, a Brazilian agricultural consultancy.

“The tightening of land purchases by foreigners is really a step backwards into a Jurassic mentality of counterproductive nationalism,” said Charles Tang, president of the Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce, saying that American farmers had bought sizable plots in Brazil in recent years, with little uproar.

Responding to the criticism, Brazil’s agriculture minister said this month that Brazil might start leasing farmland to foreigners, given the barriers to ownership.

China itself does not allow private ownership of farmland, and it cautioned local governments against granting large-scale or long-term leases to companies in a 2001 directive. China also bans foreign companies from buying mines and oil fields.

But as more of its people eat meat, China is expected to increase its soybean imports, mostly for animal feed, by more than 50 percent by 2020, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Last month, Chongqing Grains signed a $2.5 billion agreement to produce soybeans in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Last October, a Chinese group agreed to develop about 500,000 acres of farmland in Río Negro Province in Argentina.

In both cases, Chinese officials proposed buying large tracts of land before local officials steered them toward production agreements.

“We are never going to sell the land,” said Juan Manuel Accatino, the minister of production in Río Negro.

Brian Willott, an American farmer who came to Brazil in 2003, said Chinese interest in buying farms had not abated. “Everywhere you go to look at a farm they say, ‘We are considering selling to the Chinese,’ ” he said.

In Goiás State, nearly 70 percent of the soy grown went to the Chinese last year, and the Chinese are seeking to use about 20 million acres of pastureland that has not been cultivated for decades.

“For them, the faster the better,” said Antônio de Lima, Goiás’ agriculture minister.

Farmers here say they share Chinese officials’ goal of breaking the stranglehold of international trading companies like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland.

But Tan Lin, a manager at the Chinese company involved in Goiás, said he doubted Chinese companies were ready to replace them.

“I don’t see that the Chinese companies working here have that expertise yet,” Mr. Tan said. But “if you can do that, it is good, of course.”
Mitsui to Boost Brazil Soy Exports 50% on Expansion in Food Commodities,Bloomberg,11.5.21

Brazil may start leasing farm land to foreigners to find a way around new legal restrictions on land sales and attract more foreign investment, the agriculture minister said.
Last year, foreigners seeking to buy large plots of land began running into legal roadblocks, after the attorney general's office reinterpreted real estate law amid concern over property speculation by overseas investors.
But leftist President Dilma Rousseff, who took office in January, is looking for ways to ease the restrictions on foreign investment in the farm sector. Rousseff, who is more pragmatic than her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wants to encourage productive foreign investment while still fending off speculators.

Brazilian agribusiness has failed to earn the amount since August 2010, as the Federal Attorney's Office issued a ruling restricting the purchase of properties by foreign capital.

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 18 (UPI) -- Brazil has unveiled plans to toughen rules that govern foreign ownership of land in an attempt to control speculative buying of large tracts of farmland and real estate by foreign investors, including sovereign fund managers.
Officials said the law relating to land purchases by overseas investors would be revised to effect the change.
Massive infusions of capital into the Brazilian economy have pushed up the value of the real, creating a headache for financial regulators and exporters alike. Business leaders said an overvalued real would discourage foreign buyers of Brazilian commodities and goods and make a dent into the country's projected growth.
Brazilian Attorney General Luiz Inacio Adams said revisions to legislation dating to 1971 meant that foreigners wouldn't be able to buy any controlling stake in companies that own vast tracts of land in the country.
He said revisions to the legislation were also aimed at preventing foreign investors from circumventing legal provisions that restrict their direct acquisition of land.

Cracdown planned on farmland speculators,Financial Times,11.2.7,p5中国－ブラジル）

Speaking about Brazil’s restrictions on purchases of land by foreign “sovereign funds”, Mr Rossi politely declines to name any of the offending governments, even though most believe the main target is China.

“I am not the minister of external affairs. I do not want to create an incident,” he says in his office in Brasilía.

“Some of these countries are great partners in other areas, but having them buying land in Brazil creates some sort of sovereign risk for us. This is not part of our plan and we are not going to allow that.”

Brazil is preparing rules that will block foreign governments, state-owned companies and speculators from buying agricultural land while allowing in “genuine” private sector investors.

Brazil, one of the world’s most important agricultural powers, last year severely restricted all new farmland investment from abroad amid fears that foreign governments, led by China, were snapping up land in emerging markets to boost their ----------

Mr Rossi said he planned to submit a technical paper to the cabinet as early as this month that would refine Brazil’s restrictions on foreign land ownership.

He declined to name any foreign countries that were of concern, but analysts said the main target was clear.

“‘Sovereign funds’ means the Chinese,” said André Pessoa, director of Agroconsult, a consultancy.----------

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil, one of the world's top food exporters, sought to downplay fears on Tuesday that it was seeking to block foreign investment in its farmland, saying instead it was looking to ease restrictions for farmers rather than speculators.

Dans cette entrevue réalisée pour l’édition du Journal Sans Terre de janvier, l’ingénieur agronome et scientifique social Horácio Martins de Carvalho analyse en profondeur l’organisation de l’agrobusiness dans le monde et la place du Brésil dans cet ensemble. Pays pourvu du plus grand stock de terres cultivables, d’um climat favorable à la production et de gouvernements serviles, le Brésil se présente selon Horácio, comme le troisième pays sur la liste des priorités des grandes entreprises transnationales, qui contrôlent les marchés alimentaires et l’agro-énergie.

Interview réalisée par Joana Tavares, du Secteur de Communication du Mouvement des Travailleurs ruraux Sans Terre (MST).

Vadodara-based ACIL Cotton Industries today said it plans to invest nearly $15 million (Rs 68 crore) to start contract farming of crops like pulses and coffee in Brazil, Congo and Ethiopia.

The farming of crops including coffee, pulses, oilseeds, cereals, potato, sugarcane and vegetable would be undertaken on lease-hold agricultural land in these countries, it said.

ACIL also said that it will set up subsidiaries in these three countries and a consultant will be appointed to prepare a feasibility report on the planned agri-business.

Argentina Fences Off Land to Foreign Buyers,The Wall Street Journal,11.12.23
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204464404577117072741675152.html
BUENOS AIRES–Argentina has joined a handful of other big farming nations such as Brazil that have taken steps to limit foreign ownership of what their governments consider precious resources: farmland.
Argentina is blessed with vast tracks of arable land that have allowed the South American nation to become the top global exporter of soymeal and soyoil, No. 2 in corn, and third in soybean exports.
The abundance of land coupled with high prices for farm products has fueled a buying spree by U.S., Chinese and Saudi Arabian companies.
Earlier this year, China's largest farming company, Heilongjiang Beidahuang Nongken Group, said it would spend $1.5 billion to lease and develop farms on 300,000 hectares in Rio Negro Province. It also formed a joint venture with one of Argentina's top agricultural firms, Cresud SA, to buy land and farm soybeans.
But fearing that her country might lose control of its fields, leftist President Cristina Kirchner used her majority in Congress to pass legislation that could put an end to the land grab by foreign investors. The Senate approved the bill late Thursday night by an overwhelming majority of 62-1.
"This is the first time that Argentina takes this stance related to its sovereignty," said Maria Graciela De La Rosa, president of the Senate agriculture commission, during the debate.
The legislation, which now goes to Kirchner to be signed into law, caps ownership by a foreign individual or company at 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres). Existing holdings are exempt from the limits.
Also, no more than 15% of all the country's farmland can be in foreign hands, of which up to 30% can be owned by people or companies from the same nation.
About 7% of Argentina's productive farmland, some 20 million hectares, is already in foreign hands, according to the Argentine Agrarian Federation, an influential farm group that represents small-scale farmers.
Deutsche Bank analysts, in a report Friday, said even more–as much as 10%–of Argentina's land is already foreign owned.
However, the true extent of foreign holdings won't be clear until a survey of land ownership mandated by the new law is completed.
Most farming is still driven by local players and "the law shouldn't have a significant impact on the liquidity of the land market," Deutsche Bank said.
The almost-certain approval of the land bill and Argentina's notoriously uncertain regulatory environment didn't stop Almarai Co., the Middle East's top dairy producer, from paying $85 million this week for local operator Fondomonte to lock in feed supply for its cattle and poultry operations.
With that purchase, the Saudi Arabian company will own and operate three farms in Argentina, covering more than 12,000 hectares and producing barley, maize, soybean, wheat, sorghum and sunflower, according to the company's website.
However, the new law will stop new purchases by large regional farming companies such as New York-listed Adecoagro SA, which owns more than 295,000 hectares of farmland in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The company said it produces more than one million metric tons of corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, dairy products, sugar, ethanol and electricity a year.
While Adecoagro won't be able to snap up more fields in Argentina, more than half of the company's 255,000 hectares in Argentina are still being developed and will continue to increase in value, said Deutsche Bank, which confirmed its buy rating on the stock
Saudi dairy giant Almarai buys Argentina farm firm Fondomonte for $83 million to secure feed,The Washington Post,11.12.22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/saudi-dairy-giant-almarai-buys-argentina-farm-firm-fondomonte-for-83-million-to-secure-feed/2011/12/21/gIQA7Tju8O_story.html

Yet that is what Beidahuang Group, a state-owned farm company based in the north-eastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, is doing in the Patagonian province of Río Negro.

If it works, the Inter-American Development Bank-backed farming project will spread irrigation technology and expand the frontiers of Argentina’s chief cash crop out of the traditional soya belt in exchange for helping China lock in food supplies for its fast-growing population. ----------

China’s Top Farmer to Invest in Argentina’s Patagonian Winemaking, Corn,Bloomberg,11.6.9
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-08/beidahuang-will-invest-1-5-billion-on-patagonian-farms-that-it-won-t-own.html
Heilongjian Beidahuang Nongken Group Co., China’s biggest farming company, plans to invest $1.5 billion to develop farms and expand a port in southern Argentina to help guarantee food supplies for the next two decades.
The state-owned Chinese food producer will help finance wine, corn, soybean and vegetable production in 300,000 hectares (741,000 acres) of unused land in the arid Patagonian steppe in Rio Negro province, Maximiliano Bruno, the provincial economy development secretary, said yesterday at a press conference. China won’t buy land in Rio Negro, according to Bruno.---------

Global food crisis: China land deal causes unease in Argentina,The Guardian,11.6.1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/jun/01/china-land-deal-unease-argentina-agribusiness
中国アグリビジネス企業がパタゴニアの広大な大地を買収しようとしている。環境活動家等批判者は、企業が大量の農薬を使い、生態系を劣化させ、地域の水資源を乱用すると恐れている。

Mr. Tompkins says he envisions a string of national parks across the two nations, protecting wilderness and sustaining the region's biodiversity.

But his plan has fueled fear and mistrust in many residents long wary of deep-pocketed foreigners they suspect of offering little more than exploitation and neocolonialism.

----------The bill proposes a 1,000 hectare limit on foreign ownership but will not be retroactive---------

Argentina President Reiterates Plan To Limit Foreign Land Ownership,NASDAQ,11.4.20

Se entregarían 240 mil(240,000) hectáreas para el cultivo a la empresa estatal china Heilongjiang Beidahuang(黑龍江北大荒農墾集団). Antes de cosechar soja, el acuerdo ya cosecha críticas de parte de organizaciones comunitarias y ambientalistas. El gobierno provincial lo defiende.

