UAE

An Afro-Arab agriculture conference on farm investment, which was to take place in Zanzibar, has been cancelled due to the Tanzanian governmnt's 11th hour refusal to host it.

As part of its policy of food security, Abu Dhabi acquired 30,000 hectares of land last June through its development fund to grow alfalfa, which is used to feed cattle, and other crops such as corn.

"We have acquired a very large piece of agricultural land in the Nile Delta – a 15,000 sq km tract of land where we will be producing for international markets, including the Arab World."

Bangkok was wary of GCC efforts to ensure its food supplies by purchasing rice growing lands, and now political instability is chilling the investment climate. Tom Spender reports

During Pervez Musharraf’s time, Beijing had proposed that it be leased 2,000 acres of land for a period of 10 to 15 years with the agreement that China would make technological and financial investments in the land, invest in newer forms of seeds and other products and leave the new infrastructure to the state or the owners after the termination of the contract.

It is unfortunate that even as deals that involve land which should belong to the people of Pakistan are struck, there has been so little public debate about the plan. We need to be informed of what is planned. Protests need too to be mobilized. In the prevailing political environment of Pakistan, the people who stand to lose the most have almost no spokesmen.

PAVA offers its shares to Gulf investors for food supplies. It will start road show to UAE and Saudi in October.

There are better means to meet the food needs of the Saudis than to lease thm land that belongs to the state and the people of Pakistan

What started as a government drive to secure cheap food resource has now become a viable business model and many Gulf companies are venturing into agricultural investments to diversify their portfolios.

The problem is that we will lose control. Of course, some regulatory framework will be put in place, but it will also include ceding of control over our land resource to foreigners for a yet-to-be-specified time period.

Agricultural experts have called for a halt to moves by Gulf investors to snap up foreign land, amid claims that poor nations are losing much-needed farmland in a calculated land grab.

Ministro das Relações Exteriores das Ilhas Maurício diz que seu governo assegurou uma vasta área de terra em Moçambique para produzir arroz para seu país.