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Donald Trump stole headlines as US president when he was reported to be interested by 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 follow. Turkey is amongst these searching for pastures new so as 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 accordance with Grain, an NGO monitoring farmland leases which makes use of knowledge from the undertaking farmlandgrab.org. These offers coated greater than 30mn hectares of land in 78 nations, many in Africa. That provides to stress on depleting sources corresponding to water. However the sprint for meals, exacerbated by refugee crises, local weather change and conflict, suggests extra exercise to come back.
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 instructed the FT on the time. “Meals is usually a weapon on this world.”
The backlash that the deal triggered, not least as a result of it performed an element in unseating President Marc Ravalomanana, shrank a number of future plans. Others, together with in Latin America, have been restructured into extra palatable codecs, corresponding to these based mostly on securing farms’ output somewhat 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 checklist on Nasdaq on the finish of June. AAGR says that it has supplied faculties and meals in Senegal, and is seen as a power 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 will probably be lots 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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