The first Zambian company to float on Aim is planning to join the market in a listing which will help it raise £34million to buy 123,550 acres of prime farming land in Zambia.

Karuturi Global Ltd. may receive an additional 200,000 hectares (494,211 acres) of land from the Ethiopian government if its current 100,000-hectare concession is developed within two years, the Agriculture Ministry said.

Ethiopia slashed the size of Karuturi’s land concession that was larger than Luxembourg on concern it was too big for a single company to manage and to enable an annual migration of antelope, the government said.

Governments often justify these deals by citing their potential contribution to economic growth – however, any gains risk being greatly outweighed by negative impacts on local livelihoods, say WRI

The company was granted a 220,000 ha concession in Liberia in 2009 and will begin planting oil palm on 10,000 hectares in April.

Agri-Vie, a private equity fund focused on food and agribusiness investments - including farmland - in subSaharan Africa, closed its first fund with participation from Kellogg Foundation, NorFund, IFC and AfDB.

The International Financial Corporation has actually increased the ability of foreign investors to acquire land in developing country markets by promoting profitable deals, creating “investment promotion agencies” and rewriting national laws., says Anuradha Mittal

European Union governments want to develop a global code of conduct for foreign investments in agricultural land in developing countries, according to a draft paper on food security seen by Reuters.

A new report by FIAN International documents land grabbing in Kenya & Mozambique and concludes that land grabbing violates human rights.

Morocco is inviting bids from foreign and domestic investors to lease 21,000 hectares of farmland as part of its farm reform plans.

Runaway farmland and borderland giveaway deals need to be publicly scrutinized to ensure transparency (detect corruption and criminality) and to make certain that private interests (sweetheart deals) have not overtaken the public interest, or secret deals are not made to harm the Ethiopian national interest.

Citadel Capital says that their investments will mainly focus on the agriculture sector, with Tanzania's 'Kilimo Kwanza' initiative taking the centre stage.

Private equity fund Agri-Vie will reach its $100 million target for investment in agricultural projects in Africa by March, and could triple it in a second fund

Paul Conway, senior vice-president at Cargill, calls food self-sufficiency "a nonsense" and warns that overseas food production through land grabs will likely run into export bans by host countries

Goldman Sachs' welcoming outlook on landgrab deals will be scrutinised because banks were criticised by some for fuelling speculation in commodities last year.

Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital is investing in 210,000 ha of farmland in Sudan, where it got the right to the land for 99 years.

The government of Tanzania has refuted media reports indicating that it has leased out 1000 square kilometres of farmland to South Koreans.

The emergence of the farmland asset class is not without pitfalls with the provision of food always highly political and a tentative global economic recovery potentially threatened by the H1N1 flu pandemic, fund managers said.

Analysts say Moscow's plan, which would attract international commodity firms, might require a more open approach to investment in land

The European Union is concerned by the trend of foreign investors and countries acquiring large tracts of farmland in developing countries to guarantee their own food security, a senior EU official said on Wednesday.

Alarmed by exporters’ trade restrictions, food importing countries have realised that their dependence on the agricultural market makes them vulnerable not only to a surge in prices but, more crucially, to an interruption in supplies.

Over-developed, over-populated, and land and water scarce Asian and Middle East nations embark upon global land grab to produce food and agrofuels; threatening global human rights, rainforest and other natural ecosystems, and regional and global ecological sustainability. Deadly global ecological issues require global citizens to unite in escalating protest action!

Essentially, the Middle East is left with two choices. “The region has to import. The question is, invest abroad or rely on the free market?” said Dr Eckart Woertz, program manager in economics at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai.

The agribusiness managed investment scheme sector is not expected to escape the economic downturn that has hit the financial services industry.

Angola, one of the world's fastest-growing economies, has launched an ambitious plan to exploit both its fertile soils and high global food prices to attract $6bn (€4.3bn, £3.4bn) in agriculture investments over the next five years.

"Jilin and other corporate entities in China are taking major steps to increase the amount of China-controlled soy plantation both in China and around the world," reports the US Consulate in Shenyang