A South Korean company, Daewoo Logistics, has agreed to take a 99-year lease on 5,000 square miles of land in Madagascar to grow palm oil, corn, and other crops, the London Telegraph reports. Daewoo has committed to build the roads and infrastructure on the land, which is nearly as large as the state of Connecticut and represents almost half of the acreage now under cultivation in the island nation. The deal is similar to those that China — looking for guaranteed supplies of agricultural commodities — has signed in recent years in Africa. A Daewoo official said his company hopes to form partnerships with other Korean and Chinese firms to eventually grow 5 million tons of corn a year and 500,000 tons of palm oil, which is increasingly used as a biofuel.
Huge Madagascar Tract Leased to S. Koreans for Crops, Biofuels
More From E360
-
Cities
‘Sponge City’: How Copenhagen Is Adapting to a Wetter Future
-
INTERVIEW
On Controlling Fire, New Lessons from a Deep Indigenous Past
-
Solutions
Paying the People: Liberia’s Novel Plan to Save Its Forests
-
OPINION
Forest Service Plan Threatens the Heart of an Alaskan Wilderness
-
INTERVIEW
Pakistan’s Solar Revolution Is Bringing Power to the People
-
Food & Agriculture
In Uganda, Deadly Landslides Force an Agricultural Reckoning
-
Energy
Why U.S. Geothermal May Advance, Despite Political Headwinds
-
Food & Agriculture
In War Zones, a Race to Save Key Seeds Needed to Feed the World
-
Climate
Lightning Strikes the Arctic: What Will It Mean for the Far North?
-
RIVERS
A Win for Farmers and Tribes Brings New Hope to the Klamath
-
Solutions
Deconstructing Buildings: The Quest for New Life for Old Wood
-
NATURAL DEFENSES
How Restored Wetlands Can Protect Europe from Russian Invasion