“Land grabbing poses no harm on the environment or on the local community,” says Saudi billionaire Sheik Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi.

Damaged rice is seen in a paddy field destroyed by flood- waters near a village in Manmunai West in Batticaloa district, about 199 miles east of Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 26. The floods inundated rice paddies, and according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, at least 15.5 percent of the main annual rice harvest could be lost. (Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Reuters)

(Photo: Altermundo)

Youba Sokona, Coordinator at the United Nations economic Commission.

A Dakar, le Forum social 2011 dénonce accaparement des terres et néocolonialisme. (Caricature SC - Aufait Maroc)

Le Mali est devenu un symbole depuis que la Libye – via la société Malibya – a acquis 100 000 ha de terres arables dans la zone de l'Office du Niger, la principale région rizicole du pays.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and UEA's Foreign Minister Abdallah bin Zayid Al Nuhayyan at a joint press conference in Istanbul, December 2010.

Former Federal Treasurer and member of the Australian Gulf Council’s advisory team, Peter Costello with AGC chairman Alastair Walton; United Arab Emirates Foreign Trade Minister, Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi, and former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, at an Dubai summit in December where Mr Hawke presented Her Excellency with an RM Williams leather briefcase.

The Asia Foundation President David D. Arnold n Kabul

Rice farming in Mali's Office du Niger (Photo: SOS Faim)