The agricultural department of China’s Sichuan province is currently in negotiations for the investment of $300 million over five years, with an initial investment of $60 million, into cotton, rice and fruit production in Uganda. The deal entails the establishment of an agricultural and industrial park for the development of the entire value chain of production necessitating 15,000 acres of land. Private Ugandan land owners can choose to either lease their land to the Chinese investors or form private equity partnerships. Uganda is Africa’s biggest coffee exporter and was once Africa’s largest cotton producer, but political unrest in the 1970’s hindered production and has left Ugandan farming at a subsistence level with a lack of capital, expertise, and infrastructure needed to commercialize. With increasing stability, output has improved. Uganda is forecast to produce 15,000 tons of cotton for the July 2014 to June 2015 year – up from 14,000 tons the previous year according to the International Cotton Advisory Council of Washington DC.
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