Qatar

The firm also aims to conclude as many as six deals by year end, including in Latin America and is scouting Africa to set up joint ventures or buy firms to develop land.

"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

Qatar's Hassad Food is eyeing a stake in Russia's PAVA and has signed a deal potentially worth $1 billion to develop land in Sudan as it looks to grow through acquisitions and joint ventures, its chairman said on Thursday.

During his current visit to Qatar, Dr Ismail is scheduled to brief the Qatari officials on a number of projects on food security and agricultural, which would, involve the two countries and ensure food security for both of them with the possibility of overseas export to fill the food shortages afflicting the Arab region and abroad.

No deal was ever secured with Qatar, and China is now being eyed as a more appropriate suitor for the project.

The chief justice of Lahore's High Court directed the Ministry of Food and Agriculture that no land would be sold or leased out to any foreign country without prior intimation to this court.

Critics say that by seeking to solve their food shortage problem through foreign farmland acquisitions, the rich emerging economies may succeed in producing enough quantity for their populations but may in the long-term be exporting their food insecurity to other nations.

The proposals for farmland acquisitions by countries such as Saudi Arabia or Qatar are at a pre-feasibility stage and no commitment has been made so far, the government of Pakistan told the High Court of Lahore

Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif postponed until October 6 the hearing of a petition challenging the proposed sale or lease of millions of acres of agriculture land to foreign countries.

An Afro-Arab agriculture conference on farm investment, which was to take place in Zanzibar, has been cancelled due to the Tanzanian governmnt's 11th hour refusal to host it.

There are better means to meet the food needs of the Saudis than to lease thm land that belongs to the state and the people of Pakistan

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has launched a venture aiming to invest in food production worldwide focusing on the acquisition and development of existing agribusiness companies rather than the lease of large tracts of farmland.