Typically we think of globalization involving communications, trade, and people moving around the world. But farmland can't be shipped and can't fit in a fiber optic cable. So, many countries in need of more farmland have made deals and/or are seeking new deals to get the rights to other countries' farmland. Case in point: United Arab Emirates (UAE), a small but rich desert country, invested $10 billion in farmland in Sudan in 2015. One of the biggest attempts at a farmland grab was in 2008, when Daewoo Corporation of South Korea signed a 99-year lease for 1.3 million acres of Madagascar's farmland, but the deal was was cancelled in 2009 after major protests.
This site posts examples of this phenomenon.
Farmlandgrabs.org - the global rush for farm land and peoples' struggles against it
http://www.farmlandgrab.org/
This article below says the grabs in Africa are not as large as they are often advertised. Nonetheless, they definitely do exist.
The myth of the African land grab - Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/20/the-myth-of-the-african-land-grab/
Incidentally, the UAE-Sudan deal partners one of the Islamic world's richest, most stable and orderly countries with one of its poorest and most chaotic. Sudan ranks 4th on the list of the world's most fragile states. The three countries ranked as more fragile than Sudan are all close by: two neighbors with which it shares borders, South Sudan and Central Africa Republic, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In this neighborhood of the world, racked by poverty and insecurity, securing those new farms in Sudan will be an interesting proposition for UAE.
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