Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud says Guyana has been asking Libya to help develop mega-farms in the interior, where the majority of inhabitants live in poverty and depend on rice cultivation for both food and income.

Perhaps the UN’s hand-wringing is just sentimental. Deals will be done and the rush to buy land has begun in Europe, too.

China is not pushing to expand overseas farming and Chinese companies are less active in their investment abroad because of concerns of potential political risks, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia has announced the arrival of the first food crop harvested in Saudi-owned farms abroad, in a sign that the kingdom is moving faster than expected to outsource agricultural production.

The African Union has until July 2009 to decide on an extremely sensitive issue highlighted by the Daewoo case in Madagascar, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.

The Saudi Binladin empire has frozen its plan to invest $4.3 billion in developing rice crops in Merauke in Papua Province and a separate project in Southeast Sulawesi Province.

Governments in developing countries should exercise caution when granting land concessions to foreign governments and corporations. Despite the short-term investments, most – if not all – of the production will be exported, making the long-term food security situation even worse in these host countries.

‘The small farmers cannot do anything in the face of this giant. We can only cry over the loss of our ancestor’s land, that we have tried to preserve as best as possible,’ says Rindra Andriambola, co-ordinator of the Andasibe red rice Slow Food praesidium.

Soaring food prices and lack of land have forced Mauritius, a net food importing country, to launch an ambitious initiative. The island state is starting to grow its food in other African states where land is lying fallow and labour is cheap.

Reports indicate the growing Euro-Arab-Asian interest to buy land in Africa for the food security of their home population, not Africa´s. However, seldom do these reports link the the appetite for farmland and energy investment on the continent with the current global economic crises.

Vietnam, the world's second-largest rice producer, plans to lease Cambodian farmland to grow rice in areas close to the border, officials said this week.

“[Middle East investors] wanted to go on a long-term lease of huge tracts of land and they will plant various crops and then enter into a contract to buy the produce because they need food to feed their people,” Trade Secretary Peter Favila told reporters.