argylesock says… Foreign investors are buying land in places where people are poor, often lacking education or power. Often the foreigners aren’t at all concerned about what local people want. The International Land Coalition is about empowering the rural poor.
By Stephen Leahy
Uxbridge — Africa is the main target for “land grabs” by foreign investors, according to a new report on large-scale land acquisitions around the world released Monday.
“Africa is the place for cheap land deals and most investors are from Western countries like the U.S. and UK,” said Michael Taylor of the International Land Coalition (ILC).
A small number of farmers are receiving fertilizer and training in conservation agriculture through a government/FAO programme.
Photo: Mujahid Safodien/IRIN
Globally some 45 million hectares of land has been or is about to be signed over to foreign investors in Africa, Southern Asia and Latin America. That’s equivalent to 60 percent of Europe’s farmland.
About half of this land is for food production and half for biofuels, according to data compiled by the ILC, a global alliance of nearly 100 civil society and intergovernmental organisations, including the World…
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Science on the Land 