WAM | 29 January 2017
Nampula (Mozambique), 26th January, 2017 (WAM/AIM) — A company in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula is to begin producing lemons for export to Dubai later this year.
WAM | 29 January 2017
Nampula (Mozambique), 26th January, 2017 (WAM/AIM) — A company in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula is to begin producing lemons for export to Dubai later this year.
Ghanaweb | 25 January 2017
– Afriyie-Akoto
The Agric Minister-designate says the sector under the current administration will pursue foreign investments in a bid to increase production.
Reuters| 25 January 2017
An Algerian company has signed a deal with a U.S. group to set up agricultural projects worth $300 million in the North African country as it seeks to reduce dependence on imports, Algeria’s agriculture ministry said on Wednesday.
Under the deal, privately-owned Algerian dairy company Tifralait and the American International Agriculture Group (AIAG) will set up a joint venture to develop projects over an area of 25,000 hectares covering cereals, potato, fertilizers, dairy and cattle feed, the ministry said.
Algeria imports most of its agriculture-related products because of weak domestic output, but has promised to develop the farming sector as part of efforts to diversify the economy away from oil and gas after a drop in oil prices hit state finances.
It has also approved a new investment law offering incentives to foreign and local private firms willing to invest in the non-oil sector…http://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/26871-algerian-firm-signs-300-million-farming-deal-with-u-s-group
Asharq Al-Awsat | 24 January 2016
African Business| 24 January 2017
by Neil Ford
Firstly, the new Gabonese operations of agricultural trading company Olam International was heavily criticised by US environmental NGO Mighty Earth in December. Then Dimensional Fund Advisors, a big US investment firm that had previously been criticised for continuing to invest in palm oil companies, decided to divest two of its portfolios of all such assets, including equity in Wilmar International and Olam.
The campaign against palm oil could have profound implications for the sector’s development in Africa. Palm oil cultivation has become controversial because ecologically diverse areas of rainforest are often cut down to allow cultivation to take place. Huge areas of forest have been felled in Indonesia and Malaysia, affecting flora and fauna, and producing air pollution caused by forest fires when land is being cleared for palm oil plantation.
According to Friends of the Earth and numerous other environmental NGOs, palm oil plantations are the fastest growing cause of rainforest destruction and an increasingly important cause of climate change. ..http://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/26867-gabon-the-battle-over-palm-oil
The Conversation | 17 January 2017, by Nikita Sud
Dealmakers: an investment conference in Cambodia. (Photo: EPA/Kith Serey)
Much of the global south – broadly comprising the continents of Asia, Africa, and Latin America – was shaped by colonialism. The so-called “great game” and the scrambles between Britain, Portugal, Belgium, France and other European states were for power, profit and – most visibly – for land.
By Nellie Peyton
NDIAEL, Senegal (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
Thomson Reuters Foundation | 16 Jan 2017
– The women of Thiamene, a tiny straw hut village in northern Senegal, used to scrape together a living by collecting wild baobab fruit and selling milk from their cows.
But their earnings have plummeted since an Italian-Senegalese agribusiness, Senhuile, took over the surrounding land five years ago, blocking their paths to the local market and river, and spraying pesticides that make their herds scatter, they say.
“Life here is precarious, especially for women,” said 42-year-old Fatimata Sow in the village square, gazing at the vast landscape of arid ground dotted with the stumps of trees.
Financial Mail | 16 January 2017
Tanzania Daily News | 16 January 2017
Bloemisterij 13-01-2017 By Hans Neefjes, hneefjes@hortipoint.nl
Ethiopia wants to double its agricultural production. The Netherlands support the Ethiopian government. The current focus is on the integrated development of a new horticultural and floricultural area north of Hawassa. In the meantime, the Dutch embassy is having a critical dialogue with Ethiopia and helping the Ethiopian government to start a conversation with its discontented population.
The activities near Hawassa, about 275 km south of Addis Abeba, might receive support this time round. Niek Bosmans, Counsellor for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality at the Dutch embassy in Ethiopia, explains that it concerns a 1,500-ha area. “It’s situated 1,600 m above sea level, not far from Lake Hawassa. There used to be a state company here, so the land is owned and used by the government. The large plot is divided by a ridge, so it’s actually split up into two parts, one of 1,000 ha and the other one of 500 ha.”