Rich Arab states have bought huge tracts of land across Africa in recent years in a bid to combat global food shortages, water scarcity and desertification and feed their burgeoning populations. But now the scramble for Africa is intensifying, with investment banks, hedge funds, commodity traders, sovereign wealth funds, corporations and business tycoons out to grab some of the world's cheapest land - for profit. China has leased 6.91 million acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the world's largest oil palm plantation. South Korea's Daewoo conglomerate planned to buy 2.9 million acres of Madagascar until the deal collapsed when rioters toppled the Indian Ocean island's government. “Philippe Heilberg, CEO of the New York-based investment fund Jarch Capital ... has leased between 998,000 and 2.47 million acres in southern Sudan from the warlord Paulino Matip,” Le Monde Diplomatique reported. “Foreign direct investment in agriculture is the boardroom euphemism for the new land grab and those promoting the grab spin it as a win-win situation.” It quoted Heilberg as saying “when food becomes scarce, the investor needs a weak state that does not force him to abide by any rules.” According to various assessments, up to 123.5 million acres of African land - double the size of Britain - has been snapped up or is being negotiated by governments or wealthy investors. Ethiopia alone has approved 815 foreign-financed agricultural projects since 2007. As African leaders, many out to line their own pockets, sign away their people's land to foreigners, the continent's people, among the poorest on the planet, face having to join the estimated 1 billion people in the world who don't have enough food. In some cases, human rights groups say many of these deals are done in secret without consulting the people on the land being sold, often dispossessing them. In the end, critics say, with African farmland in foreign hands, the continent faces widespread conflict over resources in the not-too-distant future. “Food production in Arab countries is limited by scarce land and water resources,” the World Bank said in recent report. Climate change is accelerating the decline in food production through water shortages, desertification, coastal flooding and changing weather patterns. Population expands while the amount of farmland and water supply shrinks.
