Gulf investors in, locals out: Pakistan’s corporate farming agenda

"Calling Cholistan a ‘barren wasteland’ to justify corporate land grabs is not just false—it erases our history,"[1] says Fazal e Rab Lund, a Saraiki Baloch leader from Cholistan in Punjab, Pakistan, with anguish about his homeland. Known traditionally as Rohi, this region was once part of a great civilization thriving along the Hakra River, the Indus Valley Civilization. Today, the nomadic Rohilay communities, the caretakers of this land, face an existential threat. Their deep-rooted cultural and economic ties to the land are being severed by the Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI), which dismisses Cholistan as empty terrain ripe for mechanised agriculture. “For the Rohilay—already displaced by climate shifts and state neglect—corporate farming spells final exile,” says Fazal.

For years, Pakistan has been battered by a cascade of crises—from the economic shocks of the COVID-19 lockdowns to the catastrophic 2022 floods that hit a third of the country. Political instability, acute insecurity, rampant inflation, widening fiscal deficit and unsustainable external debt, have all pushed the nation to the brink. Amid this turmoil, the 2022 food crisis exacerbated Pakistan’s already dire nutrition situation.[2] Food price inflation steadily increased from February 2022, peaking at 49% in May 2023, leaving approximately 8.6 million people in acute food insecurity.[3] [4]

Capitalising on this vulnerability, the Pakistani government has increasingly turned to corporate farming as a purported solution - and a profit-making venture. To advance this agenda, it has privileged two deep-pocketed regional allies: the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.

Paradoxically, Pakistan’s exports of rice, fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood to the UAE and Saudi Arabia could be considered a lifeline: the UAE depends on imports for 90% of its food needs and Saudi Arabia for 80%.

From the outset, Pakistan made its priorities clear to its Gulf investors: their investments in Pakistani farmland would prioritise their own food security above Pakistan’s. In 2003, Pakistan came out with the Corporate Agriculture Farming (CAF) policy and held a farmland road tour through Gulf nations to lure investors, offering tax exemptions, exemption from labour laws, duty-free equipment imports, creation of special security force to protect investors, and 100% land ownership in special free zones in agriculture, livestock, and dairy sectors.[5]

However, the initial wave of farmland investor interest was short-lived. There was a dramatic decrease of foreign direct investment (FDI) from Gulf nations, from a peak of US$ 8 Billion in 2007 to under US$ 1 billion by 2014.[6] In 2023, Pakistan renewed its attempt to incentivise Gulf investment in its farmland with a focus on its own food security. With its model of corporate farming, Pakistan aimed to secure 60% crop production for its own food security, while exporting 40% to other countries, predominantly in the Gulf.[7]

To expedite the agricultural development and investment in farming, in June 2023, Pakistan set up a civil military institution, the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a type of authorised commerce and investment body that provides opportunities and eases investments with a vast array of powers. The SIFC is supervised by the Prime Minister and composed of provincial and federal ministers, secretaries, and high-ranking representatives from the Pakistan Armed Forces. The SIFC serves as a top-down decision-making platform designed to do whatever it takes to streamline investment, privatisation, and business offers with a focus on five key sectors: defence, minerals, information technology, energy and agriculture. Within days of the launch of SIFC, four terminals of Karachi ports were leased to a UAE-based company, AD Ports Group, for more than 30 years.[8]

In agriculture, the SIFC intends to hand over provincial government land for cultivation to corporations.

To get all this done, the SIFC created the Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI), a programme aimed at increasing agricultural productivity by attracting private investors - both domestic and foreign. Key components include:

The GPI has identified 1.92 million hectares of “barren” land for corporate farming - an area nearly the size of Slovenia and larger than Kuwait. So far, around 400,000 hectares of land have been allocated to private investors, sparking growing public backlash over concerns that small farmers and herders will be displaced, cutting off their access to land and water. [11]

This corporate farming approach - around land and resource grabbing- mirrors patterns seen in the implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), where vast tracts of land were allocated to Chinese firms under the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.[12] Following a similar blueprint of corporate feudalism, the SIFC plans to transfer vast swathes of territory in Punjab’s Cholistan region to agricultural investors after setting up basic water, electricity and labour infrastructure.

