Sudan will be proposing wheat cultivation as the first option for its role in Arab and global food security.

Tanri said the government was eager to encourage and provide support to deep-pocketed business leaders from the Middle East to invest in Indonesia.

Lonrho, the pan-African conglomerate listed in London, has secured leasehold rights to 25,000 hectares of rice paddies in Angola and is negotiating two bigger land deals in Mali and Malawi, in another sign of investor appetite for African land.

The Federal Government, yesterday, in Abuja, signed a $16 billion development cooperation agreement which covers real estate, agriculture, power, oil and gas, with the Dubai World Corporation in the United Arab Emirates.

To lure investment dollars, the Sudan government has removed import duties on agricultural equipment being imported into the country.

The Lands ministry has denied any knowledge of an arrangement between Kenya and Qatar to lease 40,000 hectares of its prime farm land to the Arabian country to grow food while over 10 million households face starvation.

Senator Waqar said that a new investment policy for the next 10 years is on cards which would be prepared with the consultation of private sector.

Arab agricultural ministers decided to urge government-owned and private companies, as well as Arab financiers and industrialists, to invest in common agricultural projects in qualified countries. The future belongs to those who produce their own food.

Sudan seeks to focus on Arab food security during the Arab Economic Summit, which will kick off on Monday, said Finance and National Economy Minister Awadh Al-Jazz. "We have extensive land plots, and great water and animal resources."

"The only protection against international land-grabbing that we can see for the Philippines is the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill, a bill written by us peasants to protect our right to land and to achieve food security for our country"

Lonrho Agriculture will develop 25,000 hectares of agricultural projects in the Provinces of Uige, Zaire and Bengo in Angola.

Land ownership could prove contentious. In the distant past, it was often held by communities as a whole or vested in traditional authorities. State officials now often have the greatest say. That opens the potential for official abuse of yet another valuable resource.