Land on Lease

Many countries are eyeing the vast farmlands in Africa (Bloomberg)

Businessworld
Sumati Nagrath

Earlier, nations seeking more land for expanding populations (lebensraum or "living space", Hitler called it) went to war. Now, they go to real estate brokers. Countries such as Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, which have growing populations and are heavily dependent on food imports, are leasing thousands of hectares of cultivable land in countries such as Brazil and Australia to grow food grains.


Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, says Libya has leased land in Ukraine to grow wheat and ship it back to its hungry population. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are said to be eyeing the farmlands of Pakistan and Sudan.

The concern is that food exporting nations such as Thailand, Vietnam and the US may choose to hoard food grains instead of selling them, given the growing global food shortage.


Although the world is not quite on the brink of starvation, almost all countries are doing everything they can to ensure food security for their people. The land lease solution may seem innovative but it could open up a whole new can of regulatory worms.

Regulations governing agriculture are diverse, complex and localised. There is a need for international coordination with regard to agricultural techniques and inputs such as seeds, feritilisers, pesticides and soil that countries deploy in their newly-acquired land. Still, most experts applaud the move, as it helps even out the world’s current imbalance between population and land distribution.