Following the food crisis in 2007-08, Saudi Arabia and UAE governments have sought agricultural investment abroad and raised their foreign direct investment to enhance food production and to reduce dependence on food imports. The UAE launched a National Food Security Strategy in 2019 to ensure access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for all its citizens at affordable prices, including in the event of emergencies and crises. Only 0.5% of the UAE’s land mass is arable and there has been a constant decline in its agricultural area due to desertification and soil degradation. Similarly, Saudi Arabia introduced its Vision 2030 project with the intention of diversifying its economy, with agriculture as a key area, given that in the kingdom only 1.5% of the land is suited for cultivation.[13] Therefore, having easy access to land and water in a nearby friendly country like Pakistan is a highly attractive option for these two Gulf countries.

Saudi Arabia is strategically boosting its foreign operations under the “King Abdalla Initiative for Saudi Agricultural Investment Abroad,” which was launched in 2008 and has targeted 35 countries for agro-investment. Its purported aim is to produce food for both the Kingdom and the target countries. The King Abdullah Initiative partially encourages land acquisitions by providing subsidies to its companies for investing in agricultural activities overseas.

Other initiatives which the Saudi government undertook to promote its overseas agricultural operations include the Public Investment Fund (PIF) initiative, the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC), and the Saudi Private Sector Joint Venture Initiative, involving technology transfers, joint ventures, and outright purchases of agricultural businesses. The Saudi agricultural industries have spent over US$ 4.5 billion acquiring or renting vast tracts of farmland and invest in livestock, crop production, and food processing facilities in more than 16 countries.

In 2020, the Saudi group Sarh Attaqnia Co. (SAC) signed a partnership deal with the Pakistani industrial conglomerate Fatima Group for over US$ 1 billion. The Fatima Group is one of Pakistan's fastest expanding industrial companies, with holdings in fertilisers, energy, textiles, sugar, cement, and venture capital investment. This partnership targets the use of fallow lands in Pakistan for the production of crops like rice, barley, oats, silage bales for livestock, and the dairy industry under the Corporate Agriculture Farming initiative. Sarh Attaqnia’s marketing pitch is that it will invest in developing a state-of-the-art agriculture value chain encompassing sustainable production, processing, warehousing, and export of grain crops to help ensure regional food security. The China Machinery Engineering Company (CMEC) is also a technology partner in this deal, contributing to it with climate-smart precision agriculture farm machinery, improved high-yielding seeds, and other crop inputs.[16]

According to Pakistan’s former caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, in 2023 the Saudi Kingdom committed to a projected US$25 billion investment over 2-5 years, with agriculture as a key focus.[17] When Pakistan launched the LIMS (the operational component of the GPI) in July 2023, to enhance modern farming on over 9 million hectares of uncultivated state land, the Saudis made a US$ 500 million initial investment in it. However, this remains speculative since there is no public information available on the total hectares allotted to them.

In March 2024, a business-to-business (B2B) agreement was signed between Pakistan’s SIFC and the Saudi Najd Gateway Holding Company in the livestock sector, where 2,023 hectares of land in Bakkhar, Pakistan, will be utilised for alfalfa cultivation, with plans for export to Saudi Arabia to feed its dairy cows.[18] The Saudi dairy conglomerate, Al Marai, was also invited to join the venture, despite its controversial US operations -where it stands accused of diverting scarce Colorado River water to grow alfalfa in drought-stricken Arizona.

FonGrow, the company run by the Pakistan Army to facilitate joint corporate farming efforts between itself and the Pakistani government, has also attracted many other Saudi companies like Al-Dahara, Saleh and Al-Khorayef to invest in Pakistan’s agriculture.[19]

Pakistan also offered the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) a project to set up a cattle farm in Punjab for 30,000 animals with an annual production of six thousand tons of meat with an initial investment of over US$25 million. SALIC also showed interest in leasing 20,234 hectares of land.[20]

The UAE government and its companies went through a similar process. In response to growing food security challenges, the UAE launched its Food Security Strategy 2051 in 2019, with the ambitious targets of becoming a world-leading hub for innovation-driven food security and to lead the Global Food Security Index by 2051. The framework outlines multiple priority areas: enabling uninterrupted global food trade, diversifying food imports partnerships, and developing domestic food production.[21]

To ensure its food security, the UAE has embarked on an ambitious investment strategy globally, which includes commercial partnerships and farmland acquisitions. The UAE government and its private sector partners such as ADQ, Al Dahra and Elite Agro have amassed some 960,000 hectares of farmland overseas to cut intermediaries, securing their supply chains, strengthening logistics and reducing the cost of food imports, thus saving up to 25% on import spending by having direct access to food crops.[22]

