Vietnam

Several national companies and even the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the capital's sovereign fund, are planning investments in agriculture in countries as diverse as Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Australia, Romania and the United States.

State-backed food producing and marketing giant, Hassad Food Company, has plans to produce rice in India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Vietnamese and Chinese investors will cultivate 10,000 acres and 15,000 acres of land for rice and cassava in Edo State, Nigeria, respectively.

"Land grabbing" will be featured on the agenda of a high-level conference on the rice industry in November 2010 in Vietnam, where 17 agricultural ministers will be in attendance.

TADCO subsidiary has already arranged leases in Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines for export production of aromatic and long grain basmati rice.

Between 2007 and mid-2008, Gulf states and their government-backed businesses spent US$15 billion (Dh55bn) in sub-Saharan Africa alone, much of it in the drive for food security

An increasing number of Indian companies are expected to use Singapore as a springboard for their global operations, including overseas farmland investments

Saudi Arabian investors are looking to expand their agricultural investments in the United States to secure long-term food supply because of water shortages in the desert kingdom, Saudi officials said on Thursday.

But company says it does not want to tarnish Saudi Arabia's image by buying farmlands abroad

Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet, current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, pledged to bolster Saudi-ASEAN cooperation in view of ASEAN's reliance on the Gulf states' oil and the Gulf states' need for overseas farmland for their own food security.

Vietnam's president Nguyen Minh Triet on Saturday met Saudi business leaders who asked for flexible investment regulations and access to Vietnam's farmlands

"Qatar is in the process of formulating a national strategy for food security that we expect to shift from a focus on land ownership in developing countries to land leases and joint ventures with the private sector in developed countries," reports the US Embassy in Doha