Speaker Prosopero Nograles expressed optimism that the Philippines will be able to provide the food requirements of the Kingdom through possible Saudi investments in Mindanao.
As the vicious food price crisis deepens, transnational companies are moving into southern countries on a huge scale and starting to capture millions of hectares of land in order to bring agricultural production further under their control for industrial agrofuel and food production for the international market. Millions of peasants will be pushed out of food production, adding to the hungry in the rural areas and the slums of the big cities. The few that remain will work under full control of the transnational companies as workers or contract farmers.
Turkey can attract up to $9 billion funds from Gulf Arab funds, mainly in food and agriculture, the head of the Turkish Investment Support and Promotion Agency said on Monday. "We are working on a big project for the southeastern Anatolia region."
Qatar could invest in Sri Lanks’s agricultural sector, Ambassador Vijayasiri Padukkag pointed out. In the Eastern province, he said, there was plenty of vacant arable land where farms can be established.
King Abdullah received today Saudi Arabia's Minister of Commerce and Industry accompanied by two Saudi businessmen Mohammad Hussein Al-Amoudi and Abdullah Hassan Al-Masri on the occasion of the arrival of the earliest produce of their rice to the Kingdom.
In the largest single agricultural investment, Ethiopia’s richest man Sheik Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi, joined the bio-fuel sector in a joint venture with Jemal Ahmed, one of the biggest edible and palm oil importers in the country.
The Sudanese delegation to the Arab League is urging the pan-Arab organization to set up a food security fund worth at least $50 billion to ensure stable future food supplies, a Sudanese official said.
Rajoelina has recently and repeatedly condemned what he says are shrinking freedoms in Madagascar and also fiercely criticised a massive project to lease vast swathes of farmland to South Korean industrial giant Daewoo.
D’un côté, les multinationales et les pays acquéreurs de terres agricoles à l’étranger : pour eux, cela ne fait aucun doute, ces contrats représentent une opportunité pour des pays parfois très pauvres. De l’autre, les mouvements écologistes et les associations de défense des droits Humains : ils dénoncent le déséquilibre de ces contrats et les dérives inéluctables d’une telle pratique.
Il y a quelques années, en marge d’un sommet de la Communauté des États sahélo-sahariens (CEN-SAD) à Bamako, le président du Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, a offert 100 000 ha de terres à l’intérieur de l’Office du Niger, la principale zone de riziculture du Mali. La Libye, un pays qui regorge de pétrodollars mais ne dispose pas de sa propre production alimentaire, dirige dans les faits le CEN-SAD, et elle a sauté sur l’occasion.
A couple of years ago, on the sidelines of a summit of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) in Bamako, Mali’s President, Amadou Toumani Touré, offered up 100,000 ha of land within the Office du Niger, Mali’s main rice producing area. Libya, a country flush with petrodollars but lacking in its own food production, effectively runs CEN-SAD and it jumped at the chance.
Federal Government is seriously considering to raise 0.1 million police personnel in each province for increasing the security for the investors, Federal Minister of Investment, Senator Waqar Ahmad Khan said at a dinner hosted in honour of ambassadors of Western countries.
Last year South Africa became a net importer of food for the first time in more than 20 years, reigniting concerns about food security and the viability of some farming sectors.
Depuis quelques semaines, la tension monte entre le jeune maire d'Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, et le président de la République, Marc Ravalomanana.
Qatar and Malaysia have agreed to look at the possibility of investing in Islamic countries, particularly in growing food. Malaysian Foreign Minister Dr Rais Yatim told Gulf Times that certain states in his country did have land for joint cultivation but “what we are encouraging is for the two countries to go, for example, to Indonesia, or to another (Muslim) country”.
