Large scale commercial land deals at Nuanetsi Ranch, Chisumbanje and Chiadzwa are mired in corruption and end up impacting on livelihoods of communities.

For private equity houses, pension funds and family offices, the sprawling farms of sub Saharan Africa are the new land of plenty.

Magcor is investing $10 million USD to boost food production and security in Ghana after investing in Agricon Global last year.

The US public and private sectors are among the leading drivers of a global drive to snap up usable – and often in-use – agricultural land, in what critics say remains a steadily increasing epidemic of “land-grabbing.”

Simon Hopkins, chief executive of Milltrust International Group, predicts agriculture will be “one of the best performing asset classes over the course of the next 10 years”.

Benjamin Dummai, the Director-General of Senhuile SA, an agribusiness project illegitimately occupying 20,000 ha in northern Senegal, accused of embezzling almost half a million dollars.

Sexual assault and the annihilation of sacred graveyards are among the many claims levelled at Vietnamese Rubber giant HAGL by villagers in Cambodia's Ratanakkiri province.

Land grabs in Africa could herald a new dystopian age of hunger

Serge Fortin, chief executive of Canadian farmland investment company Pangea, believes Quebec's small farms must be replaced by larger farms to survive

With the World Bank predicting “fights over water and food” within the next five to 10 years, and a recent study showing that a fifth of China’s soil is contaminated, some believe British Columbia’s food-producing land will become increasingly sought after.

"UAE relies on food imports and we are very concerned with food security so we are very willing to invest heavily in Zimbabwe's agriculture," Dr Andre Homberg of Tabarak Investment Bank said.

Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum is also travelling to Mexico, Argentina and Chile. The agenda includes negotiations for strategic partnerships, agriculture in Africa and mutual investment.

No signs identify a barren field in northeastern Brazil that was meant to be the center of one of China's most ambitious agricultural forays into South America.

US government reviews efforts to implement voluntary guidelines and go further in legitimising or building consensus around largescale farmland deals

Trade deal with South Korea cuts the value of Australian farmland purchases that attract scrutiny from the Foreign Investment Review Board from $53 million to $15m.

Studies raise serious concern about a process of land conversion that favours a small, but growing middle and upper class of Africans who are starting their farming ‘careers’ with relatively large land holdings.

The World Bank is discussing ways to counter land grabbing but critics have charged the organization with participating in land grabbing itself.

Investment bank Macquarie Group is buying two farms in Australia's "wheatbelt" bringing its total holdings in Western Australia to 45,000 ha.

Univex will invest $10 million to convert lands around the site of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre into a banana plantation and agricultural complex

Last week representatives of communities, indigenous peoples and NGOs met in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia to discuss deforestation and the rights of forest peoples.

The Lao government has approved hundreds of thousands of hectares in concessions, but has yet to identify how many hectares of land investors have already used or whether they have followed their original proposals.

There is growing interest from international investors in the New Zealand agricultural sector, particularly from wealthy Europeans, boutique funds manager Mint Asset Management says.

The local population is opposed to the project. ActionAid petition against the Italian company Tampieri accused of land grabbing. The reply: “We operate according to the rules, in the interest of the people"

China's biggest grains trader COFCO Corp is in talks to buy Noble Group Ltd's agribusiness arm in a deal that would value the division at around $1 billion.

Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development says his Ministry is working actively with state governments to secure land for genuine investors to address the issue of access to land.

In return for corporate investment and aid, African states are reforming policies to make it easier for corporations to operate in their farming sectors.

Background document accompanying the 14 February 2014 media release issued by Tax Justice Network, GRAIN, Anywaa Survival Organisation, Forum Syd Kenya and the South Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers Movements.

“Farmland has now become the latest scarce ‘hot’ commodity for all sorts of speculators who have absolutely no interest in agriculture,” says John Peck of Wisconsin-based Family Farm Defenders.

African countries that missed out on Gulf cash pouring into agricultural projects elsewhere on the continent are trying to entice Arab investors with deals they say are designed to avoid problems of the past.

Progress toward securing the land rights of forest communities has slowed around the world, with some hard-won gains threatening to be rolled back in some countries even as others see advances, say forest experts.