The Rockefeller Foundation says the 10,000 ha rice farm and outgrower scheme that Olam is constructing in Nigeria is a win-win land project.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has taken Sierra Leone farmland investor Capital Alternatives to the High Court for “promoting and/or operating collective investment schemes (CISs) in the UK illegally and without our authorisation”.

Land reform movements, organizations of indigenous peoples, small farmers, and other citizens are responding to the increased sacking of land and other natural resources throughout the global South.

More than 30 civil society organisations and peasant groups have decided to unite their forces in a national campaign against the privatisation of land, with the Prosavana project at the top of their list.

Trading giant Louis Dreyfus plans to invest in assets ranging from orange groves to sugar refiners, it said in the first glimpse of its strategy following the departure of its long-serving CEO in June.

Charoen Pokphand Foods acquires majority stake in Russian pork producer Russia Baltic Pork Invest of Norway, giving it a 8,000ha grain farm and several large scale pig farms in Kaliningrad.

The clash is the latest incident in a long-running conflict between Wilmar subsidiary PT Bumi Sawit Kencana and villagers in Kotawaringin Timur district, Central Kalimantan.

Rising demand for agricultural commodities has led to a ‘land grab’ in some of the world’s poorest countries. The International Bar Associaiton assesses the legal implications and the prospects for the developing world.

Philippine-listed food producer AgriNurture Inc is planning the expansion of its production areas for hybrid rice, fruit and vegetables with Chinese partner Beidahuang Seed Group of China.

An international peasant workshop billed “Global Landgrabbing, Genuine Land Reform and Human Rights” concluded that lands in underdeveloped countries are being grabbed at an alarming rate by multinational corporations

Industrialised nations critical of the draft document wanted to remove some fundamental elements from the text, such as references to land grabbing and intellectual property rights over agricultural technologies and inputs, especially seeds.

The group, formerly known as Alpcot Agro, said it had signed deals on the disposal of 24,800 hectares of land, mainly in central and southern Ukraine, to other farming groups for $5.6m excluding machinery, buildings and crops.