As the following 2008 report from GRAIN indicates, the list of countries
involved in land acquisition for food and financial security is long indeed
(not limited to Korea and India alone)
See http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=212 for full report. A syopsis follows:
New from GRAIN
24 October 2008
http://www.grain.org/nfg/?id=610
Seized: The 2008 land grab for food and financial security
A new report from GRAIN
Today's food and financial crises have, in tandem, triggered a new global land
grab. "Food insecure" governments that rely on imports to feed their
people are
snapping up farms all over the world to outsource their own food
production and
escape high market prices. Private investors, hungry for profits in the midst
of the deepening financial crisis, are eyeing overseas farms as an important
new source of revenue. As a result of both trends, fertile agricultural
land is
being swiftly privatised and consolidated by foreign companies in some of the
world's poorest and hungriest countries. A new report from GRAIN examines 100
cases of agricultural land grabbing -- whether for food or simply for
profit --
that have exploded this year.
Saudi Arabia and China are just two nations out buying farms, from Sudan to
Cambodia, to satisfy their own food needs. In these cases, governments,
sometimes through sovereign wealth funds, are negotiating rights to foreign
land -- whether by purchase, concession or lease -- so that their corporations
can come in and produce food to export back home. In return, they are offering
oil contracts, soft loans, infrastructure projects and development funds. The
food-hungry land grabbers include China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Egypt,
Libya, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
Those giving up their land, in exchange for the oil deals or investments,
include the Philippines, Mozambique, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Laos,
Indonesia, Pakistan, Sudan, Uganda, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ukraine,
Russia,
Kazakhstan and Zimbabwe.
Investing in farms abroad to produce food for a tight world market is also,
apparently, a hot way to make money these days. Throughout this year, an army
of investment houses, private equity managers and hedge funds have been out
purchasing farmland throughout the world. The plan is to capitalise on
low land
costs and high food prices wherever fertile farmland is available, such as in
Ukraine, China, Russia, Nigeria, Argentina, Brazil and Kazakhstan. The
money-hungry land grabbers include familiar names such as Goldman
Sachs, Morgan
Stanley, BlackRock and Louis Dreyfus, but there are plenty of others. And they
are getting help from agencies like the World Bank, its International Finance
Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, who are
pressing target countries to change their laws and make stronger land
ownership
by foreigners possible.
While political leaders and UN bodies are trying to "manage" the potential
backlash, farmers' organisations, opposition parties, human rights groups and
others are challenging and resisting these deals. But much more needs to be
done to stop this massive sell-out of the very basis of food sovereignty.
Vanmala Hiranandani, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor,
School of Social Work and
Department of International Studies,
Dalhousie University,
6414 Coburg Road,
Halifax, NS B3H 2A7
Canada
Quoting Dereka Rushbrook <[log in to unmask]>:
> And an article from a couple months ago on India's potential plans:
>
> http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Economy/Govt_India_Inc_to_farm_land_abroad/articleshow/3438120.cms
>
>
|