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Donald Trump stole headlines as US president when he was reported to be serious about shopping for Greenland. The self-governing Danish territory rebuffed the concept and declared itself not on the market. However transnational land offers are hardly an anomaly.
Meals insecurity is accelerating the observe. Turkey is amongst these searching for pastures new with a purpose to feed its inhabitants. As inflation soars, the nation hopes to revive a flagging deal for a 99-year lease on 800,000 hectares in Sudan.
Almost 500 such offers happened within the decade to 2016 in response to Grain, an NGO monitoring farmland leases which makes use of information from the undertaking farmlandgrab.org. These offers coated greater than 30mn hectares of land in 78 international locations, many in Africa. That provides to strain on depleting assets akin to water. However the sprint for meals, exacerbated by refugee crises, local weather change and conflict, suggests extra exercise to return.
Personal corporations have joined the land seize. In 2008 South Korea’s Daewoo Logistics snaffled a 99-year lease on 1.3mn hectares — half the scale of Belgium — in Madagascar. Proposed price ticket: zero. “We need to plant corn there to make sure our meals safety,” a supervisor informed the FT on the time. “Meals could be a weapon on this world.”
The backlash that the deal triggered, not least as a result of it performed a component in unseating President Marc Ravalomanana, shrank a number of future plans. Others, together with in Latin America, have been restructured into extra palatable codecs, akin to these based mostly on securing farms’ output relatively than the land itself.
However controversial offers are nonetheless going forward. The Abu Dhabi-based Elite Agro, an enormous landowner in Serbia, has signed a deal for farmland in Madagascar. US-based African Agriculture (AAGR) has huge plans for rising alfalfa in Senegal and late final yr inked agreements for land in Niger.
The group, which is managed by Romanian-Australian mining tycoon Frank Timis, filed to listing on Nasdaq on the finish of June. AAGR says that it has offered colleges and meals in Senegal, and is seen as a drive for good. However some communities in Senegal are pushing again, saying the land belongs to them. They’re demanding that or not it’s returned.
There shall be a lot extra scuffles between native populations and new international landlords. However such fights are unlikely to stem the tide of land funding.
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