A new report from ABARES which indicates little change in the level of foreign ownership of Australian farm land since the 1980s has been described as a "whitewash" by Shadow Agriculture and Food Security Minister, John Cobb.
Bahrain’s Nadir and Ibrahim Sons of Hassan Group has signed a $50 million agriculture investment deal with AMA Group Holdings to use public land to grow crops including sugar, rice and bananas.
Report calls for international community to enact reforms aimed at reducing financial speculation on commodities markets, limiting the further expansion of crops and land dedicated to biofuels, and halting “land grabs”.
Standard Chartered Bank’s Private Equity division has invested $74 million to acquire a minority stake in ETC Group Mauritius, one of the largest owners of African farmland.
Ethiopia has forced at least 70,000 people off their land so it can lease fertile fields to foreign investors, a move that has left some locals starving in barren, remote villages.
A report from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Research Economic and Sciences shows the amount of farmland that is either partly or wholly foreign-owned has increased by nearly 60 per cent since the early 1980s.
Daewoo says its capital increase in its subsidiary in Madagascar will be used to pay operating expenses and to finance market studies concerning its future investments, mainly chicken farming and public construction works.
Report examines the driving factors behind foreign investment in Australian agriculture and describes processes by which foreign investment in farmland is monitored and regulated in Australia and other selected countries.
Tajikistan says it will allow Chinese farmers to rent 200ha of southern Tajik farmland.
The Company has been established to provide investors with a liquid investment in primarily Canadian farmland and will seek to assemble a farmland portfolio which is diversified as to geography, crop type and farmer.
BBC radio investigates report by Human Rights Watch that claims Britain is indirectly funding a brutally enforced resettlement programme in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government has denied forcibly relocating tens of thousands of people off their land to make way for foreign investors.
