Qatar to grow food in Kenya?
The Guardian is reporting that Qatar is looking to grow food in Kenya:
Qatar has asked Kenya to lease it 40,000 hectares of land to grow crops as part of a proposed package that would also see the Gulf state fund a new £2.4bn port on the popular tourist island of Lamu off the east African country.
The deal is the latest example of wealthy countries and companies trying to secure food supplies from the developing world.
Other Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have also been negotiating leases of large tracts of farmland in countries such as Sudan and Senegal since the global food shortages and price rises earlier this year.
The Kenyan president, Mwai Kibaki, returned from a visit to Qatar on Monday. His spokesman said the request for land in the Tana river delta, south of Lamu, in north-east Kenya was being seriously considered.
"Nothing comes for free," said Isaiah Kabira. "If you want people to invest in your country then you have to make concessions."
Donno how safe. Lamu is not at all a secured place. By road , you are not suppose to travel without a police convoy escort..
Its afertile land, but how about water?.. May be the land should be asked in the upcountry areas..
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Every society is judged by how
it treats it's least fortunates.
Much cheaper than trying to turn the desert into farmland. Win-Win for both countries..
Well not such a bad idea. Then again there should be tight monitoring on those food hubs. Seeing the recent milk scare from china, the non-big-names would always be suseptible of suspect
its good as there will be food no matter here in Qatar or in kenya...
i hope the deal goes through..thats a plot!
kenya is going places i guess..
What can they do? A very large percentage of Qatar's soil is infertile. Plus, this project will generate jobs in Kenya.
cheers,
paul