Mozambique is mulling a plan to lease 240,000 hectares of prime farmland to investors to grow crops for export, threatening to displace more than 100,000 local residents, activists and academics said, citing a leaked document.

The Lurio River Valley Development Project in the country’s northeast aims to produce cotton, corn, sugar, ethanol and livestock, said Clemente Ntauazi, a researcher with advocacy group Academic Action for the Development of Rural Communities.

An estimated 500,000 people will be affected by the plan, with 100,000 forced from their homes, Ntauazi said.

“The area holds some of Mozambique’s best land and local farmers have been living there for more than 30 years,” he told.

bbabo.Net