The recent food crisis has triggered a rush for agricultural land overseas. We will debate this challenge at the North-South Forum, organised jointly by the NCCR North-South and the North-South Centre in Zurich on 18 May 2010
"This workshop is the first in the world to explicitly discuss the implications of the water/food/land deals nexus," according to Martin Keulertz, Department of Geography, King’s College London
Executives from the South Korean company Hyundai are negotiating with state governments for the purchase of land in Brazil, with the objective of planting and exporting soya to South Korea.
Environmentalists are up in arms over the latest design for the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate in Papua, which they say will see more than 1.1 million hectares of forests converted into agricultural estates.
La empresa automotriz surcoreana Hyundai anunció su intención de comprar diez mil hectáreas de tierras cultivables en Brasil para exportar soja (soya) hacia Corea del Sur
Executivos da empresa sul-coreana Hyundai negociam com governos estaduais a compra de terra no Brasil com o objetivo de plantar e exportar soja para a Coreia do Sul.
Prof Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, thinks Arab states should shore up their food security as global warming places stress on the world's agricultural resources. But he is not thinking of recent government initiatives to buy fertile farmland in other countries.
At a recent conference in Cairo, South Africa and Zimbabwe were the only African nations not considered safe havens for foreign farmland investment because of uncertainty about land-reform programmes and unfriendly labour environments.
GCC countries are doing the right thing by increasingly exploring investments in farmlands abroad, says Jasim Ali, Bahraini MP.
India should look at Latin American countries to keep its food security intact, argue public and private sector officials
"The government will trigger lifting of the moratorium on sale of farmland. We cannot form sustainable development of the land market without this step," says Ukraine's agrarian policy minister.
Tareq al- Zadjali, director general of the Arab Organization for Agriculture Development, wants to see more Arabs investing in agriculture within the Arab worlds’ borders rather than buying farms abroad in Asia and Africa.
And even though the World Bank has announced some tepid steps along with the United Nations to protect against land grabs, don't expect much out of the process.
Wall Street financiers now interested in channeling billions of new dollars into cropland include heavy hitters like UBS, Morgan Stanley and Rabobank.
Cargill and Bunge among firms setting up funds to buy farms in Asia and South America.
