Abu Dhabi looks to Sudan for food security: FT

Gulf oil producer Abu Dhabi plans to develop agricultural land in Sudan, Africa's biggest country, as part of a strategy to improve its food security, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing a government fund.

The Abu Dhabi Development Fund is looking to set up a company with an Arab agency to develop at least 70,000 acres (28,329 hectares) in northern Sudan, said the fund's deputy projects director, Ahmed al-Shamsi, according to the FT.

The fund, which will invest hundreds of millions of dirhams in the project, may seek to produce corn, alfalfa and possibly wheat, the FT said. A study on the project should be ready by November, it said.

The fund, set up in 1971 to help poorer countries with low-cost loans for infrastructure projects, is also considering projects in Senegal and Uzbekistan, the newspaper said.

A spokesman for Shamsi declined to comment.