by Ali Balunywa
Egypt’s minister of Agriculture, recently claimed that the Uganda government had allocated Egypt 2 million acres of land to grow wheat and corn this year. He asserted that the land was in a number of places. 2 million acres is equivalent to 2.2% of Uganda’s total area.
Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper quoting the Egyptian Al-Ahram Weekly newspaper of 30 August 2008, cited minister Amin Abaza of Agriculture as saying, “Uganda allocated to us (Egypt) 2 million feddans of land in a number of places.”
According to the Monitor, it was not clear whether the land was sold or leased freely. President Museveni is want to make decisions favouring investors without consultations. He has for example given away land in several prime areas in the city free to foreign investors only regularised the transactions later.
The monitor approached several executives including the Uganda Investment Authority, the Minister of lands and a number of political executives say they have no knowledge of the alleged deal.
However Reuters news agency reported recently that Arab countries, many of them oil rich but largely desert, were seeking large patches of land in fertile Africa to grow food for their populations to stem the increasing food prices.
The claim from Cairo came after Egyptian President Hussein Mubarak visited Uganda -- for the first time in his 27 years in power -- at the end of July.
Members of Parliament led by Ms Betty Kamya on 25 September have tasked government as a matter of urgency to explain the agreement with the Egyptians, believed to be in final stages to explain the circumstances under which Egyptians are claiming at least 2 per cent of Uganda’s fertile agricultural land for wheat and corn plantations..
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