Cambodia

Cambodia is experiencing what's been called an epidemic of land grabbing. Huge tracts of the country have been granted to private companies for large scale agriculture or other purposes.

The Leopard Cambodia Fund has set aside $1.8m to establish Cambodia Plantations, a Singapore-based company which will serve as an offshore finance vehicle for agricultural investments in central Cambodia. The drawdown will fund the establishment of a subsidiary that is in the process of obtaining a land concession in the province of Kompong Chhnang for rice cultivation.

Many land transactions occur without a paper trail, therefore making regulation even more challenging.

At least six Singaporean companies want to start joint ventures with Cambodian partners to invest in the Kingdom's agricultural sector.

It's a tsunami of land deals and, as all of the experts who have studied the phenomenon have agreed, no nation is truly prepared for its implications.

During the recent review of Cambodia before the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, several Committee members raised concerns about the potential effects a land deal with the Kuwaiti government could have on various economic, social and cultural rights in Cambodia, including the rights to food, housing and an adequate standard of living.

Sam Pov, a rice farmer in Cambodia’s western Battambang Province, is very worried that his land will be taken over by a foreign investor.

South Korea's KOGID Cambodia plans to invest US$150 million to grow and process corn for animal feed to be sold overseas.

"Finance Minister Yousef Hussein Kamal said he had personally been traveling to Vietnam, Cambodia, Yemen, Sudan, Tajikistan, and elsewhere to look into investing in agricultural production for the Qatari market," reports the US Embassy in Doha about a visit from US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson

These arrangements are reminiscent of “banana republics” when many African countries served as plantations for European countries -- but even those did not come with such explicit restrictions and rigidities.

Cambodia has been signing deals with Kuwait and Qatar to help develop its agricultural sector. Cambodian officials, however, refuse to disclose details of the agreements, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

CNN's John Defterios takes a look at how Middle Eastern countries are scouring the globe for farmland.