There are now a few examples in Canada of outside corporations buying and/or leasing land and farming it themselves. In fact, a huge corporate farming entity is being planned for First Nations land in the three Prairie provinces.

The chief of the International Finance Corporation, Lars Thunell, has been holding talks with Saudi finance minister Ibrahim Al-Assa on corporation in areas of joint 'external agricultural investments'.

Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assa also met the chief of the International Finance Corporation, Lars Thunell, and discussed ways to strengthen cooperation between the Kingdom and the IFC in areas of joint external agricultural investments in addition to activating the corporation’s activities in the Kingdom.

Agrifirma Brazil, a farm fund backed by Lord Rothschild and Jim Slater, the former corporate raider, is scrapping its hedge fund-style fees to make it easier to attract investors. Agrifirma owns more than 100,000 acres of Brazilian farmland.

Could the Middle East become a significant new source of offshore investment in Australia’s extensive northern cattle industry?

Cru Investment Management PLC, a company based in Cardiff, UK, forecast a 30% return for an agricultural fund that generated profit from farms in Malawi.

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.