Ethiopia has provided more than 71,000 hectares to 12 Ethiopian and international investors in the previous financial year according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

BFS has a land bank of 220,000 hectares under a Protocol d’Accord from the government of the Republic of Guinea

Thailand's Department of Special Investigation chief Tarit Pengdith said his department had not found any instances of foreigners owning farms or growing rice via nominees. Farming is forbidden to foreigners under the Foreign Business Act.

African Development Bank (AfDB) country director, Freddie Kwesiga, said the co-operating partners look forward to specific interventions to ensure improved land tenure and equitable access to land by partnerships of small, medium and large-scale investors.

Overview of the palm oil sector in West Africa - major players (Siva, SIAT, Sime Darby, SIFCA, Bolloré, Olam...), hectarage under foreign corporate control, etc.

The Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food has published an Annual Monitoring Report on the sugarcane-to-ethanol project of the Swiss firm Addax Bioenergy. Some positive changes are acknowledged by SiLNoRF, e.g. on employment. However, there are still many issues of concern, such as communities asking for a written agreement from Addax to prevent it from using more than the demarcated land.

Leading Australian economists, commentators and even political enemies have joined the federal Minister for Trade and Investment Craig Emerson in condemning Opposition plans to tighten control over foreign investment.

Jessica Mutch spoke to Fred Pearce in London about the Crafar farm buy-up by a Chinese company and whether New Zealand should be nervous about land grabbing.

Australia's conservative opposition on Friday earmarked tighter scrutiny of foreign investment in agriculture as a priority if the party is elected to government next year, as recent polls suggest.

Group says regent abused position in pursuing relationship between Iowa State University and Ratsetter's agribusiness corporation, which is developing a farming operation in Tanzania.

Bangladesh yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with South Sudan to take a 10-year lease on Sudanese farmland to grow crops aimed at ensuring food security of both the countries.

Jeremy Grantham of US asset management firm, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo and Company (GMO), says global investors should have 30% of their portfolios exposed to natural resources, with half of that in forestry and farmland, to take advantage of the growing global food crisis. That is double today's averages.