L’idée n’est pas nouvelle, mais elle fait son chemin depuis la tenue, les 14 et 15 novembre à Addis-Abeba, du premier forum économique entre l’Arabie saoudite et les pays d’Afrique de l’Est. Une manifestation qui a permis à Riyad de plaider sa cause et de renouveler son intérêt pour les terres agricoles de cette partie du continent.
Stephen Murphy, managing director of institutional fundraising, said the firm had eyed agriculture and infrastructure investments in Uganda.
Farmland deals in Africa inked by private Egyptian firms, commonly called "land grabs," could help the import-dependent nation get access to grain when markets spike, Egypt's agriculture minister Amin Abaza said. "This is going to be a private initiative."
Hebei Company plans to grow its operations -- wheat, maize, rice, vegetable and livestock production for the local, Chinese and European markets -- to about 100,000 acres [40,500 ha] of land in 8-10 years.
South Africa said on Friday it had been offered 48 square miles of land in Angola and Uganda and also a land lease agreement in Zambia.
Citadel, which also announced on Tuesday that it was investing in 500,000 feddans (210,000 hectares) of farmland in Sudan, is also looking to potential investments elsewhere in Africa: Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia.
Ramakrishna Karuturi does not feature on any international power list. Perhaps he should.
President Museveni on February 23 wrote to Finance Minister Syda Bbumba advising against allowing foreigners to buy large chunks of land in Uganda in order to grow food.
A group of Saudi-based investors announced earlier this monthy a seven-year plan to develop and plant 700,000 hectares to produce 7 million tonnes of rice in countries like Uganda.
The wheat farms in Sudan & Uganda are not Egypt’s first foray into overseas farming — the government operates a corn farm in Zambia, a rice farm in Niger, a vegetable farm in Tanzania and plans 14 more farms across Africa — but they are significant because they are among the first efforts to address wheat scarcity after the instability of 2008.
Le programme, du nom « 7X7 », prévoit de développer 700 000 ha de terres agricoles pour produire en 7 ans 7 millions de tonnes de riz au Mali, au Sénégal et peut-être au Soudan et en Ouganda.
The $1bn project, dubbed 7X7, aims at developing 700,000 ha of farmland to produce within 7 years 7 million tonnes of rice in Mali, Senegal and maybe Sudan and Uganda.