BUENOS AIRES – The number of acres of land in the hands of foreigners in Argentina has almost tripled in the last 10 years, a phenomenon that is spreading to areas that are rich in natural resources and that is affecting small towns that are finding themselves enclosed within the domains of large landholders.
At the beginning of the 21st century, about 7 million hectares (17.5 million acres) were in the hands of foreigners, but this has increased in the past decade to 20 million hectares (50 million acres), according to Argentine Agrarian Federation, or FAA, figures.
The FAA is an association of small and medium farmers who now are demanding that a stop be put to this phenomenon.-----------

日本の豊田通商と昨年11月に包括提携を結んだアルゼンチンの穀物商社ニデラの農場において、未成年、児童を含めた農村労働者を劣悪な条件で働かせていたとして、アルゼンチン当局が強制捜査を行い、労働者を解放、現在告発に向けて調査を続けている。
アルゼンチンのパヒナ12紙に2011年1月2日他に掲載された記事は次のように伝えている。・・・・・・

外国資本による森林買収に関する調査の結果について　農林水産省・国土交通省　12.5.11
http://www.rinya.maff.go.jp/j/press/keikaku/120511.html
埼玉、森林売買を事前届け出に　水源地保全条例施行へ　東京新聞　12.3.26
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/s/article/2012032601000376.html
　水源となる森林の売買に事前届け出を義務付けた水源地域保全条例が２６日、埼玉県議会で可決、成立した。外国資本による森林買収が相次ぐ中、乱開発などで水源地が損なわれるのを防ぐ狙い。４月１日に施行され、事前届け出制は周知期間後の１０月１日からとなる。
　条例は県土の約３分の１に当たる森林を対象とし、所有者は契約の３０日前までに、売却先の氏名や住所、利用目的などを届ける必要がある。無届けや虚偽の届け出には県が勧告を行い、従わない場合は公表する。
　取引を事前に把握することで、利用目的や水源地への影響などを調べ、不適切と判断すれば所有者に助言する。（共同）

外資が農林地買収　地元に荒廃の危機感 日本農業新聞　12.3.21
http://www.agrinews.co.jp/modules/pico/index.php?content_id=13250
　日本の森林や農地に外国資本の手が伸びてきた。しかし外国の企業や個人による買収がどれだけ進み、どう利用されているのか、行政は把握できていなのが実情だ。森林や農地としての管理や利用が行われていない実態もあるという。地元では、農林地が荒廃するとの懸念が高まっている。
　北海道倶知安町役場の担当者が町の地図を広げる。中心部からスキー場につながる道路を指さしながら説明を始めた。「道路脇に広がる森林は、相当高い確率で外資に買い占められている」
　外資による森林の取得は、同町で４００ヘクタール（２０１１年６月現在）になるが、利用状況は調べていない。合法的な買収で把握する理由がない上に「件数が多く把握し切れない」（企画振興課）。
　倶知安町や隣のニセコ町の不動産業者によると、中国やニュージーランドなど外資による土地買収が目立ち始めたのはここ５年。影響で、倶知安町のスキー場のある場所は１１年の公示地価の上昇率が全国トップの水準だった。
　買収の目的について不動産業者は、ペンションの建設、投資などとみるが、明確なことは分からない。倶知安町によると、書類には大半が「資産保有のため」と記されているという。
　地元のようてい森林組合の船場實組合長は「むやみに買収されたら困る」と戸惑う。外資が買収した森林は、同組合が立ち入って管理することはできない。船場組合長は「山を守る視点がない人でも買えるという今の状況を改善しなければ、森林が崩壊してしまう」と危機感を募らせる。
　農地も外資の買収対象になっている。買収交渉を進めているという倶知安町の不動産業者は「条件の良い農地を転用して買いたいという要望が増えている」と明かす。
　北海道が１１年に行った緊急調査では、外国の企業や個人に販売されていた農地は２１５ヘクタールに上る。「外資が農地取得を進める動きがあるのは確かだ」と道庁農地調整課。外資系企業が農業生産法人を設立したり、申請時には外国人と分からなかったりするケースがある。いずれも農業での利用を目的とし書類上は農地法に適合した売買だが、使われているのか不透明な農地もある。
　道は昨年５月、農地購入者の実態を把握するため、本籍地や在留資格も調査するよう各農業委員会に通知した。農林地の買収が進む現状について、倶知安町などを管内に持つＪＡようてい管理電算課の古屋薫課長は「農家の高齢化が進み後継者がいない中、法にのっとった好条件の買収話が出れば売るのは仕方ない。地主の農家は責められない」とした上で、「懸念はあるが、対策の取りようがない」と困惑する。
　財務省によると、外国人ら「非居住者による投資目的の土地取得」面積は、林地を中心に全国で３７４６ヘクタール（０７年４月～１０年１２月）。北海道が中心だが、東京財団の調査では、外資による農林地の買収は全国的に広まっている。しかし、面積の推移が分かる政府の継続的な統計はない。
　森林総合研究所の平野秀樹理事は「農地も買収対象になっており、データが示す面積は氷山の一角。自治体と国が協力し、まずは実態把握に乗り出すべきだ」と指摘する。
・森林で規制強化　農地の対応に遅れも
　外国の企業　や個人が農林地　の買収を進める中、森林については政府や自治体が相次いで規制強化に乗り出す。林野庁は４月以降、面積にかかわらず林地の購入は　市町村に届け出を義務付ける。北海道と埼玉県も、土地を売　買する前に届け出を義務付け　る条例を整備する。議員立法で「水循環基本法案」の今国会への提出を　目指す動きもある。ただ、外資による農地の買収に行政・政治の対応は遅れている。
　林野庁は昨年の森林法改正で今年４月から、林地の所有者に対し、面積にかかわらず購入後９０日以内に市町村長に届け出ることを義務付ける。現在、１ヘクタール以上の土地を売買した場合は国土利用計画法に基づき届け出を義務付けているが、１ヘクタール未満は届け出の必要はなかった。同庁は「外資による森林買収に加え、不在地主の問題が顕在化する中、対策が必要と考えた」（森林整備部）と理由を説明する。
　北海道は「水資源保全条例案」を道議会に提出しており、２３日にも成立する見込みだ。市町村長が上水道の取水地点とその周辺を「水資源保全地域」に選び、道が指定する。指定地域の土地を売買する際、売り主は取引の３カ月前までに、土地取得者の名前や目的を届け出る仕組みだ。
　水源地周辺　の土地が外国資本　に買収される事例が全国で相次　いでいることを受けて埼玉県も、土地取引の事前届け出を柱とする「水源地域保全条例案」を県議会に提出、２６日にも成立する見込みだ。県内で外資による買収事例はないが、ミネラルウ　オーターの取水地などが多く、土地取得者の名前や利用目的、面積などを事前に県が把握できるようにした。
　党派を超えて国会議員も動きだした。水を「国民共有の財産」と位置付け、水源地周辺の乱開発などを防ごうと、今国会に「水循環基本法案」の提出を目指している。
・省庁横断で法整備を　識者インタビュー　東京財団　吉原祥子研究員
　外国企業などによる土地売買の問題について実態調査や政策提言を行っている東京財団の吉原祥子研究員に課題や対策を聞いた。
　―――外国資本による林地の買収をどう見ますか。
　外国人による買収を問題視しているのではない。誰でも森林を買えるという日本の土地制度の不備に問題の根幹がある。土地という公共財を単なる経済活動の対象として扱い、利益のために投資できる仕組みを改善しなければならない。
　―――農地も外資による買収が進んでいます。
　農地は売買が規制され、農業委員会が利用状況をチェックする機能があるが、実態として劣化は否めない。農地制度や台帳があるからといって、農地が安心できる資源ではなくなっている。
　不動産業者など異業種が農地取得　に参入する場合、子会社として農業生産法人をつくったり、既存の農業生産　法人を買収したりするケースも少なくなく、それを転売するなどして農地をグローバルな企業が買い進められる状況にある。農林地の売買集約化が進めば、まとまった資産となる。
　地元の農業委員会だけで対応するのは難しく、いったん買収されれば、買い戻すのは困難だ。だが、外資の農地売買に関して国の危機意識は非常に薄い。
　―――先進国ではどう規制していますか。
　米国は連邦法で、外国人らによる農地、森林の取得について農務長官への届け出を義務付けている。ブラジルやアルゼンチンなどの南米、オーストラリア、ニュージーランドでも、外国人の土地所有化の規制強化を進めている。
　日本は「土地は公共財」という意識が欠如している。日本の土地制度は、諸外国に比べてあまりに無防備だ。
　―――北海道や埼玉県は条例整備、林野庁も森林法を改正し土地取得の届け出を義務付けました。
　一定の抑止力にはなるが、森林法改正はあくまで土地を取得した後に把握するだけ。その点、条例化は国の一歩先を行くものだ。土地の売買を事前に把握できる意義は大きいが、政府が仕組みをつくらなければ、外資による売買の流れに歯止めはかけられない。
　―――対策はありますか。
　外国資本かどうかにかかわらず、土地への投資が地域の活性化をもたらす側面もある。そのため外資を規制するのではなく、行政の目が行き届かない土地売買が加速していることに手を打つ必要がある。今の状況では乱開発が進められても、地元は丸腰で対応するしかない。
　防衛省の所管する建物周辺、農地や水源など、守らなければならない土地を明確化し、そうした土地の売買への規制が求められる。省庁横断で法整備を早急に進めるべきだ。国として把握すべき情報を把握する制度設計が必要だ。
　

The farmer co-operative has signed an agreement with the Government of Yutian County to develop a dairy farm worth RMB260 million ($47.6 million) in Hebei Province.
Fonterra said the farm was the next step in its strategy to build a high-quality, sustainable fresh milk supply for customers in China.

KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Holdings, the world's largest estate owner, is in talks to buy up to 90,000ha of land across South-East Asia to tap into growing global demand for rubber and palm oil, and boost profits, its top official said yesterday.

Managing director Sabri Ahmad said Felda Holdings, which managed estates under the Federal Reserve Land Authority, was approached to plant oil palm in Africa but might hold back as the political scenario needed to be studied.

“There are people asking us to invest in Africa but we want to take the step of providing management, knowledge and planting material first because a lot of the big boys are rushing in,” Sabri told Reuters ahead of the Bursa Palm Oil Conference next week.

“We are looking closer to Malaysia and Indonesia for palm oil, and Cambodia and Myanmar for rubber,” he said.

Sabri's comments contrast with the moves of big planters such as Singapore-listed Wilmar and Golden Agri Resources as well as Malaysia's Sime Darby that are rushing to take up land in the west African region.

Felda is the world's largest estate owner and manager, with 880,000 ha of land. Reuters

Villagers vs bulldozers,Phnom Penh Post,12.5.21
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052156285/National-news/villagers-vs-bulldozers.html
One hundred and thirty-five ethnic Kouy families from the Brame, Srae Preang and Bos Tom villages in Preah Vihear’s Tbeng Meanchey district gathered on Saturday and yesterday to protest the Lan Feng Company’s alleged bulldozing of their farmland.
Phan Suket, 23, the representative of the 135 families, said that Lan Feng Company employed 10 bulldozers to level their farmland – consisting of one roughly 600-square-metre plot per family – to make way for a sugar plantation.
“Their [the Kouy’s] living is dependent on cultivation, but now the company bulldozed their farmland,” he said. “So how do our next generations survive without farmland?”
Khan Chern, one of the Kouy villagers from Brame village, said that nearly a half-hectare of his farmland was bulldozed and taken without payment, and that the bulldozers only stopped after villagers went to ask local authorities to intervene.
Pich Theara, 42, one of Lan Feng Company’s two foremen who allegedly levelled the area, denied bulldozing any of the villagers’ farmland.
“I was employed to bulldoze the company’s land, an area 20 metres wide and 5,500 metres long, but I accidentally drove the car across their rice field,” he said. “We neither damaged their plants, nor their rice field, because they had not been ploughed or sowed.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen has issued an immediate and indefinite moratorium on the granting of new economic land concessions and called for a review of all existing concessions, a regulation signed by the premier yesterday states.
Dated to an April 27 Council of Ministers’ meeting, the new regulation specifically threatens the seizure of concessions that are left undeveloped along with a range of other transgressions.
“For the companies that have already received permission in principle from the royal government, but have not … developed on the land, have been doing commercial logging, invaded additional land, sold off parts of their concession land, conducted illegal exploitation [for minerals], or grabbed additional land off people and communities, the Royal Government will seize back all those economic land concessions,” the regulation states.
The regulation also stipulates that a private company must abide by the so-called tiger formula of development, meaning if a firm is granted a concession that includes land within a community, it cannot develop that land.
Earlier this year, the Post reported that the premier made broad threats to remove concessions from companies that could not resolve ongoing land disputes, but no action was taken against any firms, despite a continuation of the protests and violence.
While the regulation marks the government’s first legal action to address the endemic turmoil caused by the current method of granting and monitoring ELCs, details on its implementation were thin yesterday.
It was unclear when, or what, would cause the moratorium to be lifted or how the review of existing land concessions would be conducted.
Council of Ministers’ spokesman Ek Tha said he had not yet read the regulation, but that the technical work would depend on the relevant ministries.
“Whatever my prime minister says, we respect and we execute. This is a must,” Ek Tha said. “It shows the government’s strong commitment to accountability and transparency and sustainable economic development.”
However, civil society representatives who have long called for a moratorium on ELCs were sceptical, saying the move had more to do with the government’s commitment to staying in power than accountability.
The premier’s announcement comes after the highly publicised murder of forestry activist Chut Wutty and several violent land evictions and disputes this year.
It also comes just ahead of upcoming commune and national elections and a one-week fact finding mission in the Kingdom by UN Special Rapporteur Surya Subedi, who is focusing on economic and other land concessions.
Subedi told the Post yesterday that he very much welcomed the regulation, “especially coming at a time when I am focusing on these issues”.
“I understand that Cambodia as a developing country needs to have ELCs to address poverty and accelerate the process of equitable economic development,” Subedi said by email. “But they should be granted and managed within a sound legal and policy framework, including respect for people’s rights.
“Cambodia has many good laws and regulations, but many of them are not properly implemented,” he said, adding he would continue to monitor the situation of those affected by ELCs in the Kingdom.
Mathieu Pellerin, consultant for rights group Licadho, welcomed the long-called-for moratorium, but said it was “the first step in a very, very long process”.
“With the moratorium must come the review,” Pellerin told the Post yesterday. “I think the government has the means and the resources, and if there is a real political will, it [the government] will conduct a meaningful review.
“But we are weeks away from a commune election – are we dealing with an honest initiative or a government telling people what they think they want to hear?” Pellerin said.
“We cannot overlook that everything is happening within the context of two big elections.”
Election monitor Comfrel’s executive director Koul Panha said the regulation was “undoubtedly” linked to the upcoming election and that similar promises were made at the last national elections in 2007 and 2008.
“There have already been lots of promises, this time they must produce policy, something specific, and a concrete policy to ban ELCs is exactly what is needed,” Koul Panha said. “This issue has been so highly publicised that the government had to do something in response.”
Pen Bonnar, Adhoc coordinator for Ratankkiri, one of the provinces most affected by ELCs, said he, and the people of Ratankkiri, would be very happy to hear no more ELCs would be granted there.
Nonetheless, he said the government’s biggest task will be to conduct a proper review of existing ELCs.
“Most, more than half, of the ELC holders in Ratanakkiri do not respect people’s rights, and the companies just plunder the forests,” Pen Bonnar said.
The UN’s Subedi visited Ratanakkiri, as well as Kratie and Stung Treng, as part of his fact-finding mission into land concessions.
Cambodian Economic Association president Chan Sophal said the moratorium would have no affect on the Cambodian economy because concessions are technically granted for free and therefore the government does not generate any substantial amount of money from a concession once it was granted.
“There might be a small processing fee paid by companies, but this is very small in comparison to their revenue, and it is not a formal fee paid to the government,” Chan Sophal said.
“It will be better for the Cambodian economy if there are no more grants – it will stop all the problems for the government with these matters,” Chan Sophal said.

