"The rush for land by outside players is more proof of the enormous potential of African agriculture. Africa itself must harness this potential," Kofi Annan says

Sam Pov, a rice farmer in Cambodia’s western Battambang Province, is very worried that his land will be taken over by a foreign investor.

It is not clear whether a strategy is in place to ensure that part of the food produced by the rich food importers farms will be sold locally.

Prof Hastings Okoth-Ogendo died last month hours after his groundbreaking draft, ‘Framework and guidelines on land policy in Africa’, was approved by a conference of African Union ministers of land and agriculture.

"A path to agro-investments replacing international food aid"

Stephen Marks looks at the latest rush by China and countries in the middle east to sign lease agreements in poor countries for agricultural production, and what this trend means in terms of food security and access to arable land for local populations.

Both public and private sector investors in the Gulf are also looking at ways to improve local food supplies, by investing in a range of outlets from arable farm land in the Sudan, Algeria and Pakistan to introduce new technology to enhance the local production of foodstuffs and grains, livestock, poultry and fish.

Bahrain is inviting private companies to set up joint ventures to invest in farmland in Thailand.

In other African countries, including Ghana, South Africa and Togo, the China State Farm and Agribusiness Corporation (CSFAC) has founded 11 agricultural production, processing and sales projects, and runs a total of 16,000 hectares of farmlands