Saudi Arabia in talks to lease Pak farmland

[khanz]

damn traitors literally selling off pak piece by piece ! huge huge mistake pakistan needs this land to feed our own population pak is going to be the 4th largest in the world in less than 50 years according to UN estimates every single inch of land is precious.If they want food we should export it they should not ownership of pakistani soil .I hope there is a big uproar over this.

 

[The Patriot]

according to some reports in 2008 Pakistan has already leased 5 lakh acres for 33 years to Dubai for 500 million US dollars. now if you just grow wheat on this land at with minimum 50 *50 kilogram per acre @ 1000 rupees it would be 25 billion rupees. the other season crop would be the same which means 50 billion rs in one year. and they have paid 40 billion rs for 33 years. i am exluding other expenses here which are not very high and my rates are minimum. also the food they produced would be sent to UAE. and if they want to sell it in local markets it would be much cheaper than the that of local farmers because of corporate farming. the local farmers would end up selling their lands to the same corporates and the corporates would grow.
the same would happen on Saudi project. together its 1.2 million acres. If we give 4 acres to each family it would cover 3 lack families which means at least 1.5 million people would fed and sustained besides generating a huge economy.
this is not investment by foreigners they are buying our land. you do not sell national assets like land and water to foreigners.
and also the laborers on the fields would be treated as slaves.
pl comment on both positive and negative aspects of this project also keeping in mind our relations with both these countries and their other investments in Pakistan.

 

[Hyde]

according to some reports in 2008 Pakistan has already leased 5 lakh acres for 33 years to Dubai for 500 million US dollars. now if you just grow wheat on this land at with minimum 50 *50 kilogram per acre @ 1000 rupees it would be 25 billion rupees. the other season crop would be the same which means 50 billion rs in one year. and they have paid 40 billion rs for 33 years. i am exluding other expenses here which are not very high and my rates are minimum. also the food they produced would be sent to UAE. and if they want to sell it in local markets it would be much cheaper than the that of local farmers because of corporate farming. the local farmers would end up selling their lands to the same corporates and the corporates would grow.
the same would happen on Saudi project. together its 1.2 million acres. If we give 4 acres to each family it would cover 3 lack families which means at least 1.5 million people would fed and sustained besides generating a huge economy.
this is not investment by foreigners they are buying our land. you do not sell national assets like land and water to foreigners.
and also the laborers on the fields would be treated as slaves.
pl comment on both positive and negative aspects of this project also keeping in mind our relations with both these countries and their other investments in Pakistan.

well very said, i could not have said better than that

 

[pakistani2020]

Pakistan should never sell or lease agricultural land to Saudis or any other foreign governments or corporations or individuals as it will be very detrimental for our own future needs of food as our population is growing at such a fast pace.

Food will be a more precious commodity than petrol & energy in future. So, we shall be able to export food to countries like Saudi Arab at higher prices in future. Let these Saudis & other countries pay more petro dollars to us through buying food from us, instead of giving them opportunity to grow their own food on our land. They have been squeezing quite a lot from us while selling petroleum to us at quite exorbitant rates, & making our labor work up there at such miserably low salaries. It will be their pay back time in future. So the government should not dare sell or lease such a precious land to anybody.

Only idiots won't understand the real worth of farmland which it will hold in future & might like to sell by taking a few billion dollars. Even if they do sell there will be a time in future when we'll grab it back from them.

 

[EjazR]

The politicians and ministry officials are looking only at making money here. There are obvioulsy a lot of sensible civil society members who can see through this and hopefully pressure the govt. to tackle this.
What they should have done was come up with a land reforms and provide an opportunity to the landless in Pakistan to grow food for their country. The foreigners can then invest indirectly through them, but ownership or lease should remain firmly in Pakistani hands or Pakistani owned cooperatives.

 

[Jamshed]

according to some reports in 2008 Pakistan has already leased 5 lakh acres for 33 years to Dubai for 500 million US dollars. now if you just grow wheat on this land at with minimum 50 *50 kilogram per acre @ 1000 rupees it would be 25 billion rupees. the other season crop would be the same which means 50 billion rs in one year. and they have paid 40 billion rs for 33 years. i am exluding other expenses here which are not very high and my rates are minimum. also the food they produced would be sent to UAE. and if they want to sell it in local markets it would be much cheaper than the that of local farmers because of corporate farming. the local farmers would end up selling their lands to the same corporates and the corporates would grow.
the same would happen on Saudi project. together its 1.2 million acres. If we give 4 acres to each family it would cover 3 lack families which means at least 1.5 million people would fed and sustained besides generating a huge economy.
this is not investment by foreigners they are buying our land. you do not sell national assets like land and water to foreigners.
and also the laborers on the fields would be treated as slaves.
pl comment on both positive and negative aspects of this project also keeping in mind our relations with both these countries and their other investments in Pakistan

first of all in pakistan i dnt think that per acre output is 50*50 KG that is too much on average u will find 30*40 kg and second we should not sell the land but lease as i already mentioned and somone said why dont GOP just export it but hw can u ensure that ppls will sell it to TCP to export ? while ppls store most of wheat into their storage houses it will b hard to collect from each farmer on other hand by leasing we r still sure that we r exporting as i already mentioned that GOP will still be getting 65% of price when selling wheat cuz output of every acre is divided 50/50 to owner and farmer and plus 20% operational cost so we shoudnt worry about this decision but just have to make sure that zardari and his team dont take kick backs from it thats the only problem in this whole issue

 

[Jamshed]

just seen the program on GEO about this issue and kamran khan asked to minister of food and prodcution he said it is barren land and saudi will bring technology to cultivate barren land and this land will be in sindh and balochistan and will be leased only

 

[jeet]

i dont think it is a right move.. i dont know what kind of high technology is required to farm lands.... i dont know how saudi people are better in agriculture compared to people in sub-continent... we have been doing agriculture from 1000's of years...

