"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."
He owns land eight times the size of Mumbai, most of it in distant Ethiopia. His company, Karuturi Global, figures among the top 25 agri transnational corporations. But he wants more -- to break into the top 10 and rub shoulders with the likes of ConAgro and Cargill.
Ramakrishna Karuturi does not feature on any international power list. Perhaps he should.
In a bid to boost rice production, the government of Anambra is to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Vietnam Africa Agricultural Development Company (VAADC) to begin mechanised production of rice.
While Cargill says it is committed to sustainable and responsible palm oil production across its three plantations in PNG, the firm has been targeted by local and international NGOs, which claim it has polluted rivers and deceived local communities into signing agreements they do not understand.
The government of Tanzania has refuted media reports indicating that it has leased out 1000 square kilometres of farmland to South Koreans.
Des investisseurs chinois lorgnent des terres dans la région de Saint-Hyacinthe.
The Korea Rural Community Corporation, under the Agriculture Ministry, said it is also in talks with other resource-rich countries about deals in exchange for support for the construction of agricultural infrastructure or farms. Among the negotiating partners mentioned were Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Senegal and Mongolia.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) urges the government to seriously reconsider its plan to sell land to Saudi Arabia and other foreign investors, taking into account the welfare of hundreds of thousands of peasants whose livelihood will be directly affected.
"This land [100,000 ha] is not meant to be leased to the Koreans as such, but a mechanism will be worked out on how the land must be processed," said a spokesperson for Tanzania's prime minister.
South Korea will develop 100,000 ha of farmland in Tanzania to make inroads into African and European markets, a state-run rural development corporation said Thursday.
The 'Food Pirates' are fast expanding their network, their reach and their control over land. And it is happening fast in our own neighbourhood, writes Devinder Sharma.
