Massive neocolonial land grab for food, fuel cropland nabs 50 million acres in Africa, Russia, Ukraine

In Africa, Business Week and VUE Weekly are reporting on the rise of neocolonialism as massive land grans are undertaken by Saudi Arabia, China the United Arab Emirates, as well as European interests.

The goal is food and energy security for the investor nation, but voices are being raised in question over the stability of such arrangements in light of African food shortages and political strife, as well as the adviseability of the land programs in light of the same.

To date, South Korea acquired 1,704,000 acres of Sudanese land for wheat cultivation; the Emirates is investing in the acquisition of 933,000 acres, also in the Sudan, for corn, alfalfa, wheat, potato and bean cultivation. Saudi Arabia is reportedly seeking 1,235,000 acres, while China has purchased 6.9 million acres in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for an oil palm plantation and is seeking 4.94 million acres in Zambia for a jatropha plantation.

British and other European interests have also been actively acquiring freehold and leases in Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania, including 5,500 acres for the UK’s Sun Biofuels in Tanzania, 24,700 hectares in Nigeria by Trans4mation Agritech, 111,000 acres in Tanzania by the CAMS group in Tanzania, 32,000 acres by SEKAB in Mozambique in a venture that is now being wound down.

In addition, some 1,627,000 acres have been acquired by similar interests in Russia and the Ukraine.

The total is estimated by BusinessWeek at a total of as much as 50 million acres at a cost of up to $40 billion. Journalists and NGOs are warning that while food productivity kept up with population growth in the 1960-2000 period, in the past 10 years population has been increasing as much as 3 percent per year while food productivity is “essentially flat” according to Vue Weekly.

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