“The sell-out of vast tracts of agricultural lands to local and foreign agribusinesses and land-use conversion are now elevated as state policies.”

Most of the Orma and Pokomo communities living in the Tana River delta do not have title deeds and a government agency claims ownership of the land, but locals say the land was handed to them by their ancestors.

Janan, a UAE agricultural investment firm, will expand its farmland portfolio in a deal with Egyptian agricultural authorities next week.

Two House of Representatives committees were urged to conduct a joint investigation into the alleged anomalous lease contracts granted to Japanese and Korean investors involving vast tracks of lands in Northern Luzon and Mindoro provinces.

The Asharqia Chamber in Saudi Arabia has sent a circular to businessmen in the region to invest in agriculture projects overseas following a government directive

For investors like Susan Payne, the chief executive of Emergent Asset Management, farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is a hot bet.

It is essential that governments and international agencies act now to create not only a uniform code of conduct guiding foreign land acquisitions, but also an enforcement mechanism.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry is backing the government’s policy of allowing foreign investments in the country’s big plantations, as long as the investors do not violate Philippine laws.

A United Arab Emirates company will sign a deal with Egypt to cultivate 100,000 feddans, about 42,000 hectares, of land with wheat, corn and feed, the official news agency Mena reported on Tuesday.

The $1bn project, dubbed 7X7, aims at developing 700,000 ha of farmland to produce within 7 years 7 million tonnes of rice in Mali, Senegal and maybe Sudan and Uganda.

After focusing for decades on oil, metals and minerals, Japan's huge trading houses are turning to agricultural commodities, with Tokyo enthusiastically supporting the shift amid concerns about local and global food security .

The social consequences of these land grabs are significant.