May 4th, 2012
Courtesy of The Guardian, a look at a new global database on more than 1,000 land deals covering an area roughly half the size of western Europe: Workers at a palm oil plantation in Ethiopia. The data shows that east Africa has the highest concentration of recent land deal investments. Photograph: José Cendon/Getty Images Over[…]
Read more »The Hungry Dragon: China Land Grab Claims ‘Exaggerated’
May 4th, 2012
Via Agrimoney, an analysis of China’s overseas agricultural acquisitions: Claims of Chinese “land grabs” in Africa, to grow food for importing, have been overstated – for now – although “this could be a longer term motivation”, Standard Chartered said. China, a county with 9% of the world’s farmland, has attracted a string of negative headlines[…]
Read more »April 25th, 2012
Via The Africa Report, an article suggesting that while Africa may have celebrated the demise of colonialism, it seems the continent is sliding back to those days, as investors continue to push murky land deals. As the report notes: In 1884, European and American politicians, at a meeting in Berlin, gathered to divide the African[…]
Read more »India’s Tata Group Eyes East African Agriculture
April 25th, 2012
Via How We Made It In Africa, a report that India’s Tata Group is interested to invest in east African farming in order to export agricultural products back to India, where it anticipates a local food supply shortage over the next decades. As the article notes: “One of the opportunities … is agriculture, and east[…]
Read more »April 21st, 2012
Via South Africa’s IOL, an article on China’s need to pursue overseas agriculture: 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[…]
Read more »Grab The Land
April 5th, 2012
Via The Huffington Post, a report on the global land grab: It’s a global trend, and not a good one. It’s called land grabbing, and it’s happening on a massive scale — especially in Africa. For millions of indigenous villagers and pastoralists it means forced relocation, loss of livelihoods, and a death blow to their[…]
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