Landgrab protested: Villagers vow to block road again,Phnom Penh Post,12.4.2
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012040255368/National-news/landgrab-protested-villagers-vow-to-block-road-again.html
After a successful blockade on Saturday, villagers in Kratie province’s Snuol district have pledged to shut down traffic on National Road 76A again if local authorities do not honour their promise to help settle a local land dispute.
About 500 villagers from Pithnou commune barricaded the public road for nearly 10 hours at the weekend in the hope of forcing an intervention in the battle for their land.
Iv Saphum, Snuol district governor, confirmed that the provincial and district authorities had caved in to the protesters’ demands in order to get traffic flowing again.
The protesters are locked in a dispute with four private firms they accuse of clearing their land since April 2011.
They say that the Memot rubber company, Sovan Rithy, Samnang Angkor and Dai Nam began evicting villagers as long ago as 2002.
A source from the district authority said that the firms implicated by the villagers in the land grab were officially awarded an economic land concession of 5,000 to 8,000 hectares by the government in 2008 for rubber plantations.
Heng Oun, a representative for the Pithnou commune, explained that the villagers had reopened the road on Saturday in response to assurances from the authority that the disagreement will be solved on Tuesday.
However, they are taking nothing for granted.
“The villagers have made a tent so that they can stay on the side of the road wait until April 3. If there is no solution, we will form a bigger protest to block the road again,” he said.
The great land giveaway,Phnom Penh Post,12.3.23
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032355211/National-news/the-great-land-giveaway.html
More than 2 million of the Kingdom’s nearly 18 million hectares of land – roughly 12 per cent – was given out to 225 private companies in economic concessions last year, according to an annual report released by rights group Adhoc yesterday.
The concessions put 606 communities at risk of eviction, the report states.
Adhoc president Thun Saray said yesterday at the report’s release that the 2,276,349 hectares of land concessions were distributed to companies by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to be used for agro-industry development.
“This shows that Cambodia barely has any more land to grant as an economic land concession. In one year, the government granted over 1 million hectares to private companies like this,” he said.
“How will we have any to leave for the younger generation?”
Thun Saray also noted that the total acreage of land concessions doled out in the past year was likely much larger than the 2.2 million figure, since that number did not reflect land concessions made by other ministries.
Such land concessions were a major source of anger for villagers, he said, since “the government never evaluates the social and environmental impact and fails to comply with the land law”.
Village protests to land grabs resulted in the arrests of 95 residents, the detainment of 48 people and the death of one man, Thun Sary said.
Forced evictions
ore than 400 villagers received criminal charges in such protests, nearly a 50 per cent increase from the previous year, he added, criticising the courts as a “tool” for “powerful” companies and people “to take over villagers’ land”.
Meanwhile, forced evictions affected 127 of the Kingdom’s 733 communities in 2011, the Adhoc president said, pointing out the close ties that many firms receiving concessions had with the government. In Phnom Penh alone, more than 30,000 families were evicted.
“All the places that evict people were taken over by private companies that have close relationships with powerful people, and some companies are even owned by senior government officers,” Thun Saray said.
Ny Chakrya, head of land rights and natural resources for Adhoc, said the unemployment rate doubled for villagers that had been evicted.
This forced many to look abroad for work, Thun Saray said.
“The government always tells people not to cross the border illegally to work abroad, but it doesn’t understand that when villagers lose their land and job, they have to work abroad to support themselves,” he said.
"Serious consequences"
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries spokesman Hong Narith said yesterday that he did not know how Adhoc arrived at its numbers and instructed interested parties to review the MAFF website, which he said contained updated information.
However, figures on that website were only available through to April 2010 and said that up until that point, the Ministry had made land concessions to 85 companies totalling 956,690 hectares.
Thuk Kroeun Vuth, secretary of state at the Ministry of Environment, said yesterday that he was unaware of Adhoc’s report, but that in general, land concessions were not a cause for concern.
“We still have a lot of land. Don’t worry, the government has a clear plan of what to do and which places to develop and which places to conserve,” he said.
However, opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son Chhay told the Post that land concessions had “serious consequences,” including the “destruction” of land and the “suffer[ing]” of villagers.
“Land concessions are illegal acts of the government and part of the major corruption within the system,” he said. “We have to put a stop on this activity so future concessions must not be conducted.”
Ny Chakrya advocated a system in which the government sells land to villagers instead of private firms.
“Instead of renting the land to the company at only $19 per hectare, if the government rents to villagers at $150 per hectare, the government still makes a profit and the villagers keep their land,” he said.
It Nody, undersecretary of state at MAFF, declined to comment yesterday, saying he was busy in a meeting, while Beng Hong Socheat, spokesman for the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, could not be reached for comment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To contact the reporter on this story: May Titthara at may.titthara@phnompenhpost.com
With assistance from Kristin Lynch
To contact the editor for this story: Chad Williams at chad.williams@phnompenhpost.com

Villagers decry firm’s bulldozing,Phnom Penh Post,12.2.3
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012020354300/National-news/villagers-decry-firms-bulldozing.html
Nearly 200 residents of eight villages in Banteay Meanchey province’s Thma Puok district and Oddar Meanchey province’s Banteay Ampil district protested yesterday against a private agro-development company they say is bulldozing their property.
Pov Sopheap, land activist with the Cambodian Centre for Human rights, said that a crowd of 170 villagers blocked machines of the Cheat Aphiwat Co Ltd from razing land yesterday in Banteay Meanchey province’s Banteay Chhmar commune.
This is the fifth such protest that has occurred against the firm since the government granted it a 99-year lease in 2009 to develop a 6,000 hectare plantation, he said.
“Some villagers cursed the company owing to its non-stop bulldozing,” he said.
Although two company soldiers “threatened” the villagers with AK-47 rifles, he said, “there was no shooting”.
After local authorities intervened, villagers returned to their homes and the company “promised to stop bulldozing” until a resolution was reached, he added.
Thma Puok district deputy police chief Luch Chantho confirmed that the villagers had ended their demonstration following police intervention.
“The villagers followed my suggestions and stopped protesting in order to wait for a solution from the local authorities who are examining the size of impact,” he said.
Fifty-year-old villager Yern Sukhorn, who was part of the protest, said the company had already decimated a hectare of her land.
“I do not want any compensation, all I want is the return of my land,” she said.
Representatives of Cheat Aphiwat Co Ltd could not be reached for comment yesterday.

More than 200 villagers from four villages in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district gathered yesterday to ask Samrong Rubber Industries to stop bulldozing their farmland.
Foreign joint venture eyes banana farming in Koh Kong province,Phnom Penh Post,1.25
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012012554122/Business/foreign-joint-venture-eyes-banana-farming-in-koh-kong-province.html
A Japanese firm and an Australian company planned to invest more than US$35 million in a banana plantation, a factory and a port in Koh Kong province, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said yesterday.
Australia-based Indochina Gateway Capital and Japan’s Sumifru Corporation would jointly invest in banana cultivation in the province’s Thma Baing district, MAFF plann-ing office director Por Ratana said.

Unnamed companies were last month granted more than 26,000 hectares of land in two wildlife sanctuaries for agro-industry projects, the latest Royal Book reveals.
According to the publication, which lists all sub-decrees issued by the government, Prime Minister Hun Sen last month signed over 25,729 hectares of land in the Kulen Prumtep Wildlife Sanctuary protection area in Preah Vihear, Siem Reap and Oddar Meanchey, and 760 hectares of land in the Boeung Per Wildlife Sanctuary in Preah Vihear and Kampong Thom.
Von Theoun, director of the Boeung Per Wildlife Sanctuary, said 14 companies were already developing about 150,000 hectares in the area.
The government had proided the latest land as economic land concession, but had not allowed the conservation area to be developed, he said.
Farmland face-off: Weekend land protest draws 100,The Phnom Penh Post,11.12.19
ABOUT 100 villagers in Kratie province’s Sambor district embroiled in a land dispute with a local company yesterday continued a roughly 200-strong protest held over the weekend to demand that company representatives stop clearing their farmland.
Ke Khy, 55, a representative of residents in Yeav village in Kampong Cham commune, said yesterday that villagers from about 30 families living on roughly 110 hectares of land began protesting on Friday.
“We just want to protect our land, so [the company] has to stop to clearing our land and find a resolution [for us],” he said.
Chhun Hong Rubber Better Company was granted a 70-year economic land concession from the government in 2008 on 8,202 hectares of land in Kampong Cham commune in order to develop rubber plantations.
Company director Ty Piseth could not be reached for comment yesterday.
District governor Seng Sotha said that he had requested the company stop clearing land in order to seek a resolution to the dispute, which he would ask his officials to investigate.

The government has granted more than 7 million hectares of land to private companies through concessions since 2008, with 222 private companies claiming more than 2 million hectares alone in economic land concessions, rights group Adhoc said yesterday.
Ouch Leng, head of Adhoc’s land program, said that data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and government sub-decrees revealed that the government had granted about 2,153,408 hectares in economic land concessions to private companies.
He added that the total figure reached 7,021,771 hectares out of a total 17,651,500 hectares in the Kingdom since 2008, if mining and forest concessions for logging purposes are included.
“If we add all the concessions, including forest concessions and mining concessions, the government granted about 7,021,771 hectares,” he said, adding that about 1,101,080 hectares awarded were classified as protected land.
Ouch Leng said that the government had granted about 3,400,000 hectares in forest concessions and 1,468,363 hectares in mining concessions.
“In 2011, the government granted more land in protected areas than in previous years, now we are left with about 386,294 hectares of land and about 664,624 hectares of forest land [in protected areas],”
he said. “Our land is nearly finished; the government should stop providing economic land concessions to private companies.”
He added that if the government did not stop awarding the land concessions, there would be no resolution to land disputes and the land protest movement would continue.
Ou Virak, director of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, said that it was surprising the government had granted so much land to private firms and that the concessions affected many people, including ethnic minorities who had lost their traditional farmland. “It does not just affect people, our forests are also destroyed,” he said.
Chut Wutty, director of NGO Natural Resource Protection Group, said that rubber plantations in particular had grown in popularity and private companies planted rubber trees without thinking about natural resources. “[Concessions] have a serious impact on our villagers of whom 80 per cent depend on rice farming,” he said.
Chan Tong Yives, secretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said yesterday that he was not sure how much land the government had granted to private companies and referred questions to the Ministry’s under secretary of state Ith Nody.
“I think that report is not true, we don’t give that much land,” he said.
Ith Nody declined to comment.