The UAE is one of Pakistan’s largest trade partners and a major source of foreign investment, amounting to more than US$10 billion over the last 20 years. In December 2023, immediately after the launch of the SIFC, the UAE signed US$25 billion worth of deals, including in agriculture, starting with halal meat and date palm production for export to the UAE.[23] A cascade of otherdeals followed. In May 2024, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on his one day visit to Abu Dhabi managed to secure a US$10 billion investment commitment from UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.[24] In June 2024, Bassam Karanouh, head of the Dubai-based Caballero Foods company, visited a FonGrow farm in Khanewal to explore opportunities in Pakistani corporate farming.[25] In November 2024, the UAE’s AD Ports Group signed four memorandums of understanding with the Pakistani government to explore upgrading the latter’s maritime, rail, airport, customs, and logistics infrastructure.[26] The AD Ports Group is a major investor in the Karachi port in Pakistan and the MoUs were aimed to further expand AD Ports Group’s activities in the country.

Lastly, there’s the major role played by Abu Dhabi’s ADQ sovereign wealth fund. It has acquired a 50% stake in the Al Dahra Holding Company, a multinational agribusiness leader that specialises in animal feed and essential food commodities. Al Dahra operates three rice mills in Pakistan, India and the UAE with the capacity to supply 500,000 tons annually.[27] Al Dahra is also a leading company in the cultivation, production, and supply of animal fodder and food crops, and has a land bank of over 400,000 acres of owned and leased lands across 20 countries, in addition to 15 feed factories producing more than 40 feed products.[28] To further enhance UAE’s investments in Pakistan, both countries are negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), with key sectors like agriculture, mining and petroleum on the table.[29]

All these huge Green Pakistan Initiative projects have been fostering outrage and pushback across the regions of Punjab and Sindh. Farmers, especially small landholders, along with environmentalists and food activists are worried that the foreign and domestic companies investing in farmland will displace farmers, limit their access to crucial agricultural resources, strain water resources and lead to an ecological disaster in the region. They’re also not buying the promises that these investments are promoting the country’s food security. They see the production of cash crops which, if at all, will end up fulfilling other countries’ food security needs, but not Pakistan’s.

A wave of campaigns and actions have been - and continue to be - rolled out by civil society to resist what are being called “corporate mafias”. In March 2024, a farmers’ conference was organised by Sindhi Hari Tehreek, a movement for the rights and welfare of farmers, peasants and tillers, in the Shahpur Chakar in the Sanghar district of Sindh, to demand an end to the occupation of Sindh lands and the construction of canals that would bring about the desertification of the province. The organisers condemned the auction of 526,092 hectares of land in the province in the name of corporate farming and demanded the dismantling of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), which they deem unconstitutional.[34]

Feb 23, 2025. In Mithi, Tharparkar

At a press conference in Lahore in November 2024, landless peasants and smallholders - backed by the farmers’ organisations Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC) and Anjuman Mazareen Punjab (AMP)- vowed to fight rather than surrender their fields to the government's corporate farming push. For the PKRC and AMP the solution to the predicament of rural communities is clear: comprehensive agrarian reforms, with land distributed among landless peasants, agricultural workers, and small-scale farmers.[35] Yet the government’s push for corporate farming continues. By January 2025, over 44,000 hectares across Sindh and Punjab had quietly changed hands, and been absorbed into the Green Pakistan Initiative: 20,285 hectares of land in Sindh, over 18,000 hectares in Bhakkar, Khushab and Sahiwal and another 5,600 hectares in the Umerkot district.[36]

In Lahore, farmers filed a lawsuit against military-linked agricultural projects, while activists warned that corporate farming with modern technology would deepen climate change-related catastrophes.[37] After witnessing the dire situation in the Sanghar area of Sindh, a BBC journalist spoke of the human cost: “In the current corporate farming model, farmers will be displaced from their land. And this is happening with absolutely no transparency and no one knows who is getting land and at what cost.”[38]

At the heart of it all, there is a pattern that the PKRC and allied groups denounce: the government is using corporate farming as a smokescreen for land grabs in favour of corporate mafias. Leases spanning 30 to 50 years are already gutting villages, irrespective of the court orders acknowledging these lands as the common property of peasants.[39] To this end, the government is deploying aggressive tactics to seize land - issuing sharecropping notices to peasants, demanding overdue land revenue payments, and even using police intimidation to forcibly obtain thumbprints as “consent” for land accusation. Farmers in Punjab’s Arifwala and Hasilpur recently foiled a police-backed corporate attempt to seize 10,800 hectares of their land.[40]

