Radio 4 Food Fights tonight + FarmLandGrab (email list)]

[Darren Hill]

-------- Original Message --------


1. Two-part radio doc on land grabs called "Food Fights" starts tonight (Monday) on BBC Radio 4 at 9pm: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qtthh
 
2. Apologies if the FarmLandGrab email list has been flagged up 
previously (see below).
 
Best wishes,
Phil
www.climateradio.org <http://www.climateradio.org>
 
----- Original Message -----
*From:* farmlandgrab.org <mailto:info at farmlandgrab.org>
*To:* farmlandgrab.org <mailto:info at farmlandgrab.org>
*Sent:* Friday, February 19, 2010 10:31 AM
*Subject:* [Food crisis and the global land grab] Weekly email

*Food crisis and the global land grab *

Weekly email update (19 February 2010)

http://farmlandgrab.org/

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*Agriculture contractuelle, entre sécurité économique et spéculation 
foncière <http://farmlandgrab.org/11253>* (19 February 2010 08:06)
La véritable nouveauté semble être le déplacement de l’épicentre de la 
spéculation de l’économie virtuelle vers l’économie réelle, précisément 
l’agriculture de marché, qui est non pas un facteur de sécurité 
alimentaire, mais la source même de péril climatique, d’insécurité 
alimentaire, et d’insécurité tout court.

*Emergent Asset Management claims to run the biggest agricultural fund 
in Africa, but it is not clear how much progress has been made on the 
ground <http://farmlandgrab.org/11247>* (18 February 2010 23:29)
There is something amazingly patronising in the way Payne claims that 
Emergent has ‘adopted’ a Mozambican village of 3,000 people and hired 
its citizens to clear 2,000 acres of land to farm it with her firm.

*L'Indonésie veut devenir l'un des garde-manger du monde 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11260>* (18 February 2010 23:15)
Suivant l'exemple du Brésil, l'Indonésie ambitionne de devenir un grand 
producteur agro-alimentaire, en proposant des centaines de milliers 
d'hectares de rizières et de champs aux investisseurs nationaux et 
étrangers.

*Kingdom must have agriculture base, says Al-Rasheed 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11242>* (18 February 2010 22:35)
The chairman of Golden Gras says the solution to problems around buying 
farmland abroad for Saudi food production is 60:40 partnerships.

*Proposed agricultural deal carries risk for Cambodia's rural poor 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11233>* (18 February 2010 22:17)
BKK Partners, an Australian financial advisory firm, has a client that 
wants to buy 100,000 ha of Cambodian farmland. Human rights workers and 
politicians are concerned.

*IDB eyes Qatar funds to double farm financing 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11225>*(17 February 2010 20:06)
Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank is tapping Qatar’s sovereign 
wealth fund as well as other government and private entities as the bank 
seeks to double financing for agriculture sector in developing countries.

*Egypt offers 50,000 acres of farmland for agri-products 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11213>* (17 February 2010 03:51)
Egypt will invite bids in March for 50,000 acres of land in North Sinai 
for agro-business projects under a new land scheme that could bring in 
as much as 66bn Egyptian pounds ($12bn) by 2020.

*Bringing jobs, energy to Sierra Leone or another African land grab? 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11205>* (16 February 2010 22:20)
In the last four years, an area the size of Germany has been bought or 
rented to produce food and fuel in Africa. But not by Africans, nor for 
Africans, say critics.

*Hungarian MPs favor ban on sale of farmland to foreigners 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11201>* (16 February 2010 09:51)
Parliament yesterday approved a resolution calling on the government to 
get the EU to extend a ban on the purchase of farmland by foreigners for 
another three years. The current moratorium will end in 2011.

*Egypt and Uganda mull wheat farmland options 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11151>* (15 February 2010 22:57)
Three options both governments were looking at are whether Egyptian 
investors would own and cultivate farmland, whether land would be owned 
in partnership with Egypt and Uganda, or whether land would be owned as 
a concession right.

*Farm investors must avoid resentment: IFAD 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11147>* (15 February 2010 22:49)
Foreign investors must avoid provoking resentment as they buy and lease 
farmland from developing nations by using local manpower instead of 
industrialised agriculture, the head of the UN's IFAD said.

*Africa's land and family farms - up for grabs? 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11144>* (15 February 2010 22:18)
Over the years many Big Ideas have been imposed on Africa from outside. 
The latest is that the region should sell or lease millions of hectares 
of land to foreign investors.

*Landowners ready to lease farmlands to foreigners 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11120>* (14 February 2010 03:05)
Two years ago, the Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture, NWFP, Pakistan was 
contacted by investors from the Gulf states through a letter showing 
interest in acquiring farmlands on lease under the corporate farming 
being introduced by the government.

*Saudi's Nadec to obtain farmland in Sudan 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11112>* (14 February 2010 02:49)
Saudi-based National Agricultural Development Co (Nadec) said on Sunday 
it has completed procedures to obtain a 42,000-hectare farmland in Sudan.

*UAE's MEC in talks to lease Indonesian farmland 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11110>* (14 February 2010 02:45)
Minerals Energy Commodities Holding (MEC) is in talks with Indonesia to 
lease 100,000 ha of farmland in East Kalimantan for UAE's food security.

*Catching Cambodia on the cusp of development 
<http://farmlandgrab.org/11114>* (14 February 2010 01:57)
Leopard Capital's second Cambodian fund is expected to continue 
investment in agriculture, as well as potentially including investment 
in Laos.

*Boom time for Africa investors <http://farmlandgrab.org/11116>* (14 
February 2010 00:57)
There are some 17 private equity funds expecting to invest $2bn-odd in 
agriculture in Africa in the next two years. **

*Up for grabs: Deforestation and exploitation in Papua’s plantations 
boom <http://farmlandgrab.org/11041>* (11 November 2009)
The planned expansion of plantations in the Papuan provinces of 
Indonesia should be immediately suspended and reviewed amid concerns 
over massive deforestation and widespread exploitation of local 
communities, environmentalists warned today.

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