May 8th, 2017
Via Brookings, a report on the Chinese land grab in Africa: There is a consensus in Africa that agriculture is one of the keys to achieving sustainable and inclusive growth there. Most of Africa’s population and its poor depend on agriculture, so this sector can provide potentially significant gains. Agriculture also has the potential to become[…]
Read more »Cities Eating Into World’s Farm Lands
January 20th, 2017
Via Eco Watch, a report on how, by 2030, the world could lose 30 million hectares of farm lands to cities, 80% of which will happen in Asia and Africa: By 2030, the world could lose millions of fertile agricultural lands to expanding cities with Asia and Africa accounting for 80 per cent of the[…]
Read more »January 20th, 2017
Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, a look at how China is not conquering Russia but leasing it, or buying it, a trend that we can expect to grow as Russian food production to skyrocket with climate change, making it an ever more strategic water and agricultural resource for China: When Chinese delegations visit the sprawling[…]
Read more »This Land Is Their Land….
November 29th, 2016
Via TakePart, a detailed report on the trend – across the globe – of governments and investors from wealthy nations buying up foreign farmland to support domestic food security: In 2009, Madagascar’s ruling party struck a deal with Daewoo, a South Korean conglomerate, to lease half the island’s arable land. The foreign firm would get[…]
Read more »November 2nd, 2016
Courtesy of Food Tank, a look at foreign land acquisition activity in southern Africa: On October 12, the government of Mozambique quietly announced that it would close its Agriculture Promotion Centre (CEPAGRI), the agency created in 2006 to promote large-scale foreign investment in the country’s agricultural sector. In a terse statement, government spokesman Mouzinho Saide gave[…]
Read more »The Global Race To Own Fertile Land
October 18th, 2016
Via SwissInfo, a look at the worldwide race to own fertile agricultural land: The worrying rise in foreign investors buying up land in poor countries is set to get worse in future, taking valuable resources from local populations. A report out later this month by a Bern database into ‘land grabbing’ should dig deeper into[…]
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