Qatar has asked Kenya to lease it 40,000 hectares of land to grow crops as part of a proposed package that would also see the Gulf state fund a new £2.4bn port on the popular tourist island of Lamu off the east African country.

Investment opportunities between Africa and the GCC are ripe for the picking, says a top government official.

Backed by their governments and bankrolled with huge trade and investment profits and budget surpluses, the newly emerging neo-colonial economic powers are seizing control of vast tracts of fertile lands from poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, through the intermediation of local corrupt, free-market regimes.

The stalled Jordanian agricultural megaproject in Sudan is expected to be resumed at the beginning of 2009

We had a meeting today on alternative investment vehicles and discussed hard assets. One of the topics was farmland. There’s lots of movement in this space. South Korea just leased more than 1 million hectares in Madagascar for 99 years. Abu Dhabi has publicly announced intent to invest in around 500,000 hectares. This could be an agrarian ace in the hand for the Philippines.

After a phone talk with one of my sources, I discovered that the branch office of Daewoo Logistics had nothing to do with it. Actually, the company which has dealt with this land matter was a Malagasy incorporated company: Madagascar Future Entreprise.

As the Caribbean and the rest of the world are still grappling with the global food crisis, Guyana is seeking to sell its vast land and water resources to United States investors as an area suitable for agriculture and aquaculture investment.

Video news clip on the Daewoo scheme in Madagascar

The food crisis this year generated unprecedented interest in Cambodian agricultural land, and governments are scrambling for access to the country's vast food-growing potential.

Colombian indigenous took their protest to Colombia’s capital Bogotá this weekend. Their struggle is about controlling the land in which they have lived and taken care of for hundreds of years, the latest culprits being irregular armed groups controlled by the traditional landowners and foreign companies (Chiquita Brands being the best example).

Saudi-based National Prawn Company (NPC), the world’s largest integrated shrimp producer, is planning an initial investment of $300 million (Dh1.1 billion) to start large-scale fish production in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. The aim is to farm king fish, cobia, barramundi, mahi and milk fish using aquaculture installations on waste coastal desert land.

The Agriculture Minister of Saudi Arabia, Fahd Balghunaim, said that the government will set up an $801.1 million company to invest in overseas agricultural projects, Arab News reported.