In defiance of farmers’ opposition, Punjab’s Chief Minister and the Army Chief launched the Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI) in Cholistan’s Kandai and Chapu desert on 15 February 2025. The launch included the Green Mall and Service Company (selling subsidised seeds, fertilisers, and drone rentals) and a 2,023 hectares “Smart Agri Farm”, a farm equipped with modern farming technology and irrigated by a system of six new canals diverting Sindh (Indus) waters.[41]

News of these canal projects sparked nationwide protests. In Sindh, farming communities, fisherfolk, residents and even the political ally of the ruling party, led a wave of demonstrations, condemning the diversion of Sindh waters and warning of catastrophic water shortages. Tensions escalated further when, on 23 April, India unilaterally announced its suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, in response to the Pahalgam attack in Jammu and Kashmir. On the 24 April, the Pakistani government declared a halt to construction of the new canal, pointing to broad-based domestic opposition as one of the reasons. This marked a major victory for people against the corporate farming agenda’s water grab.

Although the suspension of the construction of the canal are a setback in the GPI’s corporate farming project, farming communities remain at risk of land grabs and other pro-corporate agricultural schemes. The Green Pakistan Initiative threatens to entrench a new feudalism – one powered by agribusiness-led monoculture farming and Gulf capital. While the model promises high-tech “modernisation”, it sidelines small farmers, replacing their livelihoods with foreign-controlled supply chains for seeds, machinery and irrigation, and this, only, if they manage to stay on their land.

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[1] Conversation with GRAIN

[2] Progressive International, “The Roots of Food Crisis in Pakistan”, 26 August 2020, https://progressive.international/wire/2020-08-26-the-roots-of-food-crisis-in-pakistan/en

[3] FSIN and Global Network Against Food Crises. 2024. GRFC 2024. Rome. https://www.fsinplatform.org/grfc2024

[4] Pakistan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation for March - June 2024 and Projection for July - November 2024, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis, https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1157024/

[5] Robert Looney, “Agrarian Mirage: Gulf Foreign Direct Investment in Pakistan’s Agricultural Sector”, Middle East Institute, Washington DC, 1 October 2014, https://landmatrix.org/media/uploads/meieducontentmapagrarian-mirage-gulf-foreign-direct-investment-pakistane28099s-agricultural-sector_ftnref17.pdf

[6] Robert Looney, “Agrarian Mirage: Gulf Foreign Direct Investment in Pakistan’s Agricultural Sector”, 1 October 2014, https://landmatrix.org/media/uploads/meieducontentmapagrarian-mirage-gulf-foreign-direct-investment-pakistane28099s-agricultural-sector_ftnref17.pdf

[7] Aamir Saeed, “Pakistan seeks $6bn for corporate farming from Saudi Arabia, other Gulf nations by 2028”, Arab News, 22 September 2023, https://arab.news/wxb3f

[9] “Green Pakistan Initiative – Land Information and Management System (LIMS)”, the Times Agriculture, 13 July 2023, https://timesagriculture.com/green-pakistan-initiative-land-information-and-management-system-lims/#google_vignette

[10] “Army chief, PM inaugurate Pakistan’s first corporate farm to modernize agricultural practices”, Arab News, Arab News, 25 July 2023, https://arab.news/wqj93

[11] “4.8m acres identified for Green Pakistan Initiative”, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of Pakistan, 7 September 2024, https://moib.gov.pk/News/64781

[12] GRAIN, “Unmasking the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor”, 12 May 2021, https://grain.org/e/6669

[13] Simon Sharp, “How the UAE and KSA are tackling food security issues, Global Ventures, 3 June 2022, https://www.global.vc/thoughts/how-the-uae-and-ksa-are-tackling-food-security-issues#:~:text=While%20the%20UAE%20imports%2090,demographics%2C%20and%20shifting%20consumption%20habits

[14] “We can meet Kuwait’s goal to maintain food security: Pakistan envoy”, Arab Times, Kuwait City, 7 January 2024, https://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/we-can-meet-kuwaits-goal-to-maintain-food-security-pakistan-envoy/

[15] Shakeel Ahmed Ramay, “Opportunities from ties with Kuwait”, The Express Tribune, Islamabad, 3 March 2025, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2531939/opportunities-from-ties-with-kuwait