Scope of land evictions revealed,Phnom Penh Post,11.8.16
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011081651065/National-news/scope-of-land-evictions-revealed.html
Victims of land disputes nationwide are being encouraged to unite, as figures released yesterday highlighted the magnitude of what is often referred to as an “epidemic of land grabbing”.
Ownership of at least 5 percent of all land in Cambodia was a matter of dispute between 2007 and 2011, according to a study by the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights.
CCHR presented the findings of its study on land conflicts in Cambodia at a press conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. As many as 47,000 families had been or could be affected by land conflict cases, some of which are ongoing, covered in the study.
The study, which was restricted to publicly available information, found that there had been 223 land conflict cases from 2007 to 2011. These comprised 165 reported land grabs and 66 evictions. More than 9,000 square kilometres of land had been confiscated during the period, the study found.----------
Malaysian interest up in Cambodia's land concessions,Phnom Penh Post,11.7.29
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011072950711/Business/malaysian-interest-up-in-cambodias-land-concessions.html

MALAYSIAN company Golden Land Bhd will apply for two palm oil plantations in Koh Kong province, which would make it the second firm to commercially grow the product in Cambodia.
“Application of the concession right represents a strategic investment by [Golden Land] which will significantly increase the land-banks available,” it said in filings on the Bursa Malaysia.
Golden Land aims to acquire a 10,922-hectare and an 11,827-hectare palm-oil plantation, both in the Sre Ambel district of Koh Kong province.
Palm oil is edible and is mostly used in food production.
Two companies – operated by Golden Land’s subsidiaries - will be created and registered in Cambodia with the Ministry of Commerce to apply for concession rights. ---------

GOLDEN Land Bhd’s unit has signed an agency agreement for a concession rights application on a 11,827ha site in Koh Kong province in Cambodia.
The application of the right represents a strategic investment by Golden Land that will see its land-bank increase significantly for palm oil cultivation.
The agent will submit all the necessary application for the land which is leased from the Cambodian government for agricultural investment.

MALAYSIAN businesses are searching for opportunities in Cambodia following a high-profile visit of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak last year, the Malaysian ambassador in Phnom Penh has said.----------
He added: “We want to find 1,6000 hectares of land for palm oil plantation and processing. We have a big plantation in Malaysia and also have plantations in Indonesia with capital investment of about $200 million.” ACCCIM signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federation of the Association for Small & Medium Enterprise in Cambodia yesterday morning “recognising the immense possibilities of promoting trade and investment for their respective business communities”.

About 34 villagers from Koh Kong’s Kiri Sakor district staged a non-violent protest against a Chinese development firm that attempted to clear villagers’ land this week without providing any compensation, according to district Governor Chheng Chhek.
China’s state-owned Union Development Group planned to develop 36,000 hectares of land and invest about US$3.8 billion in an ecotourism development project, which could affect more than 1,000 families in Botum Sakor and Kiri Sakor districts.
Chheng Chhek said the firm used excavators to clear villagers’ farmland beginning on Sunday and that he asked the provincial governor to find a resolution because the villagers were living there legally and were authorised by local officials.

SOME 800 people in Kampong Thom province’s Santuk district staged a protest against a Korean rubber company yesterday, claiming that the firm is trying to clear their trees and farmland without offering any compensation. ----------

Korean BNA (Cam) Corp received a 7,500-hectare land concession from the Cambodian government in September 2009 as part of a project aimed at developing rubber and cassava crops. The lease for the property was set at 70 years.---------

CAMBODIA’S first biofuel production plant has pushed its restart back until at least July, as the high prices of cassava continues to halt company plans, according to company officials.

Govt to offer corn plantation areas to foreigners,The Manila Times,11.6.8
http://www.manilatimes.net/business/govt-to-offer-corn-plantation-areas-to-foreigners/
THE Philippines will open new corn plantation areas to foreign investors to address a looming supply shortfall and achieve self-sufficiency, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Tuesday.

Int’l group probes alleged land-grab by foreign firms,Inquirer,11.6.5（日本・台湾－フィリピン）
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/12098/int%E2%80%99l-group-probes-alleged-land-grab-by-foreign-firms
An international fact-finding team is in the country to investigate the alleged land-grabbing by Philippine, Japanese and Taiwanese companies of some 11,000 hectares from indigenous peoples in Isabela to build the biggest bio-ethanol project in the Philippines.----------
At the forefront of the bio-ethanol project is Green Future Innovations Inc. which plans to put up a 54–million liter ethanol plant in San Mariano that will cost $120 million dollars.
The bio-ethanol production plant will use sugarcane as feedstock that will be sourced from a nearby 11,000-ha sugar plantation.
Green Future Innovations is a venture between Japanese companies Itochu Corp. and JGC Corp. Joining them are Philippine Bioethanol and Energy Investments Corp. and GCO, a holding company from Taiwan.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 12, 2011) – Philippine communist rebels on Tuesday accused a Japanese subsidiary of grabbing lands from local farmers in Mindanao.
The rebels also warned they would fight for the rights of the farmers in Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato provinces where the Sumitomo Fruits Philippines, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Japan, is planning to expand its banana plantations.
The Valentin Palamine Regional Operations Command of the New People’s Army condemned the alleged spate of land grabbing in the provinces. The rebels said in South Cotabato province alone, the company has over 5,000 hectares and still expanding.
They also accused police and military commanders of colluding with the Sumitomo Fruits and said the security forces had reportedly killed some leaders of the Barangay Integrated Farmers Association against Crime in Sultan Kudarat’s Palimbang town.
With an aggregate of no less than 25,000 hectares in the island of Mindanao and with enough armed backing from the police, the local government and the US-Aquino regime, Sumifru’s expansion seems insatiable and unstoppable,” said Dencio Madrigal, a rebel spokesman.----------

Investors from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain are currently planning to inrease investment in the agriculture sector of the Philippines as part of their government’s food security programmes.

Speaking to 'Emirates 24|7', Jose MAS Dinsay, Commercial Attache, UAE and Qatar, Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines, said: “Saudi Arabia is coming in a big way to invest in agricultural projects in the Philippines. The joint venture agro production projects will attract GCC investors who have capital and fertilisers, a major bye product of the petroleum industry in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other oil producing Gulf countries.”

Jose said Davo, located in the Mindano region of the Philippines, is a major agricultural centre, mainly producing rice and bananas.The principal crops of Dova province include rice, maize, banana, coconut, abaca, ramie, coffee and a variety of fruits and root crops.

Saudi investors are investing in a joint ventures to produce basmati rice, yellow corn, bananas and pineapple in about 5,000 hectares in the Davao Del Narte province of Philippines, an area free from major natural calamities such as typhoons and floods, he said. The projects are usually 60-40 joint ventures, he added.

Gil B Herico, Agriculture Attache, Philippine Consulate, Dubai, said negotiations have been going on between the Phlippines and the UAE to increase food production, as part of the overall food security campaign in the region.

"Bahrain currently produces bananas in 1,000 hectares of land in the Philippines and Kuwait investors are looking at 1,000 acres for rice cultivation,” he added.

"Our Governments strategy is to become self sufficient in rice production within three years and we are keen to join hands with the GCC investors who have enough capital and other resources for commercial cultivation,” he added.

“One major factor that our government is considering is the fertiliser supply from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. These investors can also bring capital intensive machinery to improve garniture yield,” he added.

----------According to the local government, the sugarcane plantations will only cover idle lands not previously planted with food crops. But the NFFSM area visit and local testimonies revealed that these lands are cultivated lands and previously planted with palay, corn and banana.
Farmers and IPs also expressed that one of the rosy promises of the land lease deal offered by the proponents of bio-ethanol project is that a farmer who will devote his land for the production of sugarcane as feedstock will receive a land rent of P20,000 per year. But in reality, it is now reduced to a measly P5,000 per year which is not enough

DAVAO CITY, Feb. 23 (PNA) –- A Korean firm is eyeing this city for developing vast agricultural lands for vegetable production.

City agriculturist Leonardo Avila III said the Koregon Seed Company based in South Korea met with Mayor Sara Duterte in September and November last year and expressed their desire to work with farmers in Davao City in relation to production of vegetables.

He said the Korean company will be the one to bring their vegetable seeds for production to identified farmlands in Davao City.

In their meeting with the mayor, they agreed that the Korean firm will bring also Korean agricultural technicians to validate and assess the soil in potential vegetable farmlands.

Avila said the City Agriculturist Office (CAO) has brought the Korean company representatives to some potential farmlands that include a 40-hectare farmland in Barangay Mandug, Buhangin district as one of the possible options that can be developed by the company into a vegetable production area.

With this, Avila sees the significance of strengthening the development of Davao City as an agri-business center.

He said there is also the need to step up efforts to establish potential markets in preparation for the huge vegetable production project with the Korean company. (PNA)

The Indonesian Farmers Union has said that the number of land conflicts across the nation multiplied by more than five times this year to 120 cases, compared with 22 cases recorded last year.
“This data excludes the land conflict in Bima [West Nusa Tenggara],” Union leader Henry Saragih said Thursday as quoted by tempo.co, referring to a clash between protesters and local police which led to the deaths of two protesters on Saturday.
Henry said many of the conflicts, which have involved farmers, private companies, mining and farming companies, drinking water companies and state-owned enterprises, have become protracted and with no resolution being achieved.
“That’s why farmers have to face problems like arrests, evictions and shootings,” he said.
The union’s national strategy analysis department chief, Yakub, said the land conflicts were triggered by diminishing land areas and a lack of land reforms.
Yakub said the National Land Agency recorded 2,791 land disputes this year.
“The cases were mostly related to land acquisitions, which resulted in human rights violations,” he said.
The union has urged the government, therefore, to issue a regulation on land reform to prevent such conflicts from happening in the future. (swd)
Sumatran Tribe Say Lands Stolen for Palm Oil,The Jakarta Globe,11.9.19
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/sumatran-tribe-say-lands-stolen-for-palm-oil/466412

The government has responded to the impending food crisis by developing a food estate in the Papua regency of Merauke (MIFEE). The question is whether the food estate concept is really helping Indonesian out of the crisis? Or is it creating a new crisis?

* Sime to develop Liberian estates over 15 years (adds palm oil price movements in paragraph 7)

Farmers point finger at thirsty cash crops for water shortage,Bangkok Post,12.4.19
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/289381/farmers-point-finger-at-thirsty-cash-crops-for-water-shortage
　→タイ　外部投資家の換金作物プランテーションが水を収奪、ターク県米農家が存亡の危機
Outside investors are growing roses, maize and potatoes and leaving locals high and dry
The problem has become more and more severe over the past few years, Mr Yotin said.
The 42-year-old farmer from tambon Chong Kheb blamed rapid expansion of large mono-crop plantations in the locality for causing the water crisis.
He said agribusiness investors from other provinces recently came to the district and leased locals' farmland for large cash crop plantations. They grow roses, maize and potatoes, which consume large amounts of water, Mr Yotin said.
"There have been no water shortages in the past. There was always enough water supply for the villagers' farmland," he said.
"But the situation has changed. There is less and less water supply because those rich farmers install water pumping machines and pump all the water from natural sources to feed their farms."
Phop Phra is known to be the country's largest rose production base.
Sompong Sribua, chief of Chong Kheb tambon administrative organisation, said drought hit the tambon every year as the demand for water continued to rise because of the area's increasing population.
There are only 12,000 registered residents in the tambon, but there are more than 100,000 non-registered residents living in the locality, with 80% of them from Myanmar, he said.
The TAO had set aside a budget of at least 4 million baht to deal with the water shortage each year, Mr Sompong said.
Water trucks will be sent out to distribute water to needy households.
"I am afraid the growing amount of people and agricultural land will worsen the water shortage," he said.
The TAO is looking for other sources of water for residents.
Initially, they planned to divert water from Um Piem River, which is about 50km from the tambon. However, they had to scrap the project as the river is situated in a watershed area where all activities that would affect the ecological system are banned.
Mr Sompong said the TAO planned to build a water pump station to pump water from the Ping River instead. The TAO might have to buy coal from Myanmar for use as fuel to run the water pumps, he said.
The TAO also plans to construct a medium-sized reservoir to hold water during droughts and reduce the flood impact in the rainy season.
Lamphun Manainil, a member of the Ping River committee in Tak province, urged the government to fully implement a forest conservation policy because Tak's forests are the headwater of the Mae Klong River.
"The government has not taken care of watershed areas in the province. The Bhumibol dam, the country's biggest dam, is located in our province, but Tak villagers are still facing a water shortage," Mr Lamphun said.
He also urged agencies to regulate cash crop plantations in the province as the activities consume large amounts of water.
All nine districts of Tak have been declared drought disaster zones.
The northern province's struggling farmers can only hope for salvation.

