World is never short of nice sounding jargon which can attract large audiences. The latest in this jargon dictionary is "green rush" which refers to the emerging trend of seeking land in Africa for cultivation of food by many resource limited countries mostly for their own benefits. Though some refer to this trend as "land grab", it may not be as simple as that because investors spend money for reasonable returns and obviously not for charity. If these experiments, if you can call it so, helps the countries leasing out land by raising the land productivity and increasing food availability for the local population, there should not be any objection from the world community to such mutually beneficial deals.
"The move takes place against the backdrop of an international rush for African land. Large tracts of land are being snapped up by cash-rich but resource-poor countries, as well as by countries struggling with the burden of feeding their swelling populations. Whether it is land for food production, or as some reports suggest, for bio-fuels, alarms bells have begun to ring about whether this investment in African land is a threat or a gain for the continent".
It is interesting to see India also included in the grabber's list along with countries like China, Korea, UAE, Saudi Arabia, etc and the Indian interest is mainly on account of the perennial shortage of edible oils and pulses that are considered essential, being experienced during the last 3 decades. International bodies must evolve some guidelines for such cross border land leasing to prevent local population from exploitation.
V.H.POTTYhttp://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
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