2009 is the year characterised by Arab' 'land grabs', where developing countries have been targeted by the kingdom as having the potential to feed the swelling food demands of Saudi Arabia

On 8 July 2009, almost a hundred development practitionners from all over the world convened in Utrecht to participate to the DPRN Expert Seminar “Commercial Pressures on Land: rethinking policies and practice for development”.

A militant legislator has expressed alarm over what he described as escalating land-lease agreements by the Philippines with other countries

A southwestern province in South Korea has leased 94,000 hectares of farmland in Mindoro to grow 10,000 tons of corn a year for feed for 25 years, a provincial government official said on Tuesday. In Manila, however, agriculture officials were caught unaware of such lease agreement

Africa’s agrarian questions are not adequately addressed by simply asking, “What is the role of African smallholders?”

A Kuwaiti company partly owned by the emirate's sovereign wealth fund is preparing to join other Gulf states in buying up agricultural land in Asia, part of a global land grab to ensure food security.

The Asian Peasant Coalition and International League of Peoples’ Struggle kick off a peasants’ caravan themed: “Stop Global Land Grabbing! Struggle for Genuine Agrarian Reform & Peoples’ Food Sovereignty”

Coordinated action towards the president of the Malagasy High Authority of the Transition supporting the demands of the Malagasy people, as well as towards the president of the Republic of Korea recalling his country's extra-territorial human rights obligations in these projects.

A South Korean provincial government has leased a major plot of farmland in the central Philippines to grow corn as part of Seoul's bid for food security, officials said Thursday.

A scramble by wealthy states to snap up developing world farmland to ensure their own food security -- especially in Africa -- could trigger conflict in poorer countries, World Food Programme deputy executive director Sheila Sisulu said on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt. "I fear... conflict," she said.

Rothschild has recently formed a co-operation agreement with Rabobank, a leading global food and agricultural bank. The agreement covers co-operation for mergers and acquisitions and the equity capital market across a number of sectors including farm inputs and equipment, farm-based commodities, primary food processing, food processing and beverages.

I wonder how many other behind-the-scenes transactions are currently underway in the continent that will only be announced when the deals have been signed and perhaps money has exchanged hands.