African Farm Land Up For Grabs

In a rush to secure food supplies, investors from around the world are snapping up agricultural land at soaring prices, especially in Africa.

Over the past few months, Saudi Arabian investors have paid $100m for an Ethiopian farm where they hope to grow wheat and barley, adding to the millions of acres they already own in the war-ravaged country, as well as in neighboring Sudan. The Saudis also have land in Indonesia and Thailand for growing rice while China owns vast tracts of overseas land, mainly in Algeria and Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile the African Union (AU), the agriculture commissioner, Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, has expressed concerns that many of the land buyers were ignoring the interests of local farmers and communities.

Some of the AU's new guidelines on land sales, due to be ratified in July, include recommendations that new investors should promise to help with infrastructure, such as health facilities, agree to pay local taxation and look at ways to get more involved on the food-processing side which would create more local jobs.