Thousands of Ethiopians are being driven off their ancestral land that the government's selling without their consent to foreign investors buying up vast swathes of farmland, a U.S. watchdog reports.
Speakers to include reps from IFC, Phatisa, AAF, Ruchi Soya, Vita Rice, Swiss Re, ECOWAS, and the Government of Ghana.
He said the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority and Finance Ministry would sign agreements with foreign countries to ensure investment security of Saudis.
Report prepared for DFID considers the impacts of large-scale land acquisitions on local food insecurity and malnutrition levels.
The Turkish Ministry of Food and Animal Husbandry purchased 5,000 square kilometers of farmland in the country's fertile south, where it secured land rights for the next 99 years
The world is in transition from an era of food abundance to one of scarcity. Over the last decade, world grain reserves have fallen by one third. World food prices have more than doubled, triggering a worldwide land rush and ushering in a new geopolitics of food. Food is the new oil. Land is the new gold.
Thousands of Ethiopians are being relocated or have already fled as their land is sold off to foreign investors without their consent.
Indian companies that have invested in agriculture in Ethiopia are under fire from civil society groups. The companies have been accused of large-scale land grabbing, which has led to displacement of the tribal population there.
The Cairns Mayor says he would support the sale of agricultural land to Chinese investors if it was good for the far north Queensland region of Australia.
Of the countries that lost the highest percentages of their cultivated land to land grabs, nine out of 10 have malnourishment rates of 5 percent or more.
Would developing countries choose a development path built on inclusiveness, respect for the rights of their citizens, and the rule of law? Or would they seek a short-cut to development and opt to hand over community land and natural resources to international investors and national elites?
Over the last decade, food-importing nations and private investors have been securing land abroad to use for agriculture. Poor governments have embraced these deals, but their people are in danger of losing their patrimony, not to mention their sources of food.
