|
|
Article: Into Africa
- Article from:
- The Irish Times
- Article date:
- July 6, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Irish Times. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
INDIAN AMBITION: India is engaging in a global race to invest in
African land for crops, while building deeper links by backing
infrastructural and industrial projects
ONCE THE jewel in Britain's colonial crown, India is fast
becoming a coloniser as it acquires vast tracts of land across
Africa to lucratively farm food crops for local consumption, for
import back home and for export.
Backed by federal government loans, cheap credit and preferential
import tariffs, some 80 private Indian companies have over the past
two years acquired or leased thousands of hectares in Ethiopia,
Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique's Zambezi Valley to grow
rice, sugar cane, maize, pulses, oilseeds, tea ...