It is an issue that goes to the heart of the debate around large-scale land projects in Africa – whether foreign investment can be used to aid badly needed development rather than being deemed exploitative.

Ethiopia is working to reduce bureaucracy related to processes in agricultural investment according to Tefera Derebew, Minister of Agriculture.

The Ethiopian government is forcibly displacing indigenous pastoral communities inEthiopia’s Lower Omo valley without adequate consultation or compensation to make way for state-run sugar plantations, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

Le gouvernement éthiopien exproprie de force des communautés d'éleveurs autochtones dans la basse vallée de l'Omo, a déclaré Human Rights Watch dans un rapport publié aujourd'hui.

Part 2 of a report from the US-based National Public Radio on landgrabbing in Africa, highlighting the case of Mozambique

NPR takes a closer look at the reality behind the rhetoric, and went to Mozambique, a hot spot in the global rush for land.

An Egyptian model farm is to be created in Ethiopia on an area of some 500 feddans [210 ha] with the potential for expansion in the regional state of Afar some 600 kilometres north of Addis Ababa.

The company has approached the African Development Bank, the African Export-Import Bank and the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank to raise another $100 million for a sugarcane estate.

Special issue of Water Alternatives

GRAIN looks behind the current scramble for land in Africa to reveal a global struggle for what is increasingly seen as a commodity more precious than gold or oil - water.

Despite the lucrative returns that foreign investors can achieve by investing in African agriculture, the on-the-ground realities of operating in the continent is often less rosy.

Dr Fahd bin Abdulrahman Balghunaim, minister for agriculture for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, speaks to This is Africa about the government's strategy in Africa.

Uno de los países analizados en este informe es Etiopía, donde los campesinos de la provincia de Gambela han sido forzados a instalarse en aldeas pre-designadas por el Estado, facilitando así el camino a los acaparadores de tierra. Gambela es la región más pobre de Etiopía.

Major agricultural investor in Ethiopia, Saudi Star, has bigger problems there than it might have expected.

Karuturi, which has 300,000 ha in Ethiopia, is now targeting the DRC, Tanzania, Mozambique, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

The distinctive feature of these land deals that has attracted attention is the speed of the acquisitions, the transparency (lack thereof) of the terms and the scale of the acquisitions and implied investment.

Trilogy Capital is involved in a large scale agriculture project in Ethiopia with US-based Morrell Agro Industries.

According to the evaluation that the ministry did in the past few weeks, some of the large-scale land acquisitions in Ethiopia are not performing as expected in implementing their projects.

The science and environment author discusses a growing global threat

The U.S. should reassess its support for the government of Ethiopia, amid concern that more than half a million people are being evicted to make land available for foreign investment in agriculture, advocacy groups say.

Obama announces G8's New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition and reiterates support for the "process and pilot use of the Principles of Responsible Agricultural Investment"

Ethiopia's State Minister of Industry, Tadesse Hailem, says the investors have expressed interest to invest in the agriculture sector in Ethiopia and export it to their country.

On the ground reports have exposed a secret operation by Ethiopian forces to force the Suri, Bodi and Mursi tribes out of their ancestral land to pave way for sugarcane plantations of Malaysian investors.

The world’s governments approved new guidelines for rules on land use on Friday to protect the poor and fight hunger, but aid groups said they were too weak to stop large-scale land grabs by big business in underdeveloped countries.

After three years of discussions, the UN has agreed a document meant to protect local populations against land grabbing.

Saudi Arabia is encouraging companies to invest in farms in Africa as the kingdom seeks to secure supplies of food imports to replace local production, said Agriculture Minister Fahd Balghunaim.

Ethiopia has made more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of “fertile and unutilized” land available for agriculture companies that meet government requirements, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.

African governments are bringing agriculture schemes to international investors in the hope of matching investors to fertile soils

Indian-listed Karuturi Global, which has leased land in Ethiopia for commercial farming, plans to export cereals, sugar and edible oil to South Sudan and Kenya upon completing cultivation in 2014.

Le premier ministre éthiopien, Meles Zenawi, a démenti mercredi que l'allocation de terres cultivables à des projets d'investissements privés se traduisait, dans son pays, par des évictions forcées d'agriculteurs.