Africa gives away their farmland to Arab investors
2 April 2010 | By Daniel Elombah
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the Sudan and Ethiopia.
needs," Enbong Jimie Idiong, chief executive of Global Corp Ltd, told
Reuters in an interview.
In what the Financial Times, has termed “rapacious”, rich nations are
trotting the globe buying up the natural resources of poor countries.
Foreign investors have acquired some 15-20 million hectares of
farmland in poorer countries since 2006, according to the International
Food Policy Research Institute.
There are more than 100 similar land-grabs globally, since September
2008, where huge tracts of farmland are bought up by wealthy
countries as well international corporations.
The Gulf States are in the lead in this new investment. Bahrain, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait,Oman, Qatar, controlling between them 45% of the
world's oil, are snatching AGRICULTURAL LAND in Egypt, Ethiopia,
Cameroon, Zambia, Uganda, but also in Cambodia, Brazil, Kazakhstan,
Ukraine and Russia.
South Korea has grabbed a staggering 960,000 hectares in Sudan, the
largest country in Africa, where at least 6 other rich countries are said
to have secured large land-holding – and precisely where the local
population are among the hungriest and least secure in the world.
The Saudis are negotiating 500,000 hectares (not acres) in Tanzania.
Companies for the United Arab Emirates have snapped up 324,000
hectares in Pakistan. Highly populated countries like China, South Korea
and India have acquired swathes of African farmland to produce food
for export.
India recently lowered tariffs for Ethiopian commodities that could enter
India after the Indian government lent money to 80 Indian companies to
buy 350,000 hectares of farmland in Africa, particularly huge tracts in
Kenya, Mozambique and Ethiopia.
Mr Philippe Heilberg, a US businessman, has laid claim to 4,000 sq km
of fertile territory in a deal with the family of a notorious warlord in
south Sudan where Land is not in short supply.
More than a century ago, Cecil Rhodes extracted mineral rights from
King Lobengula of the Ndebele and used these to push the frontiers of
theBritish Empire beyond the Limpopo River. Some 120 years later,
Zimbabwe is still struggling to overcome a legacy of unequal land
distribution.
Mr Heilberg, a former Wall Street banker may be no Rhodes – his
recent forays into Africa have yet to bear much fruit and include an
acrimonious dispute over claims to an oil concession in south Sudan.
His latest venture does, though, have a decidedly 19th-century flavour
to it. With the Arabs, UAE and China, he is buying up huge tracts of
land in Sudan while the Sudanese are foolishly fighting over Darfur and
now selling off their lands in addition.
The European Union would soon cut off the unsustainable farm
subsidies. President Barack Obama also proposes to cut off massive
funding to unsustainable subsidies to American farmers.
The result would be a huge demand for foodstuff in the future. The
Sudanese, Nigerians and other poor countries that theink they make
wise investments today by mortgaging their farmlands would quickly
realise that they have short-changed themselves.
They would simply discover that a God-given resource that would
constitute a strong bargaining chip has been taken out of their hands of
forever.
What is Nigeria's justification for selling their birthrights for a pot of
porridge?
Nigeria has around 71.2 million hectares of farmland, of which less that
50 percent is being used, according to data from Global Corp Ltd.
"We need investment to fully utilize this land and we will allow the
investors to export back 100 percent of the crop and this will create
employment opportunities for people in Nigeria," said Idiong, a
consultant with Global Corp.
The land could be leased for up to 30 to 40 years at a cost of around
$10,000 per hectare for that period, he said.
"Because of the large size of land we can offer investors as much as
they want, and there is no particular kind of crop that can't be grown in
Nigeria."
But writing on 'Re-Colonization of Africa through Buying Agricultural
Land: Wealthy Nations and Their Multinationals on the Rampage',
Akinyi Princess of K'Orinda-Yimbo wrote:
“Africans are being colonised again and this time not with the power of
weapons but through Africans themselves selling their continent
willingly. The 99- and 999-year lease – a remnant of colonialists –
surely cannot fool anybody. This is equivalent to a full century and/or
full millennium which translates into three and a half to thirty-four
consecutive generations of Africans”.
He continued: “Africans are selling the one natural resource they can't
afford to sell – their land. Especially arable land... The new colonialism
is vast in Africa, with the buyers being wealthy countries unable to
grow their own food. The Arabs are back fleeing their barren sands to
turn Africa into their granary like they did one and a half millennia ago
(in Egypt at the time).”
In the upcoming decades, several global developments will create new
challenges for mankind. We will be confronted with problems and
obstacles such as climate change, population growth beyond earth's
capacity, and an increase in demand for energy and water caused by a
striving for prosperity and expansion.
Africans should start thinking of themselves as worthwhile human
beings too, plan for tomorrow and join forces to keep what is theirs
theirs.
"Otherwise Africans might as well follow the butcher meekly to the
slaughter house because that's where they're going to end up – in
“native reserves” dying off as a people until the few Africans left are
put in museums like they were once the main attraction in circuses all
over the West in the 18th through early 20th centuries".
