Burma Archive

14 December 2009
Korea’s overseas development backfires

That Korea is no longer "importing" this food that is being grown overseas implies that this land is effectively Korean. This amounts to agricultural imperialism.
023 November 2009
Extraterritoriality – Foreign Concessions: the Past and Future of a Form of Shared Sovereignty

China has now taken on a leading role in promoting modernization through zones of exception, not only in China but also outside it.
027 October 2009
Solvent extractors want Govt aid to buy farmland abroad

The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, a body of over 800 edible oil producing companies, is looking to buy tracts of agricultural land in South America, Africa and Myanmar.
025 September 2009
Korea shifting to agricultural aid in resource diplomacy

The Korea Rural Community Corporation, under the Agriculture Ministry, said it is also in talks with other resource-rich countries about deals in exchange for support for the construction of agricultural infrastructure or farms. Among the negotiating partners mentioned were Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Senegal and Mongolia.
110 June 2009
Asia: Land grabs threaten food security

Sam Pov, a rice farmer in Cambodia’s western Battambang Province, is very worried that his land will be taken over by a foreign investor.
014 April 2009
The growing lust for agricultural lands

Not a day goes by without new acreage being signed over. "For Sale" ads for agricultural property are now featured in the international financial press. And there's no dearth of clients.
014 April 2009
Les terres agricoles, de plus en plus convoitées

"Je crois que les tensions seront inévitables où que ce soit, faisant des enclaves agricoles étrangères de véritables forteresses assiégées."
03 March 2009
In Land Grab, Food Is Not the Only Consideration

Governments in developing countries should exercise caution when granting land concessions to foreign governments and corporations. Despite the short-term investments, most – if not all – of the production will be exported, making the long-term food security situation even worse in these host countries.
031 January 2009
Improving food security in Arab countries: Is land acquisition a viable strategy?

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are worldwide leaders in buying farmland in third-party countries, followed by China and Japan, says the World Bank.
012 January 2009
China appropriates foreign and domestic land to build its rubber empire

Some Laotian farmers are losing their ancestral lands or being forced to become wage workers on what were once their fields
029 October 2008
Bangladesh-Myanmar contract farming: Opportunity for Bangladesh to meet agricultural shortfall

Myanmar proposed to Bangladesh to take lease of at least 50,000 acres of land in its Rakhine state for contract farming of paddy, onion, maize, soybean, tea, and sugarcane
026 September 2008
Gulf states covet Asian farms

Once committed largely to perceived safe-haven investments in the United States, Gulf nations are now looking to send their petrodollar surpluses towards a more exotic global destination: Southeast Asian farmland.
04 September 2008
Qatar, Vietnam set up US$1b fund, eye agriculture, paper

8Natural gas exporter Qatar and Vietnam have set up a US$1 billion fund to invest in sectors including agriculture. Sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority will provide 90% of the fund's equity, Gulf Times reported, citing Phung The Long, Vietnam's Ambassador to Doha. "We have exchange ideas about setting up an animal farm for breeding cattle and lambs," The Long said.
03 September 2008
India looks abroad for land to grow oilseeds

Some of India's top vegetable oil firms plan to lease or buy land in Paraguay, Uruguay and Myanmar to grow oilseeds and lentils as farmland shrinks in the South Asian nation, a top trade official said yesterday.
03 September 2008
Govt, India Inc plan to farm land abroad

Contributing their bit to the global Indian takeover, the government and India Inc plan to buy sizeable land abroad for cultivation. Seen as a long-term answer to keep prices of farm products under control, the grand plan envisages acquisition of large tracts of land in neighbouring countries like Myanmar and far off places like Paraguay.
01 September 2008
Kuwait thrashes out farming deal

A Kuwaiti delegation last week met with the Myanmar cabinet and industry officials in Nay Pyi Taw to discuss investment in the agricultural sector, a senior Myanmar Federation of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) executive told The Myanmar Times. “The Kuwait side is very willing to invest in various business sectors in Myanmar using their money earned from oil sales. But the area in which they are most eager to make deal with us is contract farming,”
017 August 2008
Several agreements signed on PM’s Asian tour

In Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, His Highness the Prime Minister od Kuwait’s visit was of great importance given the promising financial investment opportunities in those nations. One of the main topics discussed was food imports from these countries as a means for securing food supply, facilitating a Kuwaiti energy supply to them, as well as cooperation in oil exploration and the agricultural field.
01 August 2008
China Farms Abroad

As other countries have pushed their industrial bases thousands of miles offshore in search of resources and labor, China is doing the same thing with agriculture, expanding as far away as Africa in its effort to feed its people.
026 June 2008
Bangladesh seeks Myanmar farm land on lease

Bangladesh urged Myanmar on Thursday to lease it farm land near the border for rice cultivation to meet its growing food demand, an official said.
04 May 2008
China farms the world to feed a ravenous economy

As Beijing scrambles to feed its galloping economy, it has already scoured the world for mining and logging concessions. Now it is turning to crops to feed its people and industries. Chinese enterprises are snapping up vast tracts of land abroad and forging contract farming deals.