On peasants’ day, farmers vow to oppose agri-corporatism,Pakistan Today,12.4.18

Corporate farming: Fair trade? Well, not really because we’re giving our land away,The Exprss Tribune,11.8.1
http://tribune.com.pk/story/221443/corporate-farming-fair-trade-well-not-really-because-were-giving-our-land-away/
There is something about big business that makes people nervous. They think of faceless corporations taking over. The small worker or business owner becomes invisible and is pushed to the margins by men in suits who rake in the profits which are not the fruit of their own labour.

One branch of this phenomenon is corporate farming, which as its name suggests is big business owning farms. Is this a good idea for a place like Sindh, asked a few experts in an attempt on Saturday to initiate a public debate on the trend.

Corporate farming has already started in Pakistan. At a seminar organised by the Participatory Development Initiative in association with Oxfam-GB/EU, Idrees Rajput, an irrigation expert and a former member of the Sindh government, explained the history.

During former president Pervez Musharraf’s regime, the government started leasing farm lands after passing the Corporate Farming Ordinance in 2001. The ordinance was approved by the cabinet in 2004 when the provinces identified 1.14 million hectares of land that were available to be leased. This law now allows Pakistani and foreign companies to lease land.

As a result, the United Arab Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding with the Balochistan government for 150,000 hectares near Mirani Dam. According to Zulfiqar Halepoto of the Thardeep Rural Development Programme, another deal for 1,187 hectares is in the pipeline. In addition to that, a Dubai-based investment group acquired 324,000 hectares of Pakistani farmland. His information came in part from a report published in The National in 2008. The Qatar Meat and Livestock Company (Mawashi) is reported to have sunk one billion dollars into corporate farming in Pakistan. They negotiated with the Sindh government to lease around 12,140 hectares in Shikarpur, Larkana and Sukkur, Halepoto added.

The Punjab government is also part of the picture as it agreed to lease lands around Mianwali, Sargodha, Khushab, Jhang and Faisalabad. In 2008, Reuters reported that the Dubai-based private equity firm said it was looking at investing in agriculture in Pakistan. The National reported that the UAE was considering “the purchase of farmland worth $500 million in Pakistan as part of a strategy to lower food import costs”. Pakistan was expecting “a potential investment of $400 million to $500 million in land deals, which could be anywhere between 100,000 acres”. In May, the Financial Times reported that the Dubai-based private equity company that is one of the largest in the Middle East, had been buying up farmland in Pakistan for added food security and to fight inflation.

The question is now whether it is wise to allow the concentration of farming to rest in a small number of corporate firms? There are a number of possible problems. For example, Dr Azra Talat Sayeed of Roots for Equity said at the seminar that she was sceptical that the government is telling the truth when it says that the land it leased is not being farmed and hence there is no threat that the indigenous communities living on it will be displaced. She disagrees that corporate farming does not erode local food sovereignty. She also raised alarm bells against the environmental hazards posed by the deforestation land degradation they undertake and their increased water consumption.

Other countries around the world have grappled with this debate. In 1920 there were approximately 6.5 million farms in the United States. 30% of the population lived on farms. In 1992 those numbers were down to 2 million farms and less than 2% of the population living on farms. According to researchers, corporate farming in the US has challenged the age-old structure of farming and changed the culture of rural America.

Proponents of corporate farming say that it is more efficient than family farming and leads to more affordable food supplies. But experts have argued that it leads to more unemployment and poverty. In a country like Pakistan, where our cities can barely take the influx of rural migration, or people leaving their villages, surely it makes more sense to empower and not disenfranchise the small farmer.

Then, as Idrees Rajput explained, corporate farming also takes away from people or middlemen the allied jobs linked to farming such as the entire chain of agriculture-related business, including seed supply, agrichemicals, food processing, machinery, storage, transport, distribution, marketing, advertising, and retail sales. In corporate farming all this work is prefaced on a centralised model.

Also worrying is allowing a handful of companies to control large chunks of the market. This allows them to manipulate it, supplies and prices. At one point in the US, for example, according to researchers, 80% of the beef industry was controlled by the biggest four companies.

Another speaker, Dr Fateh Mari, with the Water Sector Improvement Project, warned that the rights of small farmers, especially women farmers need to be protected.

At the end of the seminar, the experts urged the government to consider a few policies, which included supporting small growers, giving state land to landless women and men haris and an immediate end to leasing out land to other countries.

Set up farmer courts in the districts to give justice in loans for bonded labourers, distribution of water, land disputes

Make a policy on the rights of small farmers, the impact of climate change, ensure their registration

Provide social protection programme (such as health insurance), crop insurance, investing in collectivisation

The Tenancy Act in all four provinces needs to be amended to provide the right to form unions
Withdraw the loans of small farmers whose lands and crops were damaged in the flood

Law does not prohibit leasing land if it's beneficial to Kazakhstan - Agriculture Ministry,Gazeta.kz,11.5.23
http://engnews.gazeta.kz/art.asp?aid=341548
Legislation does not prohibit to lease land, if it is beneficial to Kazakhstan. Kazakh Vice Minister of Agriculture Saktash Khassenov said it during the online conference on Bnews.kz web portal.

He noted that according to the legislation, Kazakhstan has the right to lease land to foreigners for a period of 10 years. The Vice Minister stressed that investors of the Customs Union participating states took interest in this matter.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will be given $1.7 million over the next four years to collect and analyse statistics about foreign ownership Australian farms.

Farmer lobby groups, like the Victorian Farmers Federation, have becoming increasingly worried about what they say is a huge increase in international companies or countries buying up Australian farming assets.

The Victorian Farmers Federation recently voted at its Annual General Meeting to lobby the Federal Government to provide more information about purchases.

The Government says the $1.7 million will be used to expand the data collection by the ABS, which it says will provide greater transparency on agricultural foreign investment.

Chinese bid to buy Kimberley land for beef and sugar production,ABC Rural News,12.4.30
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201204/s3491745.htm
A Chinese investment group has reportedly lodged a bid to buy the entire 15,000 hectares of the Ord Expansion Project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
According to The Australian newspaper, the company, trading as Kimberley Agricultural Investments (KAI), is understood to be interested in developing a major sugar industry in the region, as well as a meatworks capable of processing 500,000 head of cattle a year.
The company is up against 13 other companies and individual farmers who have also submitted applications for land to the WA Government (which is spending $311 million on expanding the Ord irrigation scheme).
Shire president for Wyndham East Kimberley, John Moulden, says a decision on who gets the land has not been made, but a big company in the Ord would have its benefits.
"I think in the end it comes down to what represents the best value locally and for the government," he said.
"If it's judged finally that a large-scale foreign bid represented best value then I think it's a pretty strong argument.
"I guess you'd be measuring value principally in employment opportunities. I'd want to see opportunities for the locals and particularly the Miriuwung Gajerrong people were the best we could get.
"If there were local farmers who had an interest in getting a bit more land, it would be very disappointing if they weren't able to. It wouldn't be a good look at all.
"I think there's a great deal of attraction in getting more family operations into the region, but how realistic that is now, I'm not quite sure."
The director of the Ord Expansion Project, Peter Stubbs, would not confirm or deny whether Kimberley Agricultural Investments had lodged a bid for land in the Ord.
President of the Kimberley Pastoralists and Graziers Association, Jim Motter, says KAI's proposal to build a meatworks in the East Kimberley capable of processing 500,000 head of cattle a year would be "the greatest thing that's happened to the region in a long time", but questioned where the company would get the cattle from.
"Maybe between the Kimberley and the Northern Territory, maybe they will (get enough cattle), but I wouldn't hold my breath on getting half a million though. That's a lot of cattle."
The ABC understands Chinese investors have been making inquiries about nearby cattle stations in the Northern Territory, such as Legune and Bullo River.
Mr Motter says there are already a lot of cattle stations in the East Kimberley that are foreign owned and there could be benefits if Chinese companies want to invest in the northern cattle industry.
"If the overseas investors and investing to make a quick dollar then no (I don't support it), but if they're investing to build up an industry then yes (I would support it), because they do have the money to put improvements in," he said.
"At the same token, you've got to ask 'do we really want to sell all of the Kimberley?' It's a hard question."
A decision on who gets land in Ord Stage 2 is expected to be announced after July.

NFF calls for register of all farmland and water sales to foreigners,ABC Rural News,12.4.23
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201204/s3483473.htm
（全国農業者連盟　外国投資家に販売するすべての農村の土地と水の義務的登録制度の導入を要請）

The National Farmers Federation wants the government to introduce a register of all rural land and water that's sold to foreign investors, regardless of the size of the sale.

The farm lobby group wants the register to be compulsory and retrospective, and to be introduced as soon as possible.

NFF president Jock Laurie says it's the only way to get clear and accurate information about the extent of foreign investment in Australian agriculture.

And he believes there's no reason why the Federal Government shouldn't adopt the policy.

"If the government resists that, then I think you'll find there'll be continual calls to make a whole range of changes in regards to this area, so I wouldn't think it'd be a very wise move to just ignore it," he said.
"I think they really need to give it serious consideration and I imagine I'll have heard [from them] in due course."

Heffernan worried about foreign investment report,ABC,12.1.19
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201201/s3411317.htm
多大な農地の外国人への売り渡しは国の主権の他国への売り渡しにつながると自由党有力上院議員、西オーストラリア農民団体もこれに同調。

Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan says the trigger for reviewing a foreign investment in agriculture is too high.
The Government has declared it will not lower the $230 million threshhold it has for reviewing an investment.
It came after a report found foreign companies improve food security.
The ABARES study found one per cent of agribusiness is foreign owned, but it conceded there is not enough information on companies are owned by countries.
Senator Heffernan, who's head of a Senate Inquiry into foreign ownership rules, says he's not scaremongering.
"I just think we ought to be awake to the fact that as a nation to maintain your sovereignty you are better to sell your production, not your means of production to another sovereign country," he says.
Farmers agree
Western Australia's biggest farm lobby group says there needs to be a separate set of rules for foreign farm investment in Australia.
WA Farmers President Mike Norton says a decision this week by the Federal Government - to keep the point where a review is triggered as it stands - is disappointing.
He says with most farms selling for less than $10 million, agriculture shouldn't be subject to the same limits as big business.
"It's just fanciful to use that number when you're talking about foreign investment in buying individual farms," he says.
"It probably works for big corporations, but its just totally irrelevant so far as agriculture is concerned."
Foreign Investment and Australian Agriculture,RIRDC,12.1.18

The Federal Government has promised to publish more frequent reports on the level of foreign ownership of Australian agriculture.
Acting Treasurer Senator Mark Arbib has released a report commissioned by the Government, that shows foreign investment is good for Australia's food security.
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences report shows foreigners have just one per cent stake in agricultural business.
It finds 89 per cent of land is Australian owned.
Mr Arbib says the review should remove concerns about increasing cases of foreign companies, or countries, buying land and water.
"We're going to make the reporting and research more frequent going from five years to two years in terms of the ABS data, and also in terms of providing more information in the agricultural census," he says.
"This will allow the public to understand what the real levels of foreign investment are, but also it will help policy makers in the future with their decision making."
But farmers are disappointed the Government hasn't lowered the threshold of reporting a purchase from the current $230 million.
West Australian farmers say the majority of farms purchased is up to $10 million, and individual sales are not triggering any scrutiny by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Details in the report
The report by ABARES finds a considerable proportion of processing is done by foreign owned companies.
It says "half of the 23 licenced wheat exporters in Australia are foreign owned," citing the Canadian owned Viterra which took over ABB Grain, and the US owned Cargill which bought AWB from Agrium in a rapid spate of transactions last year.
Half the milk processed in Australia is by overseas companies; like the New Zealand owned Fonterra, Lions owned by the Japanese beer company Kirin, and the French owned Parmalat.
60 per cent of Australia's raw sugar is processed by overseas companies.
40 per cent of the beef goes through JBS, Cargill/Teys or Nippon - all foreign owned.
But the ABARES report finds there is "no systematic source of data on foreign ownership" and the "extent of foreign Government investment is also unknown," and all that is information you can't find on the companies' websites.
The Federal Opposition slams 'insufficient report'
The Federal Opposition says there are still many unanswered questions about the level of foreign ownership of Australian agricultural land.
A new report shows the area of land that's either partly or fully foreign owned has increased by nearly 60 percent since the early 1980s.
The Government has asked the Bureau of Statistics to do more regular research on the issue.
The Opposition's Agriculture spokesman, John Cobb, says the level of detail in the report is disappointing.
"It doesn't show what the value of land is as compared to what it was once. It doesn't show what areas of production are involved. It doesn't even say where the land is.
"And what's even more disappointing is that the Government says 'we don't know very much about this, and we're going to report to you more often about what we don't know'."

