[DEBATE] : Huge Congo land deal for South Africa's farmers.

[Riaz K Tayob]

Huge Congo land deal for South Africa's farmers.
Reuters
15 April 2009

South African farmers have been offered 10 million hectares of farm land 
on which to grow maize and soya beans and on which to set up poultry and 
dairy farms in the Republic of Congo, South Africa’s main farmers union 
said yesterday.

The deal, which covers an area more than twice the size of Switzerland, 
could be one of the biggest such land agreements on the continent agreed 
by Congo’s government in an effort to improve food security, Theo de 
Jager, deputy president of Agriculture South Africa (AgriSA), told Reuters.
South Africa has one of the most developed agriculture sectors on the 
continent and is Africa’s top maize producer and third largest wheat grower.

“They’ve given us 10 million hectares, and that’s quite big when you 
consider that in South Africa we have about six million hectares of land 
that is arable,” De Jager told Reuters on the sidelines of an 
agriculture conference in Durban.

De Jager said the agreement to be finalised in South Africa next month 
would operate as a 99-year lease at no cost, with additional tax benefits.
“The offer that we got and we’ve agreed on paper, is a 99-year lease, of 
which the value would be zero and it’s not allowed to escalate over the 
99 years. So it is free use for 99 years,” he said.
The Republic of Congo’s population of around four million people is 
concentrated in the south-west of the country, leaving the vast areas of 
tropical jungle in the north virtually uninhabited.

De Jager said some 1 300 South African farmers are keen to farm in the 
Congo Republic.
“We have two groups of farmers who are interested, one of farmers who 
want to leave South Africa and relocate entirely to farm over there and 
another of farmers who want to diversify their farming operations to the 
Congo,” he said.
“We’ve got guys wanting to get into poultry and dairy farming and maize 
and soya bean production.”
“It is a tax holiday for the first five years and … exemption from 
import tax on all your agricultural inputs and equipment,” he said.

http://mwinda.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=349:bradage-des-terres-congolaises-aux-sud-africains-&catid=85:journal
http://silverscorpio.com/congo-woos-south-africa-farmers-with-huge-10-million-hectare-deal/
http://sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/18011
http://africannewsanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/04/congo-lures-sa-farmers-with-free-land.html
http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-1786_2501726
http://allafrica.com/stories/200904170705.html