The land projects envisaged in the agreement to receive US$480 million grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the United States will enhance tenure security and tradability of land for smallholders, women, and firms.
NGOs have filed a complaint at the OECD against the Dutch bank ING Group regarding its financing of oil palm companies involved in deforestation (Noble Group), land grabbing (Bolloré Group/Socfin) and child labor (Wilmar International).
Cambodian villagers will appeal a Thai court decision rejecting their class action lawsuit against Thailand's biggest sugar producer, Mitr Phol. The class action lawsuit, filed in April last year on behalf of more than 3,000 Cambodian plaintiffs, accused the Thai sugar giant violently displacing them to make way for plantations.
As evidenced in Liberia, World Bank support has gone to multinational corporations involved in vicious land grabs that have succeeded in displacing thousands of poor villagers from their ancestral lands
Plantation Socfinaf Ghana (PSG), a subsidiary of the group, has cultivated a little in excess of 6,000 hectares of Oil Palm that can supply about 40% capacity of their new Factory scheduled to start production before October this year 2019.
A 15,000-hectare concession awarded to Karuturi Global in Ethiopia’s Gambela region has left locals fearing their ancestral lands will be cleared for agribusiness once again by the Indian firm.
The Liberian Observer has reliably gathered that the International Finance Corporation has tabled all SRC’s loan application processes pending full scale investigation into a recent complaint filed against it by 22 indigenous Liberian communities.
While Qatar has adopted a more indirect approach to its foreign agricultural investment and increased domestic production of some food products, it is unlikely that it will be able to significantly reduce its dependence on foreign food supplies in the long term.
According to asset managers, a window is emerging for institutional money to flow into agriculture due to change of ownership, notably in markets such as Australia and the US.
The government of Brunei offering heavily subsidised land for rent to both locals and foreigners. 300 hectares of government-owned agricultural land have been given out over the past two years as part of state efforts to fuel growth of agriculture industry.
Apart from its own 3000 acre (1200ha) farm, Zhong's Industries Ltd plans to also use the out-grower model where millions of acres of land will be opened up for rice farming across the country.
A UNIDROIT Working Group is currently developing, in collaboration with FAO and IFAD, a future Legal Guide on Agricultural Land Investment Contracts. The online consultation on the ALIC Zero Draft is open from 1 June until 30 September 2019.
