"They are selling off African land for a song," said Ndiogou Fall, president of the executive committee for the Network of Peasant Organizations and Producers in West Africa (ROPPA), which is calling for dialogue between governments, producers and African and foreign investors.

"On brade les terres africaines. On contraint des milliers de petits producteurs à la misère. Cela est insupportable. La terre doit rester un patrimoine de la communauté en Afrique", affirme ainsi le président du Comité exécutif du Réseau des organisations paysannes et des producteurs agricoles de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ROPPA), Ndiogou Fall.

Palong Piroomyu, a 52-year-old farmer from Bang Len in Nakhon Pathom province, is preparing to sell his portion of farmland to a Bangkok-based buyer. He's not concerned about who the buyers are or that some may even be quietly representing foreigners.

The Bangkok Post asked two prominent figures to discuss the pros and cons of foreign farmland ownership.

Land buying firms no longer disclose their identities to avoid tarnishing their image

Instead of offering incentives on a similar scale to local farmers, Islamabad is offering legal and tax concessions, with legislative cover, to foreign investors in the form of specialised agricultural and livestock 'free zones' and may also introduce legislation to exempt such investors from government-imposed tax bans. The most worrisome aspect of such wheeling-dealing is the government's decision to develop a new security force of 100,000 men spread across the four provinces to ensure stability of the Arab investments.

"Jamais deux sans trois", dit-on. L'adage se vérifie avec la concession du Malawi, après l'Ethiopie, de quelques 55 000 ha de terres agricoles en faveur de Djibouti.

Al-Raghi a connu un investissement fructueux dans le secteur agricole égyptien où la société cultive 25 000 feddans (10 500 ha) dans le projet Tochka sur un total de 125 000 feddans (52 500 ha). La deuxième phase du projet commencera en début de 2010.

Les étrangers volent-ils la terre des Thaïlandais ? Le débat enflamme l’ensemble de la presse locale. Malgré des lois strictes, qui font de la terre un bien national inaliénable, les fermiers thaïlandais s’estiment lésés.

Mr Patima, of Colliers International, said trying to block overseas investment in Thai agricultural land, especially from the Middle East where food supplies were scarce, was next to impossible

Film de Yann Verbeke

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management issued Tuesday an announcement offering 765 hectares of state agricultural land under lease agreement for periods varying between 15 and 50 years.