China just bought (50 yr lease) 9% of arable Ukrainian farmland?

[vacuum]

http://qz.com/127258/why-china-just-bought-one-twentieth-of-ukraine/

[Large Sarge]

dumping dollars?

[osoab]

Doesn't appear that way now.

From vacuum's link.


Update (9:21 a.m. ET): Ukraine’s KSG Agro released a statement (http://www.ksgagro.com/en/2013/09/23/refutation-of-information/) today, Sept. 24, denying reports that it had reached an agreement to sell 3 million hectares to a Chinese firm. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1314902/ukraine-become-chinas-largest-overseas-farmer-3m-hectare-deal) had reported a deal between KSG Agro and China’s Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, (XPCC) in which China would be able to farm the area for up to 50 years. The paper cited a statement from XPCC as the source of its report. Quartz (http://qz.com/127258/why-china-just-bought-one-twentieth-of-ukraine/) and other media (http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/09/22/china-ukraine-idINL3N0HI04620130922) also reported on the story.

[midnight rambler]

3 million hectares = 7.5 million acres or 11,719 sq. miles.

[palani]

3 million hectares = 7.5 million acres or 11,719 sq. miles.

Nine counties ... here a county is 36 miles per side.

[steyr_m]

Nine counties ... here a county is 36 miles per side.

I thought a county was 6 miles squared [36 miles] or 6 miles per side.

[osoab]

Nine counties ... here a county is 36 miles per side.

Yeah, but Iowa is pretty square.

[midnight rambler]

I thought a county was 6 miles squared [36 miles] or 6 miles per side.

That would make for very tiny counties (only ~23,000 acres).

[palani]

I thought a county was 6 miles squared [36 miles] or 6 miles per side.
That is a township.

A county by law consists of 1)villages, 2)cities and 3)townships. When the first two counties were created in Iowa by the Territory of Michigan they were named Des Moines and Du Buque. At the same time they were created the Michigan legislature created two townships Flint Hill and Julien respectively for a county had to made of something and at the time there was nothing except perhaps a few cluster of houses.

The dividing line between these two counties was the south end of Arsenal Island (Rock Island). Des Moines county extended to the northern Missouri border. Du Buque county extended to the Canadian border and included all of Minnesota.

In case you were looking for it and missed it there are no people in any county. There are only villages, cities and townships.

[Spectrism]

It will be hard to grow anything in the new Siberia - as the pole shifts.