China, the world's most populous country and biggest consumer of grain, should expand its farming overseas to ensure enough food for its people because of limited land and low productivity at home, agriculture experts said on Wednesday.

Governments in the global south are claiming farmland is 'empty' and 'unused' – and flogging it off to foreigners who promise investment. The June summit in Rio needs to call a halt to this.

"We, the women of Senegal, with the other women of the world, demand that the State put an end to land grabbing and regain control over spoilated lands since land must belong to those who work it in order to feed themselves and the country"

Wilmar acquires three new plantations for 19,712 hectares in Nigeria's Cross River State.

When University of Texas professor John Doggett spoke at the Governor's Ag Conference in Nebraska, he stirred up echoes of an issue that has been largely dormant in America for the past few years, but one that he said will soon return.

On April 17th, Berlin based INKOTA activists gathered in front of Deutsche Bank on Friedrichstraße dressed as bankers and ready to dig into an oversized cake representing the African continent.

The G77 and China have alerted the UN General Assembly to the emerging trend of “massive acquisition by large investors from developed countries of farm land in developing countries”. The farm land is being bought not for food security, but for the speculative purpose of future agricultural production, which thus creates a significant added burden to food insecurity globally.

La Via Campesina is mobilising on April 17 to oppose the current offensive by some states and large corporations to grab land from the farmers, women and men, who have been cultivating it for centuries.

Kiribati President Anote Tong says there are no plans to begin moving people to the newly-purchased 2,200 ha of land in Fiji. The estate is rich agricultural land and its role is more likely to be for food security.

Southeast Asia has become ever more appealing to investors from both within and beyond the region seeking to include agriculture in their portfolios.

Fonterra will develop two new dairy farms in China, increasing to five the number of farms the co-operative has in the country, while, the NZ Government is expected to announce any day whether Shanghai Pengxin can buy the 8000ha Crafar dairy farms.

We hear from Liberia, where foreign investment is finally starting to flood in after years of civil war. Big international companies are arriving and taking over vast areas of the country - in a move some local farmers and activists describe as a land grab.