Farm groups still concerned about foreign ownership,ABC,11.9.12
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201109/s3315698.htm
The National Farmers Federation says the figures that show Australian farm land to be about 90 per cent locally owned is a small part of the picture.
The Bureau of Statistics has, for the first time, calculated the area of land with foreign investment and found only 11 per cent of our agricultural land has foreign interest, with the greatest proportion in the Northern Territory, and Western Australia.
In Victoria, only 1 per cent of land has any foreign ownersip.
But NFF president Jock Laurie says it's just one of three studies, with the others looking into the value of farm production.
"The important part is what happens to that agricultural production, because Australia lives very much by competition, and we want to make sure that anything produced in Australia goes on to the competitive market and you have as many people bidding for it as possible," he said.
"So we need to have an understanding about how that produce is being sold, off that country that is foreign-owned."
The Victorian Farmers Federation wants tighter controls on how foreigners can buy up farm land.
Despite the low level of foreign ownership of Victorian farms, VFF president Andrew Broad says the current value cap, at which foreign purchases must be reviewed, should be lowered to just $20 million.
"The Foreign Investment Review Board, it comes into the perimeter of about $231 million, I think, and that's just a threshold," he said.
"That's just way too high to ever be considered for agricultural land. What we're simply saying is let's lower that."
The president of Queensland farm lobby group AgForce has admitted he and many other farmers have been surprised to learn that only 1 per cent of Australia's agricultural businesses are in foreign hands.
Brent Finlay says he thought the figure might have been higher.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics found that, while 89 per cent of the 353 million hectares of agircucltural land were entirely Australian owned, 99 per cent of Australia's 133,600 agricultural businesses were in local hands.
Mr Finlay says most foreign interest is in cattle, grain and sheep production.
"Australia has a long history of foreign investment, but nowdays as I travel around the state and the country, we're hearing a little bit more about concerns around sovereign investment," he said.
"We need data to actually have a good debate on and also to create policy from."
Sovereign investment is when a foreign government holds property or business interests.
Mr Finlay says farm groups are keen for more details on who owns what.
A Chinese company looks to invest in WA land,ABC,11.8.31
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-31/chinese-investment-in-wa-land-feature/2864458
Foreign investment in Australian agriculture has long been a part of the nation's farming landscape.

But news a large Chinese firm is eyeing prime Western Australian grain and dairy farms has given some the jitters.

It's understood China's most powerful agricultural company Beidahuang Group, BDH, has made offers on a number of farms in the state's south west, amounting to about 80,000 hectares of land.

The state-owned group employs nearly one million people worldwide and reportedly plans to expand its overseas investments in Australia, Russia, the Philippines, Brazil, Argentina, Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

The group has outlined plans to buy Australian land which would differ from its plans to rent agricultural land other countries.

The WA Farmers Federation president Mike Norton says the likes of BDH could endanger Australia's future food security.

"With this particular investment by this particular group, there's certainly something quite different," he said.

"From the information we have, they are looking at using Western Australia as a food bowl to supply the long-term needs of China directly for food self-security."

"A lot of north and south-east Asia is starting to buy fixed assets in Australia," he said.

"They see looming world shortages in food production and are buying up strategic assets; (recently) the state-owned Chinese company Brite Food bought 75 per cent of one of Australia's largest food manufacturers, Manassen Foods."

Lake Grace farmer Doug Clarke says he met BDH officials when they visited farms to the east of the shire a number of weeks ago.

"If you have a company coming along offering double the price your property is worth, you are going to take it, aren't you? he stated.

Mr Clarke says he believes overseas investment would only bolster Australian agriculture.

"I just think it's a good thing, China's got massive research facilities so if they have interests in Western Australia or Australia, there could well and truly be benefits to ourselves," he said.

A firm which assists overseas companies to invest in agriculture in Australia says it's short-sighted to view foreign investment in WA farming properties as a threat.

Corporate Agriculture Australia's Ken Sevenson says farmers can benefit from foreign investment.

"The next generation of agriculture may be half owned by corporate type investors of various sorts working in association and alongside the current investors," he said.

"I think that's really the way the industry will go because it is a very capital intensive business, and it does need to run at a fairly effective rate."

The Federal Member for O'Connor, Tony Crook, whose electorate covers a large swathe of the land in question, is concerned about the effects of foreign-owned farms on rural communities.

"Obviously these farms will need to be worked but there won't be as many people there," he said.

"If a conglomerate takes up a whole series of farms, they would be managed on a much broader basis.

Serious concerns about foreign ownership of prime farming land were also raised at a national level in July when it emerged Chinese government-controlled mining companies had been buying up vast tracts of farmland in NSW and Queensland.

A state-owned Chinese company Shenhua Watermark Coal had spent $213 million buying 43 farms near the NSW township of Gunnedah so it could explore for coal.

In some cases, Shenhua had paid up to 10 times a property's previous selling price.

It raised questions about whether the sales were in the national interest and prompted a senate inquiry into what role the Foreign Investment Review Board played in scrutinising such transactions.

The FIRB was not required to vet Shenhua's buy up because the Treasury agency only investigates investments worth more than $230 million.

For Lake Grace farmer Doug Clarke, the debate swirling around the merits of Chinese investment in Australian farmland is missing the point.

He says it should be up to the farmers themselves to decide what they do with their land, not the politicians or the bureaucrats in Canberra.

"It's not up to governments to tell farmers who they sell their farms to or the people they sell their houses to or the people they sell their cars to," he said.

Farmers go against grain on land ownership,The Australian,11.8.27
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/farmers-go-against-grain-on-land-ownership/story-e6frg6nf-1226123177343
WHILE our biggest trading partner may or may not be eyeing some of Western Australia's most productive farms and sparking Chinese whispers in anxious rural communities, farmers such as Simon Tiller have a clear message to any foreigner interested in his multi-million-dollar operation: come on down.

Chinese buying of Australian farms was ''very small'' but provided an opportunity to lift productivity, expand exports markets and raise incomes.

He acknowledged growing anxiety in some rural communities about Chinese buying but warned against any ''embrace of economic Hansonism''.

''What's beckoning here is the opening of a brilliant new chapter in Australia-China commercial relations to the benefit of our farmers and to the benefit of regional Australia,'' he said.

''We should never be shy about lifting productivity through extra investment. It's the sharing of extra gains rather than the redistribution of existing agricultural production.''

Dr Emerson, who is also acting Foreign Minister while Kevin Rudd recovers from a heart operation, is leading a delegation of nearly 100 businessmen to six large Chinese cities.

He said he remained optimistic about China's ability to weather the gathering global economic storms and to evolve towards a more sustainable, consumer-oriented and services-driven economy.

His message in China is that there is business to be done outside its rich coastal cities and beyond the resources trade.

Illustrating his point, his official itinerary yesterday in China's richest and most accessible province, Guangdong, was virtually bare. His most senior meeting was with the Vice-Governor, Zhao Yufeng, who ranks only ninth in the provincial government hierarchy and lower still in the Communist Party hierarchy.

In contrast, Dr Emerson is set to be received today in Changsha, Hunan province, by the top party and government officials including its Harvard-educated mayor, Zhang Jianfei. Hunan is home to 68.5 million people and has a 1.59 trillion yuan ($232 billion) economy, which is larger than Egypt or Israel.

Guangdong province is a larger and richer market, but is more difficult to break into.

Dr Emerson revealed he will focus his efforts as trade minister on seven east Asian growth markets: China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Malaysia. The list signals a shift of government resources away from the relatively stagnant economies of Europe and America.

He said Australian businesses were prepared to keep coming to China despite increasing altercations with the Chinese legal system, as illustrated by next Tuesday's trial of an Australian businessman, Matthew Ng.

Mr Ng has been accused of ''bribery and misappropriation'' in relation to a local tourism business, which Mr Ng's London-listed company controlled in a joint venture with a Guangzhou government-owned company.
Mr Ng's wife, Niki, lives in Guangzhou but their children are with relatives in New Zealand.

Farmers demand owners' register,The Age,11.8.4
http://www.theage.com.au/national/farmers-demand-owners-register-20110803-1ibo3.html
FARMERS have urged the state government to establish a register that would list Victorian farms that have been bought by foreign owners. The call comes as concerns grow over the level of foreign ownership of Australian farms and over the control of productive food resources.

The Victorian Farmers Federation, in a letter last month to Victorian Treasurer Kim Wells, said news that a Chinese mining company had bought more than $200 million of quality farmland in New South Wales had ignited community concerns about foreign ownership of Australian farm land.

''In Australia, there is no reliable statistics on foreign ownership of farm land, and hence the debate rages with little objective information available to inform it,'' the letter said.

''The lack of data available is creating a ripe environment for speculation and feeding the fear of losing control of our food resources. The development of a register available for analysis will help give a realistic picture of the foreign ownership level in Victoria. This data is imperative to inform future policy,'' wrote the chairman of the VFF's farm business and regional development committee, Peter Tuohey.

Mr Tuohey also expressed concern about the recent sale of 252,000 hectares formerly owned by the MIS forestry company Great Southern. The land, on a large number of titles across many states, including Victoria, was sold in January this year for $415 million to a syndicate dominated by a Canadian pension fund, Alberta Investment Management Corporation.

Many farmers were disappointed that after the collapse of Great Southern the land was not sold, at least in some cases, in individual lots to farmers keen on converting plantations back into farmland to be used for food or fibre production.

Recent revelations that the Qatar-based Hassad Foods had bought more than 8000 hectares of farm land in the Western District have also ignited fears among some farmers worried that the purchases would drive up land prices and council rates, and hurt unemployment levels in country towns.

A spokesman for Mr Wells said the federal government was responsible for ''regulating the purchase of strategic assets by foreign-owned entities. The Victorian government has no plans to introduce such a register.''

Federal Liberal MP Dan Tehan, whose electorate of Wannon covers much of the Western District, said concerns about foreign ownership of agricultural land were regularly raised with him. ''My worry is there's a lack of transparency which is causing people to get worried about what is occurring, so what we need is the facts,'' he said.

A spokesman for Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten said the federal government was ''aware of community concerns about foreign investment in rural land and agricultural businesses.
''In order to understand the issue more fully, Mr Shorten and the Minister for Agriculture, Senator Joe Ludwig, asked the ABS and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation to investigate the level of foreign ownership in rural land. Once we have all the facts on the table we can then consider in detail further policy responses," he said.

Who's buying the farm? Leader wants to know,The Age,11.6.30
http://www.theage.com.au/national/whos-buying-the-farm-leader-wants-to-know-20110629-1gqyb.html
BOB Brown wants more scrutiny of foreign investment in Australian farmland. He said yesterday that the $231 million threshold that triggers examination by the Foreign Investment Review Board should be looked at, and there should be registration of foreign ownership.
But Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten pointed out that the land buy-up by the Chinese government-controlled Shenhua Watermark of 43 farms near Gunnedah, for $213 million, had in fact been examined by the board. This was because any land acquisition by a state-controlled entity was automatically subject to a FIRB review.
Foreign buy-ups of agricultural land are becoming a matter of increasing political debate because of issues of food security and also when, as in the Shenhua case, the company plans to use farming land for mining. The NSW government is pushing for a review of foreign investment rules.

