South Korea's Daewoo has signed a 99-year lease for half of Madagascar's arable land, reports the Financial Times. The firm expects to pay "nothing" for the lease.
The agreement covers 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) — an area half the size of Belgium. Daewoo says it plans to plant corn on 1 million hectares in the arid western part of the island and 300,000 ha (740,000 acres) of oil palm on land in the tropical east, a region that is home to the bulk of Madagascar's rare rainforests. The company will produce the food for export and plans to import workers from South Africa, although a Daewoo spokesman said that the project could create up to 70,000 local jobs. The company expects the project to cost $6 billion over the first 25 years.
The Daewoo annoucement comes after the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the push by some countries (notably China, Malaysia, and Middle Eastern nations) to secure farmland overseas could create a 'neo-colonial' system.
"We suspect there will be very limited direct benefits [for Madagascar]," added an unnamed 'European diplomat in southern Africa'. "Extractive projects have very little spill-over to a broader industrialization."
Environmental concerns
The development will likely stoke environmentalists' fears that agricultural expansion will come at the expense of Madagascar's biologically-rich ecosystems that are home to rare and unique species of lemurs, frogs, and reptiles. Daewoo has done little to allay these concerns.
"It is totally undeveloped land which has been left untouched," the Financial Times quoted Hong Jong-wan, a manager at Daewoo, as saying.
But officials from Madagascar are denying they have reached an agreement to turn over half the island nation's arable land to a South Korean corporation for food production, reports Reuters. The controversial deal — which would have paid Madagascar nothing and turned over 1.3 million hectares to produce corn and palm oil for export at a time when one-third of country's children are malnourished — was reported last week by the Financial Times.
- http://news.mongabay.com
MY COMMENT:
I honestly cannot believe that a country (Madagascar) whose ecosystem is revered by every country in this earth would think of touching a plot of its vegetation, much more give it away for what?! It is a very ’stupid’ act by the government. Madagascar has about 5% of the world’s total ecosystem, and to give it away for nothing is very distressing. Even to give it away for something is still not acceptable, for 99 years is PURE MADNESS, giving away the size is ……..??????……….. I really have no word for that yet.
‘Underdeveloped’ what is that?! No Asian country will ever lease more than 5 plots of land to an African country. The sizes of our embassies in these countries will give you an idea on how small they are willing to lease properties African governments.
One thing we Africans should understand is that these Asian countries creeping into Africa are not here to help us but to deplete the little resources we have left (through PIRACY and NEO-COLONIALISM). All they want is to really make us beg. They want to colonize us again. We have been through a lot in history, we suffered under colonization, and Madagascar case is nothing but neo-colonialism and piracy. We CANNOT go through it again.
It’s time to SAY NO TO PIRACY & NEO-COLONIZATION!
The agreement covers 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) — an area half the size of Belgium. Daewoo says it plans to plant corn on 1 million hectares in the arid western part of the island and 300,000 ha (740,000 acres) of oil palm on land in the tropical east, a region that is home to the bulk of Madagascar's rare rainforests. The company will produce the food for export and plans to import workers from South Africa, although a Daewoo spokesman said that the project could create up to 70,000 local jobs. The company expects the project to cost $6 billion over the first 25 years.
The Daewoo annoucement comes after the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the push by some countries (notably China, Malaysia, and Middle Eastern nations) to secure farmland overseas could create a 'neo-colonial' system.
"We suspect there will be very limited direct benefits [for Madagascar]," added an unnamed 'European diplomat in southern Africa'. "Extractive projects have very little spill-over to a broader industrialization."
Environmental concerns
The development will likely stoke environmentalists' fears that agricultural expansion will come at the expense of Madagascar's biologically-rich ecosystems that are home to rare and unique species of lemurs, frogs, and reptiles. Daewoo has done little to allay these concerns.
"It is totally undeveloped land which has been left untouched," the Financial Times quoted Hong Jong-wan, a manager at Daewoo, as saying.
But officials from Madagascar are denying they have reached an agreement to turn over half the island nation's arable land to a South Korean corporation for food production, reports Reuters. The controversial deal — which would have paid Madagascar nothing and turned over 1.3 million hectares to produce corn and palm oil for export at a time when one-third of country's children are malnourished — was reported last week by the Financial Times.
- http://news.mongabay.com
MY COMMENT:
I honestly cannot believe that a country (Madagascar) whose ecosystem is revered by every country in this earth would think of touching a plot of its vegetation, much more give it away for what?! It is a very ’stupid’ act by the government. Madagascar has about 5% of the world’s total ecosystem, and to give it away for nothing is very distressing. Even to give it away for something is still not acceptable, for 99 years is PURE MADNESS, giving away the size is ……..??????……….. I really have no word for that yet.
‘Underdeveloped’ what is that?! No Asian country will ever lease more than 5 plots of land to an African country. The sizes of our embassies in these countries will give you an idea on how small they are willing to lease properties African governments.
One thing we Africans should understand is that these Asian countries creeping into Africa are not here to help us but to deplete the little resources we have left (through PIRACY and NEO-COLONIALISM). All they want is to really make us beg. They want to colonize us again. We have been through a lot in history, we suffered under colonization, and Madagascar case is nothing but neo-colonialism and piracy. We CANNOT go through it again.
It’s time to SAY NO TO PIRACY & NEO-COLONIZATION!
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