The Kenyan government has awarded sections of the 250,000-acre irrigation scheme to three firms: Selu Africa Limited, Nyumbani Foundation, and Al Dahra of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Several companies have already been allocated land on the farm, including Nyumba Group and Selu Farm Limited, each receiving 5,000 acres. Other partners include Bayer Crop Science, Yara, and Irrico International.
New report points to a surge in demand for land in the Global South, where large tracts of land are suitable for carbon projects, but land tenure systems are often insecure or informal.
"Oman’s food-security programmes and water technology can link with East Africa’s arable land and examples are Kenya’s tea and coffee farms and Tanzania’s horticulture," the Chairman of East African Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture says
The director of Sahal Agro-Holdings Limited, who is embroiled in a fierce legal battle over a 100,000-acre parcel of land at Galana Kulalu, was arrested on Friday.
Global property consultancy Knight Frank says 83% of the wealth managers in Kenya it asked about investment trends said their clients are now investing in farmland primarily for food production.
President William Ruto has defended the government’s decision to partner with three private firms in the revival of the multi-billion-shilling Galana Kulalu irrigation project.
Protest by community members opposed to a soil carbon project on Indigenous-owned grazing land prevented the signing of a 40-year lease on some 68,000 hectares of land as part of the much larger Kajiado Rangeland Carbon Project.
Agricultural ventures feature prominently, with Shandong Jialejia Agriculture committing Sh3.9 billion to a 500,000-hen egg farm in Kajiado, Zonken Group investing Sh41.6 billion in a 300-acre aloe vera processing plant in Baringo and Sh10.4 billion for a 72-acre grape vineyard.
The Kenyan government is planning on leasing at least 350,000 acres of land under its control to private companies as part of plans to increase food production over the next decade.
Study finds that two large-scale carbon projects on the grazing lands of the Maasai in Tanzania have committed serious abuses and make traditional grazing practices impossible.
Al Dahra Group is interested in 180,000 acres. Selu Ltd, another private party has eyes on 20,000. Currently, NIA has 10,000 acres under irrigation with plans to add another 10,000 in the medium term.
