A new report by the Zoological Society of London has found inconsistencies in how palm oil companies report on land in their concessions, leaving almost a million hectares of land unaccounted for and exposed to the risk of deforestation.

Last year, a total of 466,000ha was sold to offshore buyers with Overseas Investment Office approval - a five-fold increase on the previous year.

UNECA coordinator says the way land investment has taken place in Africa has had unintended consequences of pushing people off the land, while the land has not been used for production.

Report gives an overview of the availability of information for land concessions in Brazil, Canada, Cambodia, Colombia, Indonesia, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Republic of the Congo, and Russia.

A recent report has exposed links between Swiss banks and some of the world’s largest palm oil plantation companies. Earthsight has reviewed the findings and shown that most of these firms have been involved in illegal deforestation.

Report sets out to provide a more complete picture of farmland investment patterns in Saskatchewan, identifying major private and out-of-province investors and the extent of their holdings in Saskatchewan.

Namibia wants to transfer 43 percent, or 15 million hectares of its arable agricultural land, to previously disadvantaged blacks by 2020, and "also look at foreign ownership of land".

In a draft paper presented at the World Bank annual conference on land and poverty, IIED takes stock of evidence and lessons from trends in natural resource investments over the period 2006-2016.

The financing from the UK's development finance institution will help Jacoma expand its farming operations at its Tropha Estates in Northern Malawi, where it produces high value macadamia nuts, chilli and paprika.

Abu Dhabi-based Elite Agro, which already cultivates on a large area in Morocco and 100 hectares in Serbia, says it will become one of the top blueberry growers in the world.

Al Dahra plans to allocate millions of dollars this year to improve food safety. In Serbia alone they want to buy as many as 20,000 hectares of land.

Adecoagro revealed that executives had been "travelling all around" southern Brazil investigating potential sugar acquisitions, and was mulling growth in the likes of rice, dairy and beef, after slashing its debts in a "milestone" year.