Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the top four countries on a massive investment spree to acquire agricultural resources.

At least 100 farmers joined a protest in front of the Department of Agriculture in Quezon City led by the members of the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) in the Philippines such as the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), AMIHAN (National Federation of Peasant Women), UMA (Union of Agricultural Workers), and the PAMALAKAYA (National Federation of Small Fisherfolks of the Philippines). Also present is the Anakpawis partylist and the National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates (NNARA)-Youth.

The UAE should instead be looking to diversify and better monitor its agricultural investments abroad, says Dr Raed Safadi, the deputy director of trade and agriculture at the OECD.

African officials have called for greater equity and fairness in trade with the GCC countries that use agricultural land in Africa to feed their populations while famines continue to ravage the continent.

In an effort to improve food security, the government has been investing in agriculture projects abroad, especially in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, Pakistan, Romania, Sudan and the Americas, to secure food supplies and safeguard against market fluctuations.

Al Ghurair Foods is acquiring 100,000 hectares of farmland in Sudan to grow grain, a move in line with the UAE's efforts to address food security concerns, according to company chairman Essa Abdullah Al Ghurair.

On 31 January 2012 in Dubai, 2nd Commercial Farm Africa features panel of experts and in-depth analysis on land utilization & investment policies in Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Sudan, Namibia, Ghana and Ethiopia.

United Arab Emirates is interested to cultivate agricultural goods in Pakistan and is also ready to make small dams for irrigation on the condition agricultural goods from Pakistan should not be stopped exporting to UAE.

City Energy & Infrastructure will be involved in the development of a sugar plantation and sugar processing plant in an area of 100,000 hectares.

With investors from the Middle East and the U.S., Africa Atlantic Farms is pursuing mechanised farming on 10,000 hectares it has leased in Ghana in the Afram Plains region, with plans to expand.

Xinjiang and Nigxia present huge opportunities to Arab investors for mining coal, oil and gas as well as the development of wind and solar power, halal food industry and large-scale agriculture.

Sudan is urging the UAE to begin developing the vast expanses of farmland it has acquired in the country, as the north loses the majority of its oil revenues following the independence of South Sudan.