 

[bones20]

This is horrible. Dont do this Pakistan.

 

[eastwatch]

according to some reports in 2008 Pakistan has already leased 5 lakh acres for 33 years to Dubai for 500 million US dollars. now if you just grow wheat on this land at with minimum 50 *50 kilogram per acre @ 1000 rupees it would be 25 billion rupees. the other season crop would be the same which means 50 billion rs in one year. and they have paid 40 billion rs for 33 years. i am exluding other expenses here which are not very high and my rates are minimum. also the food they produced would be sent to UAE. and if they want to sell it in local markets it would be much cheaper than the that of local farmers because of corporate farming. the local farmers would end up selling their lands to the same corporates and the corporates would grow.
the same would happen on Saudi project. together its 1.2 million acres. If we give 4 acres to each family it would cover 3 lack families which means at least 1.5 million people would fed and sustained besides generating a huge economy.
this is not investment by foreigners they are buying our land. you do not sell national assets like land and water to foreigners.
and also the laborers on the fields would be treated as slaves.
pl comment on both positive and negative aspects of this project also keeping in mind our relations with both these countries and their other investments in Pakistan.

By reading through your and others' posts, one idea came across my mind. Everywhere in the middle-east you will find SADIA chickens. Some Lebanese company leased a lot of land in Brazil and then is doing the farming in large scale and is exporting their products worldwide.

Can it be that the Arabians are looking for similar kind of projects, such as very large-scale poultry and dairy farms in the middle of Pakistan? Can it be that chicken and animal foods will be produced in these farms? The products are then slaughtered and exported to the food short ME.

Whatever it may be, everything should not be thought in the negative light only. In the present Pakistan society some rural labours are like slaves in reality. A leasing contract may change their status. Also, the Arab lease holder may not be allowed to buy any adjacent lands owned by individuals. I think, if the agriculture method the Arabs adopt is intensive farming, which I think will be the case, there will be opportunities for new employment.

Any intensive farming requires not only introduction of machines, but also huge number of manpower. Subsistence farming which you are proposing does not create that kind of employment. Suppose, subsistence farming produce 100 ton of wheat and intensive farming produces 300 ton. Then the latter will require almost three times more labour to handle the production. Machines only cannot do all the jobs.

 

[The Patriot]

By reading through your and others' posts, one idea came across my mind. Everywhere in the middle-east you will find SADIA chickens. Some Lebanese company leased a lot of land in Brazil and then is doing the farming in large scale and is exporting their products worldwide.

Can it be that the Arabians are looking for similar kind of projects, such as very large-scale poultry and dairy farms in the middle of Pakistan? Can it be that chicken and animal foods will be produced in these farms? The products are then slaughtered and exported to the food short ME.

Whatever it may be, everything should not be thought in the negative light only. In the present Pakistan society some rural labours are like slaves in reality. A leasing contract may change their status. Also, the Arab lease holder may not be allowed to buy any adjacent lands owned by individuals. I think, if the agriculture method the Arabs adopt is intensive farming, which I think will be the case, there will be opportunities for new employment.

Any intensive farming requires not only introduction of machines, but also huge number of manpower. Subsistence farming which you are proposing does not create that kind of employment. Suppose, subsistence farming produce 100 ton of wheat and intensive farming produces 300 ton. Then the latter will require almost three times more labour to handle the production. Machines only cannot do all the jobs.

this land will be only for agricultural purposes. for dairy and livestock Pakistan has signed an agreement with Qatar. That would be different project.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

hmmmm... besides the lease amount, do we collect taxes or fees on the products exported to the Gulf?

I understand that the Gulf will send in foreign exchange in terms of the wages, equipment and material costs, but do we get anything else out of it?

 

[afriendofall]

Let all governments & agencies be warned by the following quotation of a Sage:

“History is full of such proofs that contracts or agreements made by & between corrupt & unjust governments, entities or individuals contain & carry unjust, exploitative, manipulative & imbalanced terms & conditions & thus hold no legal, moral or ethical binding on the future generations & can be & are always retracted.”

 

[Ruag]

A very interesting article by BusinessWeek on countries buying farmland in Africa and other parts of the world. They call it, neo-colonialism

Foreign Investors Buy up African Farmland - BusinessWeek

So, it seems Pakistan is not the only one selling agricultural lands to foreign countries. Sudan, Cambodia, Congo and Uganda have done it too.

BTW, India has also been accused for participating in this "neo-colonial" rush. Thankfully, we are buying farmlands rather than selling our own -

India joins 'neocolonial' rush for Africa's land and labour - Telegraph

 

[smart]

So let’s not worry even if they do buy or sell so manipulatively, THE LOCAL PEOPLE WILL GRAB IT BACK FROM THEM IN FUTURE whatever phony contracts they may sign up or security measures they may take up.