Saudi Arabia

Recently, Sudan was reported to have leased more than 800,000 hectares of its most fertile land to the Saudis. Several other Gulf countries, including Egypt, are in the process of closing similar deals. It is expected several hundred thousand hectares more will be leased out by the end of this year. The lease tenure is 99 years. At least two generations of Sudanese will have to live with the decisions made by their leader.

Talks are on with investors from Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia. 25,000 Punjab villages will be affected.

West Java governor Ahmad Heryawan said his province will become one of the many regions targeted by the Binladin Group for investment in food production.

Soaring food prices, supply fears among import-dependent countries and rising demand for biofuels have driven up investment in agricultural land, notably in Africa.

The deputy leader of the Democratic Left Party (DSP) Turkey has stated that Turkey possesses some great advantages in agriculture, despite the major problems that remain in place in the sector, but emphasized that it is a mistake to sell agricultural land to foreigners.

Sudanese Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will spend three billion Sudanese pounds (1.5 billion USD) up to the end of the year to implement a massive program to develop the agricultural sector.

Arabia is phasing out its domestic wheat growers and seeking to shift production overseas.

Some of the world's richest nations are coming to grow crops and export the yields, hoping to turn the global epicenter of malnutrition into a breadbasket for themselves.

"In a wide-ranging conversation, Sudanese business magnate Osama Daoud outlined a project to gradually develop as much as 1.26 million acres in northern Sudan for agricultural production," reports the US Embassy in Khartoum

Saudi Arabia is interested in investment in grain and cattle-breeding in Kazakhstan, said agency reports referring to the press service of Akmola oblast akim.

Pakistan’s minister for privatization and investment, at a recently held forum in Dubai, announced that Pakistan was willing to provide land with 100 per cent ownership rights and that the buyers would be free in importing the agri-produce to their country as well.

On the heels of tight crop production reports and the recent memory of individual nations experiencing food disruptions, there is a scramble to control or own agricultural assets and food stocks.