May 16th, 2019
Via Mada, a look at the acquisition of Egypt’s natural resources to secure Gulf food: Vast expanses of green extend across the horizon, tended by the advanced machinery that has replaced hundreds of agricultural workers. The land is watered using center-pivot irrigation systems, connected to one another in a series of canals through which water is[…]
Read more »Mapping The African Land Grab
December 7th, 2018
Via Africa is a Country, a report on the consequences of land grabbing on the African continent: In 2013, the journalist Fred Pearce, one of the most authoritative environmental journalists in the United Kingdom, published a book, The Land Grabbers: The New Fight over Who Owns the Earth, in which he details how African governments are selling long leases on[…]
Read more »December 2nd, 2018
Via The Wall Street Journal, commentary on South Africa’s land expropriation-without-compensation plan: Global economic jitters make this an especially bad time for developing economies to embark on bad policy experiments, yet that’s what South Africa did this month in advancing a sweeping plan to expropriate private land. The only saving grace is that voters will have[…]
Read more »China’s Hunger For Soybeans
September 29th, 2018
Via Fast Company, an interesting report on how China’s desperate efforts to source soybeans from all over the world is explained by the country’s fear of running out of water: China approached Peru and Brazil with an extraordinarily ambitious proposition several years ago. It would build a 3,000-mile railroad from the western coast of Peru[…]
Read more »August 28th, 2018
Courtesy of Future Directions International, a look at Middle Eastern Investment in Africa’s agricultural sector: Tariffs and other trade barriers between African countries are expected to fall if the African Continental Free Trade Area is established. Africa will require increased investment in infrastructure, if it is to obtain the greatest benefit from the changes to[…]
Read more »High Land Prices Drive the Migration of Indian Farmers to Georgia and Ukraine
July 4th, 2018
Via Future Directions International, a report on how Indian farmers are looking overseas to expand their farming operations: Background Farmers from the Indian province of Punjab are increasingly looking overseas to expand their farming operations. Punjab is commonly referred to as the breadbasket of India, due to the fertility of its soils, but in recent years[…]
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