Originally published on September 24, 2013

Ukraine has agreed to farm 3 million hectares (about 11,580 square miles) of land over the next 50 years to help feed China's ballooning population.

China will be investing roughly $2.6 billion in exchange for farmland roughly the size of Massachusetts or Belgium, which is about 9 percent of Ukraine's arable farmland, or 5 percent of its total land.

Initially, Ukraine will turn over 100,000 hectares of farmland, and increase that area to 3 million over 50 years.

Under the deal struck between China's Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) and KSG Agro, a Ukrainian agricultural company, China will supply Ukraine with seeds and equipment in exchange for crops and pigs raised in the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk. These will be sold at preferential rates to two Chinese state-owned grain firms.

XPCC also intends to give Ukraine a fertilizer plant, help build a highway in Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and a bridge across the Strait of Kerch, which is a transport and industrial center.

China holds just 9 percent of the world's farmland after rapid industrialization, but consumes about one-fifth of the world's food supplies.

The country has already purchased farmland in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, with the agreement with Ukraine representing its biggest investment in foreign farmland so far.

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