Small Farmers in Madagascar Say Chinese Investors Forced Them to Sell Their Land for Dirt Cheap · Global Voices
▻https://globalvoices.org/2017/06/05/land-grabs-chinese-investors-madagascar
Chinese foreigners are forcing farmers in southwest Madagascar to sell their land for a mere 7 ariary (less than US $0.01) per square meter. That’s according to news from TV Plus Madagascar, as reported by journalists Ivon Mahandrisoa and Angelo Ranaivoarisoa on May 24, 2017. A similar land deal in Kenya in 2008 was priced at about US $0.05 per square meter for a total of 40,000 hectares. (The cost of a loaf of white bread is 1,481.85 Ariary).
Already more than 12,000 acres have been acquired by the Chinese investors, who have shown up with papers for the farmers to sign over the land. Farmers in the rural communes of Antanimieva and Befandriana Atsimo say they feel they can’t say no—for fear they would be evicted anyway, in which case they would lose both their land and the small amount of money being offered.