Chinese miner's land buyout passed national interest test, says Bill Shorten ,The Australian,11.6.29
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/call-from-nsw-government-to-halt-foreign-land-grab-for-mining/story-fn59niix-1226084057305
SHENHUA Watermark Coal's $213 million purchase of 43 farming properties in NSW was approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board, Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten says.
As concern mounts over the majority-Chinese government owned firm's plan to mine coal in the Liverpool Plains area of northern NSW, Mr Shorten said a national interest test had been applied to the purchases by the FIRB.
However a decision on whether the farming land could be mined by the Chinese company was a matter for the NSW state government.
The Australian revealed on Monday that Shenhua has over the past two years purchased 43 farming properties in the area near Gunnedah, 500km northwest of Sydney.
The NSW government has reacted by calling for a federal review of the rules governing the foreign buyouts of prime agricultural land.
But Mr Shorten hit back today, arguing state governments granted mining licences and made decisions about land use while the federal government's role, through the FIRB, was to apply a national interest test.
Qatar land grab angers bush,The Age,11.6.19
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/qatar-land-grab-angers-bush-20110618-1g99l.html

A LARGE investment in prime Western District farmland by the Qatar government is increasing pressure for a toughening of Australia's foreign ownership rules.

A CHINESE Government owned multinational has purchased shares in the Tully Sugar Mill with a view to stage a $126.7 million takeover.

PARLIAMENT has moved to quell some of the anxieties surrounding a perceived foreign buy-up of local land, last week passing a motion introduced by the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, John Cobb, regarding foreign ownership of agricultural land and agribusiness.

FORMER Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, is leading a push to get Arabs to invest in Australian farmland as part of a long term food security strategy for oil-rich Gulf States

Mr Hawke, a founding member of the Australian Gulf Council (AGC), believes the combination of Saudi money and Australian farmland and farming know-how will make a good mix, and the oil rich States are keen to buy in.

With fast-growing populations, shrinking water reserves and land areas that are mostly desert, Arabian Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are keen to reduce their reliance on their own limited irrigated farmland or volatile import markets.

While increasing foreign ownership of Australian land and agribusiness assets has stirred concerns about a long term lock-up of production for overseas profit, and implications for neighbouring landholders, overseas investment activity isn't slowing.

The New Zealand Government has once again approved the sale of a number of New Zealand dairy farms to a Chinese company.
The sale to Shanghai Pengxin of 16 dairy holdings that were in receivership was prevented by a New Zealand Court in February.
A consortium of businessmen and farmers had opposed the sale, saying the Chinese company had overstated how much it would invest in New Zealand.
But now the government has again approved the sale, worth $160 million.
Land grab: All white by us,The New Zealand Herald,12.2.5
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10783552&ref=rss
Overseas buyers are slowly chipping away at our coastlines. But Hollywood directors and pop singers have a better chance of winning public approval than well-meaning Chinese businessmen. Susan Edmunds investigates our double standards　----------

Legal challenge looms if Chinese win Crafar farms,The New Zealand Herald,12.1.19

Rich-lister leads bid to keep farms from Chinese,New Zealand Herald,11.8.14
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10745035
One of the country's richest men has emerged as a white knight investor with a $105 million bid for big dairy farms that could otherwise be sold to China.

Sir Michael Fay has declared his interest in buying nine of the 16 farms once owned by Reporoa's Alan Crafar.----------

PM defends Chinese investment in NZ,The New Zealand Herald,11.5.30
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/agriculture/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=10728953
Prime Minister John Key has defended Chinese investment in New Zealand, citing Bright Dairy's purchase of Canterbury milk processor Synlait as a good example where Chinese capital inflows were helping the economy by creating jobs, while that capital was not just used to buy up land.
Meanwhile Key said high Chinese domestic inflation meant China was looking to invest its foreign savings in assets around the world, such as US Treasury bonds, and New Zealand government bonds, which it had been buying "for a long time now".----------

China's appetite for New Zealand still growing The New Zealand Herald,11.5.11

As another Chinese bidder makes a play for the former Crafar farms, industry body Federated Farmers is backing new rules on foreign ownership.

Chinese agricultural companies have taken control of New Zealand rural services company PGG Wrightson. The bid vehicle Agria (Singapore) Pte yesterday disclosed it had a 50.52 per cent holding.

In part 2 of her examination of the rural debt crisis, Karyn Scherer asks if selling to foreigners is the only way out for cash-strapped farmers.

Natural Dairy warned of criticism of NZ Govt policies,The New Zealand Herald,11.2.11

Natural Dairy New Zealand - the Chinese-backed company which unsuccessfully tried to buy the Crafar dairy farms - warned the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) that refusal of its bid could hurt the chances of New Zealand attracting further investment from China.

Crafar farm bidder withdraws, new offer on the table,The New Zealand Herald,11.1.27.

PNG's great land grab sparks fightback by traditional owners,The Age,11.10.14
http://www.theage.com.au/national/pngs-great-land-grab-sparks-fightback-by-traditional-owners-20111013-1ln1m.html#ixzz1afvWeTYw
Developers hover as 5 million hectares, and national pride, are signed away in 99-year leases that have raised fears of corruption.
A LAND grab of 5 million hectares of Papua New Guinea, 11 per cent of its territory, has taken place quietly and apparently bloodlessly since 2003, half of it being signed over in the past two years.
But tension over one of the controversial leases has reportedly turned violent in the past week, with police chiefs investigating allegations of brutality by officers flown into the site in Pomio, East New Britain, by a logging company.

Police confirmed in an ABC news report that loggers financed the crackdown against local protesters who claim their traditional land was taken without their authority.
The Pomio lease is one of 72 deals being investigated by a commission of inquiry in Port Moresby.
Under the deals, title to the land, most of it densely forested, has been transferred from local customary ownership to the state and vested with a range of landowner, national and foreign corporate entities for 99 years.
The leases dramatically erode PNG's proud but fraught heritage of customary land tenure, reducing it from 97 per cent of the nation to 86 per cent in less than a decade.
The land is then subleased to developers promising agricultural projects and roads into some of the nation's most remote and disadvantaged country.
Landowners supporting the deals are banking on them paving the way for desperately needed jobs and basic services. But others fear the loss of control of land over three generations could have devastating consequences. More than 80 per cent of Papua New Guineans live in rural and remote villages, sustained by forests, fishing and food gardens.
The commission of inquiry is investigating concerns that most of the lease developers are loggers trying to bypass forestry laws and that a large majority have - in the words of the inquiry's brief - acquired their rights ''without proper knowledge and involvement of the landowners''.
It is also investigating claims that many of the deals - Special Agricultural and Business Leases (SABLs) - have been brokered by corrupt officials, local leaders and developers colluding to exploit some landowners.
Australian developers involved in some of the largest leases strenuously defend the bona fides of their projects, which they say they fear will be undermined by less scrupulous deals.
Further muddying the waters, according to the picture emerging from the inquiry and investigations by academics and activist organisations, are bitter disputes between clan rivals; internecine political contests ahead of next year's election; and profiteers speculating on increasing international hunger for land and resources.
Land-grabbing is a growing phenomenon across the developing world, with an Oxfam investigation last month identifying 227 million hectares as having been transferred to international investors in secretive deals since 2001.
While the focus has been on arable land in Africa, analysis by Pacific resources specialist Dr Colin Filer of the Australian National University found land deals in PNG forests amounted to twice the area grabbed across five African nations over a comparable period, and that the trend pre-dated the 2008 food price surge. Further, the land involved is predominantly forest already identified for its logging potential, not farmland.
''It is a moot point whether the companies interested in the acquisition of such land in PNG have any genuine interest in its agricultural potential, or whether they are simply looking for new ways to log PNG's native forests,'' Dr Filer says.
Greenpeace, which is supporting protesters at Pomio and other sites, says the leases capture about half of PNG's accessible forest. They include pristine areas identified as potential pilots for investment by rich countries in preserving forests to offset carbon emissions, raising concerns that the deals will jeopardise PNG's efforts to secure such investment.
Academics and policy experts have also warned of profound social, economic and environmental consequences if illegitimate leases are not extinguished.
Dr Filer says in a new paper investigating the land grab that if abuse of the lease schemes means benefits from the land are not fairly shared around customary owners, there could be a surge in rural social unrest and civil disorder.
Pomio has already emerged as a flashpoint as protesters used blockades, legal action and rallies to try to halt clearing for oil palm, clashing with other landowners supporting the project and site security. The lease is linked to Malaysian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau (RH).
After objectors took their case to the commission of inquiry, police last week made violent raids on villages while apparently searching out the protest leaders, according to official complaints now the subject of a police internal inquiry.
RH issued a statement saying the lease is legitimate and has the support of the majority of local landowners.
Dr Thomas Webster, director of PNG's National Research Institute and leader of a national taskforce on land reform, says the leases disempower and confuse villagers, undermining efforts to achieve meaningful land reform through the registration of customary title.
Unless at least 95 per cent of the deals are found to be genuine, all should be revoked, he says.
The land inquiry comes after pressure from local activists and international organisations, including the intervention of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights. With the 2012 general election pending, political sensitivity to the powderkeg issue is high.
10pc of PNG lost in forest land grab,The Australian,11.5.21
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/pc-of-png-lost-in-forest-land-grab/story-e6frg6so-1226059914256

MORE than 10 per cent of Papua New Guinea's land mass has been handed over to foreign and national corporate interests over the past seven years under mysterious land deals that appear to be aimed at logging native forest.

Colin Filer of the Australian National University calls it a "land grab". His research shows customary land has been secured by corporate interests via lease, leaseback arrangements.

Since 2003 about 5.1 million hectares of customary land has passed into corporate control by abusing a mechanism in the PNG land law designed to allow for customary landowners to agree to so-called special agricultural and business leases.

This is twice the amount of land grabbed by corporate interests across five African countries over a comparable period, according to one international study, yet institutions such as the World Bank have largely ignored these events in PNG.

Professor Filer has shown how the Western and West Sepik provinces have lost 20 per cent of their land to these arrangements. In three other provinces the area ranges from 11 per cent to 15 per cent.

Ce rapport intitulé « The Economic Benefits of Palm Oil to PNG », (Bénéfices économiques de l’huile de palme pour la Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée), a été commandité par le géant de l’abattage forestier malaisien : Rimbudan Hijau Group. Ce groupe possède la majorité des permis d’exploitation de bois en Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée et vient d’annoncer son intention de se lancer dans l’huile de palme après ‘acquisition de milliers d’hectares de terres coutumières dans la province de Nouvelle-Bretagne orientale. Le gouvernement papou a accordé un bail spécial d’exploitation agricole pour permettre à Rimbudan Hijau d’acquérir les terres requises pour le projet. Selon notre correspondant sur place, Firmin Nanol, les écologistes estiment que ces permis permettent à des investisseurs étrangers de prendre possession des terres sans le consentement des propriétaires coutumiers

BUSINESS: BIG PUSH FROM FOREIGN INVESTORS INTO PNG,Islands Business,July 2010（中国、マレーシア、インドネシア、ヨーロッパ－パプアニューギニア）

The UAE will look to invest in farmland in Turkey as rising prices raise the urgency of food security, says Sultan al Mansouri, the Minister of Economy.

Recent natural catastrophes from Australia to Argentina had taken officials by surprise and pushed up prices of some commodities, he said.

Looking across the sculptured gardens of his chateau, with its stone nymphs paying tipsy homage to the joy of intoxication, Paul-Henry de Bournazel explained that his ancestors had been making wine here for more than 400 years. "It gives you strength in the difficult years," he said. "As though you can hear them saying 'Allez! – get to it!'"
But Bordeaux winemakers, steeped in centuries of history, are facing competition from vintners of an entirely different lineage – Chinese businessmen and investors who are snapping up struggling chateaux in the region.
Three properties have been sold this year, three others – including Château Richelieu, former home to the infamous cardinal's favourite mistress – are already in Chinese hands. Land agents report a surge in the number of Chinese investors looking to buy, said Alexander Hall, director of Vineyard Intelligence, a Bordeaux-based consultancy. "The number of sales is small but over the last year agents have seen a huge number of enquiries. The real boom could be in two years' time."

“We suggested today to companies in the region to enter the Russian market given its large scale and to establish themselves to produce food for your own supply,” Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Slepnyov said yesterday in an interview in Manado, Indonesia, where he is attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations trade ministers.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is turning to Asia to boost exports as his country’s economy struggles to grow at the pace it did before a 2009 recession. Russia is targeting grain buyers in Southeast Asia to regain its share of the world market after lifting an export ban in July, the Moscow-based Institute for Agricultural Market Studies said Aug. 1.

