Update on South Korea/Madagascar Crops Deal

Feb 19th, 2009 12:04 PM UTC
By Chris Scott

A few months ago, we noted a significant move on the part of South Korea to begin growing crops in Madagascar, a move that would address the duel challenge of recent food price increases and a shortage of cropland at home. We wanted to provide you with some additional information on the topic. ONE will continue tracking this trend and bring you future updates.

Excerpts below, full piece here

“These deals can be purely commercial ventures on one level, but sitting behind it is often a food security imperative backed by a government,” said Carl Atkin, a consultant at Bidwells Agribusiness, a Cambridge firm helping to arrange some of the big international land deals.

Madagascar’s government said that an environmental impact assessment would have to be carried out before the Daewoo deal could be approved, but it welcomed the investment. The massive lease is the largest so far in an accelerating number of land deals that have been arranged since the surge in food prices late last year.

“In the context of arable land sales, this is unprecedented,” Atkin said. “We’re used to seeing 100,000-hectare sales. This is more than 10 times as much.”

-Chris Scott

TAGS: Agriculture, Madagascar, Policy News