KENYAN NEWSPAPER HAS CAUTIONED AFRICAN STATES AGAINST SELLING OR LEASING THE LAND TO RICH EUROPEAN, AMERICAN, CHINESE AND ARABS NATIONALS WHO PRODUCE FOOD THAT FEED THEIR FOREIGN COUNTRIES WHILE THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE STARVE TO DEATH.

News Analysis by Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

A Kenyan weekly newspaper this week wrote an article which cautioned many African states, especially those in the Great Lakes Region, against selling land to wealthy foreign companies and individuals.

The EASTAFRICAN says in its current edition that around 50 million hectares of arable and fertile African land has been “grabbed” by multinational and international companies to grow food for consumers in Europe, the Middle East, North America and China, quoting a just published new report.

It says that according to data collected by Grain, the International Land Coalition Action and other NGO group, the “land grab “has concentrated on 19 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and Ethiopia.

But the biggest purchaser of land across the continent is Saudi Arabia, with its investment company called Foras, backed by the Islamic Development Bank, now looking to augment its purchases in Uganda, Sudan, Mali and Senegal.

“Leading the big rush are international agribusinesses, investment banks, hedge funds, commodity traders, sovereign wealth funds as well as UK pension funds…who are attracted by some of the world’s cheapest lands“, the report says.

But paying the cost for this massive land grab is all too often, poor local people, who are often not consulted about the purchase of land they have used for generations.

As a result the land grab, which most often, is done in secret deals, is being labeled the “21st century colonization”.

Defenders of the land purchase, however, argue that done correctly in open discussions with local people, it can be of benefit.

The report quoted one Lorenzo Cotula, who works for the International Institute for Environment and Development as having told a London weekly, the OBSERVER, that the well structured deals could guarantee employment, better infrastructure and better crop yields.

“Buying up agricultural land in Africa is seen as an insurance policy by China, countries in the Middle East and the West”, adds the report.

“Farmland in Sub-Saharan Africa is giving 25 per cent returns a year and new technology can treble crop yields in short time frames”, Susan Payne of the UK’s Emergent Asset Management Company is quoted in the report as having stated this in her remarks during an interview.

“Agriculture development is not only sustainable, it is our future. If we do not pay great care and attention now to increase food production by over 50 per cent before 2050,we will face serious food shortage globally”.

An added dimension to the controversy is the European Union’s insistence that by 2015, at least 10 per cent of all transport fuel must come from plant-biofuels. Action Aid, an international NGO, says it has evidence that the land being taken for biofuels is already displacing farmers and hindering food production.

The UK based agency warns that as a result more people are likely to go hungry.

TH report indicated, however, that a major World Bank report is due to roll out of the print in the coming weeks that is expected to spell out both the potential benefits and immense dangers that land acquisition programmes hold for the future.

Eleven countries are said to be involved in land purchases in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya alone, while Ethiopia is said to have sold off around 500,000 hectares of good agricultural land. However, the Ethiopians claim that only a small percentage –around 4 per cent-is offered to foreign investors and that they are not given land which belongs to local farmers.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com