The fund is in the process of leasing 50,000 hectares of land in Tanzania which will be complete by the end of this year and will mainly be for rice production.

Both private and public sector investors from countries such as Qatar, Libya, Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the Arab world as well as China and Korea elsewhere now hold long term rights to a total of two million feddans of arable land in Sudan, according to figures from the country’s agriculture ministry.

The Lumix AgroDirect Fund, which has been incubated since June 2008, invests in the production of soft commodities and in commodity trade finance in Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

This three years memorandum is not only setting a framework of cooperation but it includes some specific steps such as mutual beneficial arrangements in the agricultural sector (e.g. investment and provision of grain, development of a grain terminal)

The media and environmentalists must intensify their focus on the environmental costs of international farmland transactions.

Indonesia's Vice Agriculture Minister Bayu Krishnamurti said, “They are ready to invest, to build farms, factories and industries.”

The Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors said that Saudi businesspeople were keen to invest in Turkey, particularly in agriculture. “The Kingdom has a huge program involving billions of riyals for agricultural investment in countries with fertile soil and plentiful water.”

Foreign direct investment in land, also known as “land grabbing”, has become an explosive topic, especially in poor developing countries. In its first 2010 issue, Rural 21 gives insights into this current trend.

Un fenómeno en pleno auge se está produciendo: la compra o arrendamiento por parte de países ricos de tierras fértiles en naciones pobres, principalmente de África, para asegurarse el suministro de alimentos.

The Tanzania government has signed a five-year livestock and fishing agreement with China that would see Chinese firms invest in aquaculture and livestock projects.

Vichai Sriprasent, President of Riceland International, said that Ghana had vast tracts of land and water sources that could be exploited for rice production.

Accaparement des terres - cas du Kenya - par AGTER