Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Land Rush in Sudan



Extracts from the 21st century African land Rush

132 Projects
9.8 million acres of Agriculture Land
Share of Domestic Investors 78%
(Not necessarily Sudanese individuals, but companies)

----------------------

Jordan: 60,000 acres to grow crops and livestock
Kuwait: Unknown details of a strategic "Giant" deal
Egypt: Secured land to grow 2 million tons of wheat
Qatar: Unknown details of a joint holding company
Saudi: 2,27 million acres for food stuff
South Korea: 1.7 million acres wheat fields
Arab Emirates: 980,000 acres for food production
USA: Unknown details of a 1 million acres deal


How many Sudanese suffer from poverty, famine and unemployment..?
The domestic shares represent the 1% who controls wealth, government, politics and military
The hidden concession price would certainly pay the Sudanese Public Debt..!!
Yet; my folks keeping smiling; for a better tomorrow..!




In skillful and foxy PPP modeling; countries with food threat got concessions for its corporate to grow lands in countries with surplus argi-land..
These are Open Concessions for 999 years..
It can be a win-win situation, if the donors are capable to design the concessions of it a-must-related CSR programs..
However, no actual production started, and maybe will never be in this decade.. It is a future food security, even USA is involved in it..





If the issue is solely about securing food, I guess no one would mind.. But it is mostly designed to secure commodities production for bio-fuel..!


8 comments:

  1. Ibrahim Babiker

    Dear Adil
    I hope you are doing well.
    My Friends and I are very interested on one of your blogs (Land Rush in Sudan). we want to investigate the attached illustration further, but we couldn't locate the full document.
    This was very shocking, not that it's the only incident
    Can you send me more information about this or if you have the full document from FAO?
    Thank you so much

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Ibrahim;

    Thanks for your mail and interest..
    No need to be shocked.. what is hidden is certainly much bigger..!!
    What is coming will be more terrifying..!!
    Actually; it came in my way while browsing..
    I believe it was via an Eritrean webpage..
    You know, they are fighting the windmills..!!
    However; I did search again and found the followings:

    Attached a more-clear copy
    21st Century Land Rush in Africa

    The source as readable:
    Food and Agricultural Organization
    International Food Policy Research Institute
    It was mainly on AlJazeerah:
    http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/are-foreign-investors-colonising-africa-0021551

    Also, was included in the following blogs:

    http://homespunwisdom.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/land-lease-deals-in-africa-a-new-neocolonialism-or-an-important-way-for-african-nations-to-acquire-investment-funds/
    http://homespunwisdom.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/21st-century-african-rush1.jpg
    http://thecynicaltendency.blogspot.com/2011/06/aid-for-africa.html

    Thanks, as your note had enabled updating my blog with the vedio clip

    All the best...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ibrahim Babiker

    Many thanks to you Adil...I always learn something new from your Blog

    I know a Sudanese researcher at kirwaninstitute.org who was talking to me about the same thing a while back. I will forward this information to him and see if he can shed more light on the subject. I will certainly share this information with you if I hear back from him.

    Best Regards

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ibrahim Babiker

    Habeebna Elsadig
    Can you help me locate more information about this subject?
    Thank you ya basha
    Ibrahim

    ReplyDelete
  5. great to see your message, i hope all is well with you & family.

    there's so much information on the issues; however, the government of sudan hiding all the info with secrecy, so little you can find on the north. on south sudan there is much info thou, i'm attaching 4 reports/studies done by our partners (david deng) on south sudan, (anuradha mittal) from oakland institute, a good study by (lorenzo cotula), and this one by the world bank (its tricky to read through, watch out).

    let me know if you need something else.

    Elsadig Elsheikh
    Senior Research Associate | Global Justice Program
    The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

    The Ohio State University | 425 Mendenhall Laboratory.Columbus OH 43210
    T: 614.688.6334 F: 614.688.5592 E: elsheikh.1@osu.edu W: www.kirwaninstitute.org/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Adil

    Here are more information about the subject. I hope you find this useful.

    Best Regards
    Ibrahim

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Ibrahim..

    Thanks a lot for the reports and information

    Yes, as your friend had put it: "the government of sudan hiding all the info with secrecy.."

    Personally, I address the issue in two separate levels..

    1st, there is no harm to contribute to food security for countries that already plan and arrange for future crisis management. I know the same happening in many countries, funded by wealthy GCC and others.. Treating the issue in secrecy is silly and immature, because it is after all shared information; due to type of investment and operation.. simply no way to hide it..!!

    2nd, hosting countries of such futuristic projects carry the burden to align the investment to their national interests and benefits. This is not a matter of falling government, because similar projects are in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, among others.. It is an advanced concessions which can be ruled by various codes and governances. However, if secrecy occurs, corruption is hiding.. big times..!

    Maybe, it will be wise to advocate the opening up.. The harm is already done, and certainly the (smart) legal engagement is binding for many generations to come..!!

    We can help to restore order (inserting terms for arbitration rather than terms of termination), renegotiate terms of implementation (not terms of payment) and mutually create CSR programs rather than FDIs incentives..
    From my experience, FDIs are good listeners when it comes to align their involvement to the communities.. They try to avoid breaking up the deals, or go thru legal confrontations.. There is a golden role that any government is a super mighty on its soil..

    Also, on the other hand, the Sudanese government is scared top to bottom from leaking the news, despite how they hold the powers, any public officer at the end is a human being, who looks for a peaceful retirement.. However, this is very much related to the maturity of political opposition and their readiness to have implementable programs or reliable approaches.. (I do not think so, because this would reflect the self confidence and assurance those guys should have; while they do not..)

    It should not be information to campaign scandals, but the ones to build patriotic consensus..

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks to Rima Khalidi
    Food cannot be grown without water. In Africa, one in three people endure water scarcity and climate change will make things worse. Building on Africa’s highly sophisticated indigenous water management systems could help resolve this growing crisis, but these very systems are being destroyed by large-scale land grabs amidst claims that Africa's water is abundant, under-utilised and ready to be harnessed for export-oriented agriculture. GRAIN looks behind the current scramble for land in Africa to reveal a global struggle for what is increasingly seen as a commodity more precious than gold or oil - water.
    http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/11-4

    ReplyDelete