International

(04/20/2009) The government of Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) has offered 25 million acres (10 million hectares) of land to South African farmers in an effort to improve the central African nation's food security, reports Reuters. The area is nearly twice the amount of arable land in South Africa.
Spurred on by the global food crisis, nations in the Middle-east and Asia have begun purchasing agricultural land abroad in order to make-up for a lack of arable land at home. Due to water shortages across the region, Middle-eastern nations like Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia have turned largely to Africa for thousands upon thousands of hectares of land, while massive populations and dwindling land has led India, South Korea, and China to also buy up farmland overseas. Over two-and-half million hectares in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; half a million hectares in Tanzania; and a quarter of a million hectares in Libya.