As the issue of global food security was being discussed yesterday in Rome by world leaders, a senior UN official here highlighted the need for GCC countries to address their dependence on food imports.
Local provincial governments are working hard to develop farmland in other countries -- Russia, Cambodia, Mongolia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Paraguay, Uruguay -- because it’s cheaper than relying on imports
"We decided to update a previous feasibility study due to the fact that the prices of food items that will potentially be grown on the project's lands, including fodder and grains, have changed drastically over the past year," Jordan's Agriculture Ministry Secretary General Radhi Tarawneh said
Four months ago I travelled to the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines to research agriculture's new land grab phenomenon as part of my postgraduate research. I expected my findings to be a blend of arguments from both sides of the debate. However, I concluded that there was a strong case to be made against the proposition of a "win-win" situation for every stakeholder.
The ministerial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation met in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, last week, attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and representatives of more than 300 Chinese companies.
World farmers are not part of the official delegations at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food summit on food security that opened here Monday. But they came anyhow to express their views, since, they say, it is their communities that are most impacted by the food crisis.
I propose that a protest along this line in an international court be taken up to prevent loss of family farms in Latin America and Africa to the corporate landowners.
On Sunday 15 November 2009 over 100 people came together in Rome for a working group about control over food producing resources. At the top of the meeting's agenda was the current global farmland grab. "We need a people's politics and a people's voice to stop this landgrabbing," said a pastoralist from Gujarat.
The private sector can play a key role in the fight against hunger, but humanitarian groups accuse multi-nationals of mounting an "offensive" to take over the agricultural sector in the developing world.
Al Salam Bank has announced plans to launch a new $100 million agricultural investment company in Bahrain which will focus on east Asia and Turkey.
Madagascar’s government has ended a water export deal with Saudi Arabia because it was opposed by environmental, civil society groups in the country.
Land investments in Ukraine agriculture
