The £1.9bn pension fund of the UK’s Environment Agency is set to unveil a new investment strategy later this month, including plans to invest in farmland and forestry for the first time.

Outspoken entrepreneur and aviator Dick Smith has bought $1 million worth of shares in Australian Agricultural Co (AAco) - Australia's second-largest landholder - because he doesn't want to sound hypocritical when he campaigns against foreign ownership of farms.

Some of the major factors drawing companies from India to Africa in addition to the fertile land and natural resources are the exemption from taxes/duties, along with ample government assistance.

Passive indices have been replaced by new sophisticated active indices and pension fund managers like APG are investing in natural resources assets, including farmland.

The Canadian company Stevia Nutra Corporation announced that it has entered into a “Services Provision Agreement” with Ecologica Co. Ltd, a Cambodian agro-development company, to develop largescale stevia plantations in Cambodia

“The destruction and grabbing of resources from peasants and poor people have intensified and if we are to succeed in defending our land, territory and our very future, we need to come together and identify clearly the kind of Agrarian Reform we are looking for and the strategy for which we achieve it.”

The Indonesian government’s long-discussed plan to launch a massive food estate in Merauke, Papua, in a bid to boost the nation’s food production is facing uncertainty amid land acquisition problems, a top ministry official says.

The UAE is eying lands overseas in order to provide ongoing food supply to face the increase in the country’s population as the UAE imports steadily soared in the past few years, Ministry of Economy official said.

Academics and business figures gave a grim warning at the Resource 2012 conference, but defended the Rio+20 outcomes

UK pension funds are stepping up investments in commodity assets such as farms, timberland, mines and energy projects as they seek to diversify portfolios away from equities, an official at consultant Mercer said.

Does the Hantz megafarm project in Detroit (US) have anything in common with the brutal, large-scale land acquisitions sweeping Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America?

AgriSol's land deal in Tanzania creates an uncertain future for more than 160,000 people