2 April 2010 | By Daniel Elombah
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- I was dismayed when
I read that Nigeria is
offering to lease
farmland to Gulf
countries seeking food
security and will allow
investors to export all
of their produce. Gulf
Arab countries reliant
on food imports have
intensified efforts over
the Sudan and Ethiopia.
needs," Enbong Jimie Idiong, chief executive of Global Corp Ltd, told
Reuters in an interview.
In what the Financial Times, has termed “rapacious”, rich nations are
trotting the globe buying up the natural resources of poor countries.
Foreign investors have acquired some 15-20 million hectares of
farmland in poorer countries since 2006, according to the International
Food Policy Research Institute.
There are more than 100 similar land-grabs globally, since September
2008, where huge tracts of farmland are bought up by wealthy
countries as well international corporations.
The Gulf States are in the lead in this new investment. Bahrain, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait,Oman, Qatar, controlling between them 45% of the
world's oil, are snatching AGRICULTURAL LAND in Egypt, Ethiopia,
Cameroon, Zambia, Uganda, but also in Cambodia, Brazil, Kazakhstan,
Ukraine and Russia.
South Korea has grabbed a staggering 960,000 hectares in Sudan, the
largest country in Africa, where at least 6 other rich countries are said
to have secured large land-holding – and precisely where the local
population are among the hungriest and least secure in the world.
The Saudis are negotiating 500,000 hectares (not acres) in Tanzania.
Companies for the United Arab Emirates have snapped up 324,000
hectares in Pakistan. Highly populated countries like China, South Korea
and India have acquired swathes of African farmland to produce food
for export.
India recently lowered tariffs for Ethiopian commodities that could enter
India after the Indian government lent money to 80 Indian companies to
buy 350,000 hectares of farmland in Africa, particularly huge tracts in
Kenya, Mozambique and Ethiopia.
Mr Philippe Heilberg, a US businessman, has laid claim to 4,000 sq km
of fertile territory in a deal with the family of a notorious warlord in
south Sudan where Land is not in short supply.
More than a century ago, Cecil Rhodes extracted mineral rights from
King Lobengula of the Ndebele and used these to push the frontiers of
theBritish Empire beyond the Limpopo River. Some 120 years later,
Zimbabwe is still struggling to overcome a legacy of unequal land
distribution.
Mr Heilberg, a former Wall Street banker may be no Rhodes – his
recent forays into Africa have yet to bear much fruit and include an
acrimonious dispute over claims to an oil concession in south Sudan.
His latest venture does, though, have a decidedly 19th-century flavour
to it. With the Arabs, UAE and China, he is buying up huge tracts of
land in Sudan while the Sudanese are foolishly fighting over Darfur and
now selling off their lands in addition.
The European Union would soon cut off the unsustainable farm
subsidies. President Barack Obama also proposes to cut off massive
funding to unsustainable subsidies to American farmers.
The result would be a huge demand for foodstuff in the future. The
Sudanese, Nigerians and other poor countries that theink they make
wise investments today by mortgaging their farmlands would quickly
realise that they have short-changed themselves.
They would simply discover that a God-given resource that would
constitute a strong bargaining chip has been taken out of their hands of
forever.
What is Nigeria's justification for selling their birthrights for a pot of
porridge?
Nigeria has around 71.2 million hectares of farmland, of which less that
50 percent is being used, according to data from Global Corp Ltd.
"We need investment to fully utilize this land and we will allow the
investors to export back 100 percent of the crop and this will create
employment opportunities for people in Nigeria," said Idiong, a
consultant with Global Corp.
The land could be leased for up to 30 to 40 years at a cost of around
$10,000 per hectare for that period, he said.
"Because of the large size of land we can offer investors as much as
they want, and there is no particular kind of crop that can't be grown in
Nigeria."
But writing on 'Re-Colonization of Africa through Buying Agricultural
Land: Wealthy Nations and Their Multinationals on the Rampage',
Akinyi Princess of K'Orinda-Yimbo wrote:
“Africans are being colonised again and this time not with the power of
weapons but through Africans themselves selling their continent
willingly. The 99- and 999-year lease – a remnant of colonialists –
surely cannot fool anybody. This is equivalent to a full century and/or
full millennium which translates into three and a half to thirty-four
consecutive generations of Africans”.
He continued: “Africans are selling the one natural resource they can't
afford to sell – their land. Especially arable land... The new colonialism
is vast in Africa, with the buyers being wealthy countries unable to
grow their own food. The Arabs are back fleeing their barren sands to
turn Africa into their granary like they did one and a half millennia ago
(in Egypt at the time).”
In the upcoming decades, several global developments will create new
challenges for mankind. We will be confronted with problems and
obstacles such as climate change, population growth beyond earth's
capacity, and an increase in demand for energy and water caused by a
striving for prosperity and expansion.
Africans should start thinking of themselves as worthwhile human
beings too, plan for tomorrow and join forces to keep what is theirs
theirs.
"Otherwise Africans might as well follow the butcher meekly to the
slaughter house because that's where they're going to end up – in
“native reserves” dying off as a people until the few Africans left are
put in museums like they were once the main attraction in circuses all
over the West in the 18th through early 20th centuries".
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