As financiers seek to diversify their fee bases, investment banks are scenting an opportunity in Gulf states’ eagerness to secure long-term food supplies in the form of agricultural investment deals.

The recently signed $800 million United States dollars Concession contract between the government of Liberia and the multinational conglomerate, Sime Darby, is raising questions in counties to be affected.

"In any resource sector, if you want to get involved, you always want to be in the upstream. It doesn't matter whether it's mining, whether its oil and gas or agriculture," says ABN AMRO's Tariono.

Islamabad instead of allowing foreigners control of local agri-land should use twenty million acres of government land to settle 2 million families by allotting ten acres land to each family

Kuwait has recently shown an interest in doing rice business in Laos, but Vientiane wants Thailand to be its partner,

Le Maurice prendra possession du bail de 20 000 ha de terres mozambicaines avant de les sous-louer à des investisseurs.

Mauritius plans to buy 20,000 hectares (49,420 acres) of prime farmland in Mozambique to alleviate mounting worries about food security on the import-dependent island.

Libya Africa Investment Portfolio and the Mozambican company Ubuntu SA are launching a $30 million rice project that will cover 20,000 ha near to Bela Vista, capital of Mozambique's southernmost district of Matutuine.

A group of Saudi-based investors announced earlier this monthy a seven-year plan to develop and plant 700,000 hectares to produce 7 million tonnes of rice in countries like Uganda.

Resource-hungry China has so far passed over investing in high-priced farmlands of South America in favor of Africa, with its less developed commodities markets, greater need for financing and open labor laws.

Suicide is becoming a common reality in Barreirinhas, as families are talked into “renting” their land to the sugar cane companies.

Ethiopia is on the defensive over a plan to offer 2.7 million hectares of land to foreign, mainly Asian, companies despite millions crying out for food aid from the international community.