Gallery
"Business as usual" for Trigon Agri, which controls some 52,000 hectares in Ukraine, out of a total Black Sea landbank of about 170,000 hectares. (REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)
Les ministres ivoiriens Coulibaly Sangafowa de l`Agriculture et Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani des Ressources animales et halieutiques au Salon de l'Argiculture en France en 2012
Despite attempts at land reform - the issue that started the war decades ago - people in Colombia are still being driven off their land by right-wing paramilitaries that the government says are gone, and companies are then claiming legal title to the lands. (Photo: Al Jazeera)
Côte d'Ivoire is pinning its hopes on foreign companies, like trading giant Louis Dreyfus Commodities, with which it has signed agreements under which the firms will oversee rice output and marketing in 10 production zones.
A man sits next to the charred remains of his house that was allegedly burned to the ground by Chinese company Union Development Group in Koh Kong's Botum Sakor District, Cambodia, February 2014. (Photo: Heng Chivoan)
The Moroccan government says it will hold regular tenders as suitable state farmland is gradually identified and made available. About 40,000 hectares may be offered in 2014. The target is 500,000 hectares by 2020, nearly four times the current level.
Sénégal, région de Saint-Louis. L'entreprise italo-américaine Senhuile-Senethanol a obtenu une concession de 20.000 hectares de terres pour 55 ans pour cultiver des tournesols et des patates douces.(Photo : Maura Benegiamo)
Robert McKendrick (left) of Capital Alternatives arrives at the high court in London. Capital Alternatives marketed a scheme for African Land Ltd that promised to develop rice farms in Sierra Leone. It took a 50% cut from the money paid by each new recruit. (Photo: Gavin Fog)
Farmer Benedict Smarts stands next to tombs of his ancestors, on December 12, 2012, on the Indonesian Golden Veroleum concession in southern Liberia. Liberian farmers who survived a 15-year civil war are now fighting lucrative property deals with Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil companies that threaten the land they live on, if not their sacred burial sites. (Photo: AFP)
Small farmers are supposed to be the main beneficiaries of the New Alliance, but they have been shut out of the negotiations. Above: a Kenyan farmer tends newly planted trees (Photo: Tony Karumba/AFP)
Lorsqu'elle a adhéré à l'UE en 2004, la Lituanie s'est engagée à supprimer cette interdiction de vendre des biens fonciers à des étrangers. Elle a toutefois bénéficié d'une période de transition qui s'achèvera en mai 2014.
"Send this message to all that Tanzania's government has no plans to grab land," says Tanzania's Minister for Agriculture Eng Christopher Chiza.
Palmeraie de la PALMCI, exploitation et usine de Toumanguié, Côte d'Ivoire. Photo: Camille Millerand/JA
The film We Come As Friends shows a contract worth just US$25,000 (Dh92,000) for 600,000 hectares of land, with full exploitation rights, made out to Howard Douglas, a former United States ambassador and coordinator for refugee affairs.
“Farmland has now become the latest scarce ‘hot’ commodity for all sorts of speculators who have absolutely no interest in agriculture,” says John Peck (R) of Wisconsin-based Family Farm Defenders.
