Daewoo Logistics Corp. expressed wariness yesterday over growing political unrest in Madagascar and hoped that the situation would not affect a massive farm project it is pushing in the Indian Ocean nation. “It may be a bit of a dangerous investment,” Shin Dong-hyun, a Daewoo Logistics official, told Yonhap News Agency, commenting on spreading anti-government protests in Madagascar.

Indonesia is going ahead with a project to convert millions of acres in Papua into a gigantic sugarcane plantation to produce bioethanol. But Indigenous communities and environmentalists worry that the project in South Papua’s Merauke regency will lead to land grabs, ecological damage, and the destruction of traditional livelihoods.

Nigeria's Enugu State has signed a deal for a joint venture with Pragmatic Palms Limited that will give the newly formed company with no previous agricultural experience control over a 6,700 ha oil palm plantation concession.

Tacama Gold, a company owned by Guyanase and Brazilian businessmen, requested 85,000 acres of land but was given 27,000, so that the venture could be assessed before additional land was given.

An open letter to the Brazilian National Congress, led by supermarket chains including Tesco and Sainsbury's, urges them to reject a proposed "land grabbers law" to allow the private occupation of public land.

In Liberia, human rights have allegedly been violated on rubber plantations managed from Switzerland. Instead of taking up mediation offers, the Socfin group prefers to act against its critics.

The invasion of large scale cattle breeding in areas inhabited by traditional populations is widespread in the Amazonian area.

Indonesia’s national commission on human rights has vowed to investigate the death of a journalist who was being held on charges of defaming a palm oil company owned by a powerful tycoon.

Opposition parties criticized the government for not revealing documents related to the expenditure of $11 million on a farm to breed sheep in Saudi Arabia for the interest of a Saudi businessman who owns a sheep farm in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.

A group of potential investors from Trinidad and Tobago were in Guyana last week to scout local lands suitable for large-scale farming initiatives, as part of an MOU between the two countries signed 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.”

As the world's available farming land shrinks in the face of population growth, climate change and soil degradation, Australia's vast tracts of land are going to be increasingly important for global food security. Is the sell-off in Australia's long term interests?

“At this point, Turkey cannot even produce enough food for itself. Why should it even think about renting its own land?” says Abdullah Aysu, a spokesman for the Initiative for the Confederation of Farmers’ Unions

Cambodia will be the fourth country after Sudan, Egypt and Pakistan to receive UAE investments intended to achieve a food security plan drawn up by the government. Large-scale planting on Cambodian land acquired through purchase or 99-year lease may be launched there next year.

The project 3,000 ha seed breeding project in Mazowe will produce seedlings for local farmers to grow apples, grapes, bananas, peaches and pears under contract farming.

Eisa Al Ghurair, chairman of Al Ghurair Resources, the agricultural commodities arm of Dubai-based Al Ghurair Investment, warned on Monday of investors buying farmland in foreign countries, citing political risk.

Turkey's Ayka Investment is in the process of withdrawing its investment in cotton production in the Lower Omo Valley on the advice of its German customer Tchibo which has raised concerns about cotton projects in the area.

The Tanzanian government is not eager to parcel out too much land to transnational corporations, writes the Tanzania Daily News.

The government pledges to continue supporting Rufiji Basin Development Authority (RUBADA) in its endeavour to encourage large scale plantations in the country

Ethiopia has provided more than 71,000 hectares to 12 Ethiopian and international investors in the previous financial year according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The £1.9bn pension fund of the UK’s Environment Agency is set to unveil a new investment strategy later this month, including plans to invest in farmland and forestry for the first time.

More Southland land has been sold to overseas investors in the past year than at any other time during the past six years.

Part of the produce would go to local markets of producing countries, which have to provide necessary protection to Saudi investors through long-term agreements. A first such agreement was signed with the Philippines in February 2010.

Olam International raised its offer for NZ Farming Systems Uruguay to 70 cents from 55 cents a day after the target company disclosed a third bidder is looking at the dairy farm develope

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

Hassad Food has launched a large project for producing livestock in Australia with a capacity of up to 70,000 Syrian head of sheep in its first year, and then up to 150,000 head of sheep in three years. The company will also purchase farmlands for the production of grains especially wheat.

Vision 3, an alliance formed by Gulf Finance House, Ithmaar Bank and Abu Dhabi Investment House, announced the make up of its board at its inaugural meeting yesterday.

The UAE is actively looking at acquiring farmland in Vietnam, Cambodia, Africa and South America in an effort to ensure the availability of food stocks, according to the UAE Minister of Economy.

“Taking into account the importance of food security in the near future, I think we can implement and start joint investment projects in agriculture. We want the situation to be win-win — one project in Kazakhstan and one project in Saudi Arabia.”

The Qatari agricultural company plans to inaugurate a farm that extends over 100,000 hectares and produces 200,000 tonnes of powdered milk annually.