“Many Asian governments are exploring alternatives to secure food supplies over the long term given that the demographic and environmental pressures in Asia could lead to structural food shortages in the years to come,” said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong. “In fact, it’s already showing up in greater inflation pressures in the agricultural sectors in the region.”

Asian nations are seeking stable food supplies after data compiled by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization showed global prices surged to a record this year. India’s food inflation accelerated to a three-month high, a report showed yesterday.

Indonesia, the world’s third-largest rice consumer, may seek to negotiate an agreement with India and Pakistan to secure rice supplies, the Southeast Asian nation’s Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said in a separate interview yesterday.

Russian farmers are leaving about a quarter of the nation’s 165.9 million hectares (409.9 million acres) of agricultural land unused, Federal State Statistics Service data show. A further 20.7 million hectares of land lies fallow, Alexander Korbut, vice president of the Grain Union, said by phone today.

Russia has about 24 million hectares of undistributed arable land that should be sold at below-market prices to people already working there as the government seeks to boost production, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in March.

The government plans to annul ownership rights to farmland that has been left uncultivated for at least three years.

Japan, the world’s largest grain importer, said in April it will help local companies invest in purchases and leasing of farmlands overseas to ensure stable food supply as the country lacks arable land. South Korea, the world’s third-biggest corn buyer, plans to acquire a total of 380,000 hectares of overseas farmland by 2018 to grow crops.

Food prices will remain higher in the next decade than in the past 10 years as agricultural production slows and demand increases, the OECD and the United Nations said in a joint report in June.

Russia, the world’s largest energy exporter, is exploring possible investments with Southeast Asian nations in power generation, alternative energy and natural-resources exploration as it seeks to boost demand for the commodities it produces, Slepnev said.

“The center of world development is shifting to the Asian region,” he said. “Of course, the region will become an even bigger energy consumer.”

Russia’s economy, which grew at an average of 7 percent annually from 2000 to 2008, expanded 3.4 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter, missing economists’ forecasts, a report showed yesterday.

(AFP) For years, foreign investors have been attracted by the gleam of Russia's vast reserves of crude oil.

But deep in the quiet, rolling landscapes of southwest Russia, it is not the seductive power of black gold that has brought foreign money into the country.

It is the more mundane appeal of black earth, millions of hectares of ultra-fertile agricultural land that foreign companies hope will provide the ideal answer to the world's changing food needs.

Swedish company Black Earth Farming (BEF) since 2006 has bought 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) of Russian farmland after the government finally allowed land to be privatised after decades of state ownership.

"In Europe the price of land is very high," BEF chief executive Sture Gustavsson said as he surveyed the newly acquired lands in the Voronezh region some 600 kilometres south of Moscow.

Russia has tens of millions of hectares (acres) of chernozem, or black earth, considered a dream soil because of its richness in humus, which is formed by the decomposition of plant matter by micro-organisms.

The high humus content gives the soil an ability to retain moisture that makes it perfect for farming. The famous Black Earth region of Russia and Ukraine covers an area approximately half the size of Germany.

Yet while Russia has become one of the world's main grain exporters, the full potential of its vast agricultural lands remains unfulfilled, with vast tracts of arable land going fallow after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

As a result, the modern techniques that foreign firms can bring to the most traditional of industries are essential if Russia is to fully realise its potential.

"The foreigners have brought us innovative technologies and jobs," said the head of BEF's local subsidiary Agro-Invest Ostrogozhsk, Alexander Averyanov.

"When we arrived in 2006, just 30 percent of the land in the region was being cultivated while 70 percent had been fallow for five, seven, even 12 years," he added.

"We have worked for two-and-a-half years and now we have been able to start cultivation."

Other investors in Russian agricultural land have ranged from investment funds to foreign governments.

In April 2009, South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries took a majority stake in Khorol Zerno, a firm which owns 10,000 hectares of farmland in Russia's Far East.

"The world needs grain more and more," said Dmitry Katalevsky, a financial analyst with Deloitte, pointing to a shift in Asian diets towards wheat, the development of bio-fuels and the rising global population.

"The surge in agriculture prices has prompted investors to become more interested in these goods, when before they had invested more in oil, metals and gas."

Russia has set ambitious targets to fulfill the export potential of its agriculture industry.

Agriculture Minister Elena Skrinnik has said Russia could raise its annual grain production to 120 million tonnes in the next 10-15 years, allowing it to roughly double its exports to 50 million tonnes annually.

This year the total grain harvest is expected to be 90 million tonnes, down from last year's bumper figure of 108 million.

Gustavsson admitted that the challenges remain enormous as the yield from the land being cultivated by BEF remains relatively weak and it will take years of investment to harvest the full benefits of the company's investment.

Meanwhile the price of grain has fallen after a spike in 2007 and foreign investors still have to cope with the hurdles of Russia's notorious bureaucracy.

And because of the lack of rural infrastructure -- a major problem for the Russian agriculture industry -- BEF is this year spending tens of millions of dollars on new silos to keep the grain harvests.

Such investment can only be welcome for Russia and President Dmitry Medvedev admitted last week that billions of dollars of investment were needed to expand storage facilities that currently hold only 30 percent of the harvest.

"Over the past 10 years we have understood that agriculture is not a black hole where money is lost and brings nothing for the state," Medvedev said.Russia's PAVA seeks 100 mln euros from share sale,Forbes,09.10.6
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/10/06/afx6969181.html

http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_focus/detail/123941/
The enactment of long-awaited laws to permit the selling of agricultural land was touted as key to President Viktor Yanukovych's agenda. But, after more than two years in power, the effort has stalled.
Long-awaited changes were supposed to be adopted by parliament in 2011 to create an agricultural land market, stripping Ukraine of another of its socialistic Soviet vestiges. Lifting the longstanding moratorium on land sales is hoped to be a way to spark an investment boom in the capital-starved sector.
But the moratorium remains in place. The blame for the stalling hints at graft and overreach, possibly by government and vested private interests.

Farmers from western Europe look to Romania for pastures new,The Guardian,12.5.1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/01/western-europe-farmers-move-romania
High land prices and bureaucracy in native countries drive young generation east for a chance to build new businesses
Maxime Laurent finished agricultural college in Châteaudun, France, in 2009. Then he loaded up trucks with farm machinery and set off for Macesu de Sus, a village in south-west Romania, about 10km from the Danube. Asked what prompted his departure, he says: "My parents ran a 300-hectare farm in the Beauce. They wanted to expand but were pre-empted twice by the [publicly owned] Safer [Rural Development Agency]. In France you can't even buy your neighbour's farm. There's no option but to give up and go somewhere else. You can't waste your whole life waiting then have something like that happen."
His case is far from unusual: Romania, with some 15m hectares of farmland, is attracting people from all over Europe. Thousands of British, Danish, French, German, Italian and Spanish farmers have moved there since it joined the EU in 2007.
Laurent's parents decided to invest in land at Macesu to take advantage of the nearby Danube. Their son, who has always wanted to be a farmer, is delighted. "At the age of 19, I found myself in charge of a 1,400-hectare farm," he explains. "To achieve what I've done here in the past three years would have taken several generations in France. There you're always up against the state and the initial outlay is colossal. Here you can do a lot with quite limited resources."
At Macesu he grows wheat, barley, sunflower and rapeseed. His five employees operate four tractors, two combine-harvesters and two silos imported from France, each with 2,000 tonnes storage capacity. But Laurent is ambitious and wants to take advantage of European subsidies. He plans to boost capacity by 7,000 tonnes and irrigate 500 hectares more land.
All over Romania there are farmers from the west busy rebuilding farms. Thanks to their know-how and investments, the farming sector registered 11% growth last year, and that is just the start.
Farmland in Romania currently sells for about €2,000 ($2,600) a hectare, a price hard to beat in the EU. Subsidies from Brussels total €180 a hectare, half the amount farms in western Europe can expect. But in 2014 the new Common Agricultural Policy should put all member states on the same footing.
"In western Europe there is no room for young people," says Christian Hani, 29. "Here you can start from scratch. I think it's very important for young people to make something new."
This article originally appeared in Le Monde

Renewable energy is how we're going to continue devouring energy with fewer limitations. Solar energy, wind power, geothermal, gigantic transmission lines are all magic solutions that will make life better, we're told.

But a conference held in Denver earlier this month gave a sobering preview of major land decisions ahead for this nation. Experts at CLE International's convention on Historic Preservation and Tribal Consultation: Energy & Transmission Projects predicted that energy projects will be bigger and come faster than any of us foresee, with great impacts on ethnographic and rural historic districts. Public and tribal lands will be targeted because of their size. Huge acreages, some projects as big as 7,000 acres, may be set aside for a single use — energy — in wind farms or solar spreads. Never before has America pre-empted such huge pieces of land for a single use.

Top 10 investors Click heading to sort table. Download this data
Investor	Investor's Country		Hectares	Deals	Location of Investments
. Source: Land Matrix, as of April 2012
Indian Government	India		4877419	9	India, Ethiopia
ZTE International	China		2800000	1	DRC
Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper	Indonesia		2388468	1	Indonesia
Wuhan Kaidi	Unknown		2000000	1	Zambia
Tata Power	India		2000000	1	Indonesia
Samling Group	Malaysia		1838000	1	Malaysia
Al Ain National Wildlife	United Arab Emirates		1680000	1	Sudan
Daewoo Logistics	Republic of Korea		1600000	2	Madagascar
Sinar Mas Group	Indonesia		1600000	2	Indonesia
Muting Hijau	Indonesia		1100000	1	Indonesia
Where land has been acquired (since 2000) Click heading to sort table. Download this data
Country		Region			Hectares	Deals
. Source: Land Matrix, as of April 2012
Indonesia		South-East Asia			9527760	24
Democratic Republic of the Congo		Central Africa			8051870	10
Ethiopia		Eastern Africa			5345228	83
Philippines		South-East Asia			5182021	45
Malaysia		South-East Asia			4819483	20
India		South Asia			4628578	113
Sudan		Northern Africa			3923430	18
Brazil		South America			3871824	61
Madagascar		Eastern Africa			3779741	39
Zambia		Eastern Africa			2273413	9
United Republic of Tanzania		Eastern Africa			2194975	58
Mozambique		Eastern Africa			1983127	92
Argentina		South America			1505020	22
Cambodia		South-East Asia			1154194	86
Russian Federation		Eastern Europe			1113434	11
China		Eastern Asia			1108396	12
Benin		Western Africa			1040900	9
Cameroon		Central Africa			710340	17
Liberia		Western Africa			679000	6
Ghana		Western Africa			669900	9
Ukraine		Eastern Europe			662167	7
Kenya		Eastern Africa			633500	13
Sierra Leone		Western Africa			588950	11
Mali		Western Africa			581891	27
Peru		South America			571900	26
Lao People's Democratic Republic		South-East Asia			478153	49
Colombia		South America			420820	14
Australia		Australia and New Zealand			400926	3
Nigeria		Western Africa			362532	21
Malawi		Eastern Africa			310147	7
Senegal		Western Africa			234800	8
Côte d'Ivoire		Western Africa			207200	5
Zimbabwe		Eastern Africa			201171	2
Angola		Central Africa			183000	4
Viet Nam		South-East Asia			156540	7
Congo		Central Africa			138000	2
Guatemala		Central America			81006	10
Papua New Guinea		Melanesia			79178	1
Uganda		Eastern Africa			76512	4
Mexico		Central America			56581	5
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)		South America			37156	4
Niger		Western Africa			29969	3
Bangladesh		South Asia			29456	2
Thailand		South-East Asia			28912	3
South Africa		Southern Africa			27124	3
Somalia		Eastern Africa			21500	2
Swaziland		Southern Africa			15124	2
Ecuador		South America			8000	1
Costa Rica		Central America			7658	5
Solomon Islands		Melanesia			7577	1
Pakistan		South Asia			5926	3
Turkey		Middle East			4500	1
Rwanda		Eastern Africa			3100	1
Chile		South America			1400	2
Suriname		South America			1073	2
Burkina Faso		Western Africa			1000	1

Land deals as % of agricultural area

Why land deals are good

The Africa Debate

Investor case study

Biofuels grown in African countries

THE ENERGY DEBATE