Africa on the Auction Block

Millions of acres of fertile farmland in the developing world are being sold or leased to outside powers, raising the spectre of a new era of agricultural colonialism

Between 2007 and 2008 worldwide grain prices almost doubled. Food riots shook Haiti and many parts of Africa, and wealthy nations with growing populations dependent on agricultural imports stepped up their search for alternatives to secure their own future food supplies — as well as lucrative new sources of biofuels. The Gulf states, India, South Korea, and others have bought up millions of acres of farmland in places like Madagascar, Mozambique, Sudan, and Ethiopia, some of the poorest, hungriest, and most politically unstable nations in sub-Saharan Africa.

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