According to Rana Kapoor, head of India's Yes Bank, Africa offers immense opportunity in terms of investment in large-scale commercial farming, quoting rates of return of 18-21% and above.

New report provides a detailed examination of the role of the Indian government and Indian companies engaged in overseas agricultural land acquisitions in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Given the limited scope for farmland expansion within India, policy makers need to evaluate the option of cross border farmland cultivation, says the director of YES Bank

Yes Bank expects a $150 million Tanzanian rice and wheat project to reach full production by 2011, the first of several large African farms it is funding. "We are looking at a more inclusive model wherein the local farmers can be organised into a producers company, and they would be the suppliers to the processing facility. It's predominantly not to acquire huge tracts of land."