These arrangements are reminiscent of “banana republics” when many African countries served as plantations for European countries -- but even those did not come with such explicit restrictions and rigidities.

Cambodia has been signing deals with Kuwait and Qatar to help develop its agricultural sector. Cambodian officials, however, refuse to disclose details of the agreements, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

"At this stage, we have not sold a single square metre to the South Africans," Rigobert Maboundou, Congo Republic's minister of agriculture said over the weekend.

Il n’y a pas que les pays émergents qui ont le monopole de l’acquisition des terres à l’étranger. Le secteur privé occidental y a toute sa place.

Pergam: "J’ai débuté mes achats de terres en 2005, en les étalant sur une période de deux ans jusqu’en 2007. La majorité des terres acquises se situe en Uruguay (35 000 hectares dont 40 % sont consacrés à la culture et 60 % à l’élevage) et les autres, en Argentine, soit 10 000 hectares. J’ai effectué ses achats au travers de la société argentine Campos orientales, l’un des plus gros propriétaires terriens du pays. La plus value latente est de l’ordre de 30 % en deux ans."

If land is being unused or under-utilized in poor regions across Africa and Southeast Asia, outsourcing to capital-rich and land-poor nations could help prevent another global food crisis, but it must be fair and productive, Adam Wolfe writes for ISN Security Watch.

Quel est le groupe indien qui négocie la location de 15 000 ha de terres au Cameroun dans la région d'Ombe (sud-ouest) pour un investissement de 168 milliards F CFA ?

This would be the first time for an international set of guidelines of this kind to be formulated

Most Chinese investment in African agriculture is concentrated in southern Africa: Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi and, increasingly, Angola.

Tymoshenko is pushing through with promises to provide Libya 100,000 ha of Ukrainian farmland to produce its own wheat

"Saudi Arabia is increasingly looking for agriculture investment opportunities abroad, mostly in Africa," reports the US mission in Riyadh in May 2009

Food commodity prices remain near historic highs. Food riots destablised countries around the world last year – more than the financial crisis – and may well return. If food was ever a soft policy issue before, it now rivals oil as a basis of power and economic security.