Dominion Farms will start planting rice in December 2012 on its 30,000 ha rice farm in Taraba and has trained 50 commercial farmers in Kenya who will soon start their own commercial rice operations in Nigeria.
Recently, the Federal Government of Nigeria signed a Joint Venture Agreement on Commercial Rice farming with Calvin Burgess, owner and principal promoter of the Oklahoma-based Dominion Farms Limited.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, speaking at the signing of an agreement between the Federal government, Tabara and Dominion Farms of the US, has challenged African leaders to find a lasting solution to food shortages in Africa
The Dominion Farms at Yala Swamp, Kenya has seen the local community turn against what they initially welcomed with open hands.
The people living on the lands now being targeted by US-owned Dominion Farms can learn a lot from the film Good Fortune, which provides a behind-the-scenes account of the struggle of a local community in Kenya to defend their lands from this company.
Calvin Burgess recorded statement to police over threats on his life after he was chased by angry villagers who were protesting eviction from their farms which the company insists belongs to them.
A US firm, Dominion Farms, has acquired 30,000 hectares of swampy land in Gassol Local Government of Taraba State in Nigeria for commercial rice farming.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has led a Kenya-based American investor to inspect about 30,000 hectares of marshy land in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State for possible commercial rice cultivation
Most of the current and past conflicts over Dominion Farms’ development of the Yala swamp can be traced back to three structural problems: poor communication, cultural and social misunderstanding and political involvement.
A behind-the-scenes account of the struggle of a local community in Kenya to protect their livelihoods, as US-owned Dominion Farms takes their lands.
"Investors like Citadel Capital and Goldman Sachs must be stopped from acquiring large tracts of land in Africa because this practice has become a serious threat to the continent's food sovereignty"
