Tanzania

The Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation is planning to set up model farms in Uganda. So far, one site of 200 hectares suitable for wheat growing has already been identified at Labora, Koro sub-county in Gulu district.

The fact that President Jakaya Kikwete accepted an invitation to Saudi Arabia recently to discuss the possibility of farmland allocation is important, as it means that Tanzania is attentive to the proposal.

Rattled by last year's food price crisis, governments and corporations have signed a slew of deals to lease or buy arable land in cash-strapped nations, mainly in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Saudi Arabian investors want to lease 500,000 hectares of farmland in Tanzania to grow rice and wheat.

Saudi investors have asked Tanzania if they can lease 500,000 hectares of farmland mainly for rice and wheat farming as part of a plan to secure food supplies for the desert kingdom, officials said.

There is this saying common in most tribal vernaculars and other languages which simply states that where there is smoke there is likely to be fire.

A new scramble for arable land in Tanzania has started - the coastline and the fertile land in Northern and Southern Tanzania being the prime targets.

Tanzania may find itself on similar a pathway like Zimbabwe where 4,500 commercial farmers own over 90 per cent of arable land including some so-called absent landlords living luxurious lives in London.

Común a todas estas operaciones, la de Daewoo incluida, es su secretismo. ONG e instituciones desconocen la totalidad de hectáreas compradas por foráneos en países pobres y a falta de que se publiquen estudios en curso, sólo pueden hacer estimaciones.

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Nomadic herders, rarely a priority for governments, are being dispossessed by bioethanol developments in Kenya, says Michael Taylor of the International Land Coalition (ILC), and they also depend on the “unused” land that Madagascar offered Daewoo.

Small-scale farmers with limited knowledge of their rights stand to lose most as countries such as China and Saudi Arabia expand their quest for African farmland, analysts have warned.