[16] “Pakistan’s Fatima Group seals $1bn industrial deals with Saudi, Chinese companies”, Arab News, 28 February 2022, https://arab.news/nz3ep

[17] Mehreen Zahra-Malik, “Saudi Arabia, UAE to invest $25 billion each in Pakistan in 2-5 years — PM”, Arab News, Islamabad, 4 September 2023, https://arab.news/rsyhs

[18] “Pakistan’s SIFC, Saudi company ink agreement to cultivate 5,000 acres of cattle fodder”, Arab News, Islamabad, 18 March 2024, https://arab.news/w9yna

[19] Aamir Saeed, “Pakistan seeks $6bn for corporate farming from Saudi Arabia, other Gulf nations by 2028”, Arab News, Islamabad, 22 September 2023, https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2378411/business-economy

[20] Shahbaz Rana, “Pakistan sweetens terms to lure Saudi investment”, The Express Tribune, Islamabad, 20 April 2024, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2463226/pakistan-sweetens-terms-to-lure-saudi-investment

[21] “A Guide to Food Security in the UAE”, Ministry of Climate Change & Environment, 2023, Dubai, https://smartfoodsafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/A-Guide-to-Food-Security-in-the-UAE.pdf

[22] “The U.A.E.’s Food Security Vision: Innovation, Investment, and Partnerships”, U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, November 2024, https://usuaebusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SectorUpdate_FoodReport_Web.pdf

[23] GRAIN, “From land to logistics: UAE's growing power in the global food system”, 3 July 2024, https://grain.org/e/7170

[24] Saima Shabbir, “UAE president commits to investing $10 billion in Pakistan in meeting with PM Sharif”, Arab News, 23 May 2024, https://arab.news/rwht3

[25] Muhammad Ibrahim, “Dubai-based food company explores opportunities in Pakistani corporate farming”, Arab News, 30 June 2024, https://arab.news/cghjv

[26] “AD Ports Group signs Memorandums of Understanding with Government of Pakistan to advance trade, transport and logistics infrastructure”, Abu Dhabi Media Office, 9 November 2024, https://www.mediaoffice.abudhabi/en/transport/ad-ports-group-signs-memorandums-of-understanding-with-government-of-pakistan-to-advance-trade-transport-and-logistics-infrastructure/

[27] “ADQ to expand its food and agriculture business sector portfolio with strategic investment in Al Dahra Holding Company”, 13 May 2020, https://www.adq.ae/newsroom/adq-to-expand-its-food-and-agriculture-business-sector-portfolio-with-strategic-investment-in-al-dahra-holding-company/

[28] “Al Dahra Agriculture, Elite Agro Holding Join ADAFSA' S Fodder Market”, Pakistan Point, Abu Dhabi, 21 September 2023, https://www.pakistanpoint.com/en/story/1750993/al-dahra-agriculture-elite-agro-holding-join-adafsa0.html

[29] Farzad Ramezani Bonesh, “Multilateral Trade Between the UAE and Pakistan: 2023 / 24 Status and Prospects”, Middle East Briefing, 18 December 2023, https://www.middleeastbriefing.com/news/multilateral-trade-between-the-uae-and-pakistan-2023-24-status-and-prospects/

[30] Shafaq Zernab and Muhammad Ahmad Khan, “Strategic Choices of Pakistan Amid US And Chinese Investments – Analysis”, Eurasia Review, 28 February 2025, https://www.eurasiareview.com/28022025-strategic-choices-of-pakistan-amid-us-and-chinese-investments-analysis/

[31] “Planting area of Chinese peanut varieties to reach 2,000 acres in Pakistan”, The Nation, Islamabad, 20 June 2024, https://www.nation.com.pk/20-Jun-2024/planting-area-of-chinese-peanut-varieties-to-reach-2-000-acres-in-pakistan

[32] “Chinese firm offers rice, maize cultivation project in Cholistan”, DAWN, Lahore, 28 January 2025, https://www.dawn.com/news/1888197/chinese-firm-offers-rice-maize-cultivation-project-for-cholistan

[33] “Green Pakistan project designed to maximize agricultural productivity: Fu Shuai”, Associated Press of Pakistan, Beijing, 3 February 2025, https://www.app.com.pk/global/green-pakistan-project-designed-to-maximize-agricultural-productivity-fu-shuai/

