Mauritius has secured a large area of land in Mozambique to produce hybrid rice for export back hom through a joint venture with a Singaporean company.

As world population expands, the demand for arable land should soar. At least that's what George Soros, Lord Rothschild, and other investors believe.

A couple of years ago, on the sidelines of a summit of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) in Bamako, Mali’s President, Amadou Toumani Touré, offered up 100,000 ha of land within the Office du Niger, Mali’s main rice producing area. Libya, a country flush with petrodollars but lacking in its own food production, effectively runs CEN-SAD and it jumped at the chance.

The Emirati company Aqua Bridge recently won the race to acquire Greek producer Avramar, which until early last year was the biggest bass and bream farmer in the world.

Des organisations demandent l’arrêt du financement par la SFI des projets d’agrobusiness industriel qui sapent les systèmes alimentaires agroécologiques diversifiés sur lesquels repose la souveraineté alimentaire.

Two reports expose Bunge Ltd's ties to deforestation, human rights abuses and land grabbing in Brazil’s sensitive Cerrado region

WRM Bulletin presents 5 perspectives from a coalition of movements, organizations and social pastoral bodies that have worked for decades in defense of the Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal biomes and their peoples and communities.

Certified by the RSPO in early 2020, Okomu’s motto is “responsible tropical agriculture.” But over the past decade, the company has been embroiled in disputes over land ownership and its use of Nigerian soldiers as a de facto security force for its plantations.

In Sri Lanka, where the state formally owns an estimated 85 percent of the country’s 6.6 million hectares of land, there is legitimate concern that the proposed US-funded project, the MCC compact would shift control of these lands towards private interests.

The past few years has seen a steep increase in the players involved in the Australian agribusiness investment sector, particularly with Canadian and American pension funds.

Worldwide farmland under management reversed upward trends in recent years, with assets falling 15.7% to $16.2 billion, according to Pensions & Investments' annual survey.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria says that all the states in the South-South and South-East regions have agreed to provide at least 100,000 ha for investors in oil palm plantations.

NGOs in Sarawak and around the world report failures by the Sarawak government to uphold indigenous land rights, and failures by international banks and investors to ensure their investments are conflict-free.

Colonialism brought large-scale farming to Africa. Now, after several decades of independence, and with investor interest growing, African governments are once again promoting large plantations and estates. But the new corporate interest in African agriculture has been criticised as a “land grab”.

The industry expected to find green pastures in Liberia, but early missteps and new environmental restrictions have led to slow expansion.

Across the globe, governments and investors from wealthy nations are buying up foreign farmland to support domestic food security.

How did such a promising idea (which appeared to offer a textbook example of a win-win situation) fail?

A small but growing group of sophisticated investors and bankers are combining crops and the soil they grow in into an asset class that ordinary investors can buy a piece of.

Greenpeace report reveals how US-based Herakles Farms colluded with government officials in Cameroon to illegally export timber that itself was illegally felled in order to establish a palm oil plantation.

Within Honduras, the murder rate climbs as one travels north to the central Atlantic coast departments. In the heart of this region lies the lush Lower Aguán Valley, a center of deadly conflict over land rights.

Foreign powers are not just engaged in African land. They are also engaged in African food systems, often in damaging ways.

"You don't have to be a financial genius to sense an opportunity here."

The controversy regarding India’s permission to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and growing “land grab” in Africa by multinational corporations are being closely watched globally by agriculture experts, researchers and donors.

Herakles says it will provide locals with steady work, roads and health care. But critics call the planned plantation, which would cover Fabe and at least 30 other forest villages in Cameroon, a land grab. Special report from Reuters.

Food shortages and rural deprivation exacerbated by World Bank policy, says NGO ahead of land and poverty conference

Bangladesh officials are in preliminary talks with Ukraine for wheat production, considering Cambodia for rice and visiting parts of sub-Saharan Africa to explore similar ventures.

The Pan African Parliament (PAP) held a meeting of parliamentarians from across the continent last week to discuss an appropriate African response to resource grabs

Institutions including Harvard and Vanderbilt reportedly use hedge funds to buy land in deals that may force farmers out.

The World Bank, UN agencies and governments are criticized for promoting agricultural investments that are resulting in land grabbing on a massive scale.

Participants find that land grabbing is occurring at a scale and speed as never before, resulting in widespread displacement and dispossession of local communities.