[34] Aftab Ahmed, “Sindhi Hari Tehreek rejects corporate farming in province”, The News International, Hyderabad, 10 March 2024, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1166434-sindhi-hari-tehreek-rejects-corporate-farming-in-province

[35] “Small farmers will not vacate their land”, Business Recorder, Lahore, 22 November 2024, https://www.brecorder.com/news/40333850/small-farmers-will-not-vacate-their-land

[36] Ikram Junaidi, “Govt asked to end new canals, corporate farming projects”, The DAWN, Islamabad, 19 January 2025, https://www.dawn.com/news/1886224

[37] “Pakistan: Landless peasants resisting land grabbing for corporate farming projects under the Green Pakistan Initiative”, La Via Campesina, 3 December 2024, https://viacampesina.org/en/2024/12/landless-peasants-are-resisting-land-grabbing-under-the-green-pakistan-initiative-for-corporate-farming-projects/

[38] “Sairbeen: SIFC - Military’s involvement in Pakistan’s economic decision-making”, BBC URDU, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y246eVPDU5o

[39] “Farmers, civil society oppose corporate farming”, The DAWN, Lahore, 25 March 2025, https://www.dawn.com/news/1900206/farmers-civil-society-oppose-corporate-farming

[40] “Peasant groups demand govt give state land to landless farmers”, Business Recorder, Lahore, 25 March 2025, https://www.brecorder.com/news/40354568/peasant-groups-demand-govt-give-state-land-to-landless-farmers

[41] Amir Ilyas Rana, “Green Pakistan Initiative launched to modernise agriculture”, The Express Tribune, 15 February 2025, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2528692/punjab-launches-agricultural-projects-to-support-farmers-with-modern-facilities#google_vignette

[42] “SALIC and Minerva Foods announce the acquisition of the Australian Lamb Company”, SALIC, 21 October 2022, https://salic.com/news/salic-and-minerva-foods-announce-the-acquisition-of-the-australian-lamp-company/

[43] “Al Dahra Agriculture – Animal Feed Division, acquires a feed processor in Wannamal, North of Perth, Western Australia to strengthen”, AL DAHRA, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 14 November 2016, https://aldahra.com/al-dahra-agriculture-animal-feed-division-acquires-a-feed-processor-in-wannamal-north-of-perth-western-australia-to-strengt/

[44] “Government agrees to develop agriculture farm and plantation with Elite Agro UAE LLC”, Sampit Prokal (news item translated by GRAIN), 18 October 2019, https://farmlandgrab.org/post/29419-government-agrees-to-develop-agriculture-farm-and-plantation-with-elite-agro-uae-llc

[45] “Indonesia a step closer to partner with UAE on Papua food estate”, Jakarta Globe, 29 November 2024, https://farmlandgrab.org/post/32526-indonesia-a-step-closer-to-partner-with-uae-on-papua-food-estate

[46] Unifrutti Group: Company Profile, 2015, https://unifruttigroup.com/sito/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Unifrutti-Group_Company-Profile_2021.pdf

[47] Adora Rodriguez, “DA chief calls on UAE, Gulf countries to invest in Phl agri, fishery” DA Press Office, 14 February 2022, https://www.da.gov.ph/da-chief-calls-on-uae-gulf-countries-to-invest-in-phl-agri-fishery/

[48] “Proposed Sale of Olam Group’s Remaining 64.57% Stake in Olam Agri to SALIC”, Olam Agri, 24 February 2025, https://www.olamagri.com/news/press-release/proposed-sale-of-olam-group-remaining-64-point-57-percent-stake-in-olam-agri-to-salic.html

[49] “I2U2 Summit and Food Security”, Drishti, 15 July 2022, https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/i2u2-summit-and-food-security/print_manually

[50] The Essential Commodities Act (ECA) of 1955, an act of the Parliament of India, aims to control the production, supply, distribution, and trade of certain commodities to ensure their availability to the public at fair prices and prevent hoarding and black marketing.

[51] Amiti Sen, “UAE initiates process of investing $2 billion in food parks in India”, The Hindu Business Line, 26 December 2023, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/uae-initiates-process-of-investing-2-billion-in-food-parks-in-india/article67677170.ece

[52] Neil Halligan, “UAE’s Aqua Bridge to build aquaculture farm in India”, AGBI Arabian Gulf Business Insight, 21 February 2025, https://www.agbi.com/agriculture/2025/02/abu-dhabis-aqua-bridge-to-build-aquaculture-farm-in-india/