Free City Radio interviews Devlin Kuyek from GRAIN speaking on the jailing of three Ethiopian land rights advocates.

Amatheon Agri, a Berlin based agribusiness and farming company, is set to embark on a countrywide expansion of grain production in Zimbabawe after a successful pilot maize farming project

New research reveals grain growers in Western Australia are overwhelmingly supportive of foreign investment.

China's pursuit of agricultural land overseas should be supplemented by building more grain processing facilities as part of the country's push for global expansion in the farming sector, says Chen Xiwen, general director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group.

Macquarie Group Ltd. plans to own and run 500,000 acres of soybean and grain farms in Brazil over the next three years

Eric Sprott's hunger for commodities may have wavered since last year's price collapse took a hefty strip off revenues at Sprott Inc., his money-management business. However, the legendary hedge-fund manager is still placing bets on at least one commodity: grain.

Saudi Arabia is interested in investment in grain and cattle-breeding in Kazakhstan, said agency reports referring to the press service of Akmola oblast akim.

With little arable land around the world left unfarmed and with ever more mouths to feed, farmers face an uphill climb in their efforts to feed the world’s people.

New data set documens 416 recent, large-scale land grabs by foreign investors for the production of food crops, covering nearly 35 million hectares of land in 66 countries.

Abu Dhabi-based Al Dahra Group is close to a 200 million Euro deal (US$245 million) to acquire Agricost Braila, the largest farm in Europe.

El actual acaparamiento global de las tierras cultivables, donde la inversión extranjera toma el control de la tierra y el agua en los países en desarrollo, no tiene nada que ver con el fortalecimiento de la agricultura familiar y los mercados locales, que a nuestro juicio es la única manera de avanzar para lograr sistemas alimentarios que alimenten a la gente. Debe ser inmediatamente detenido.

Miami-based company's investment deal includes the acquisition of farmland and establishment of private farms. Similar deal signed the previous week with Ghana.

Investment in the agriculture sector is currently problematic due to the international financial crisis; last year’s interest in buying up land or companies in this sector has melted away.

Across the Midwest, well-heeled outside investors are on the prowl to acquire the hard assets of US agribusiness, including farmland.

Saudi Agriculture and Livestock Investment Company has joined the UAE's Al Dahra in a US$1.3bn joint venture to make agribusiness acquisitions in 10 countries in the Black Sea region, including the acquisition of farmland.

International executives urged Russia to maximise its potential by encouraging more private investment and opening up more land to foreign investors.

China's state-owned COFCO International Ltd (CIL) and U.S. farm cooperative Growmark Inc will partner in a deal that gives China more direct access to the food it imports.

Analysts and farming executives say the crisis is likely to accelerate the consolidation of Russian agriculture already under way, allowing big conglomerates to swoop on struggling small farmers.

Cofco makes offer for stake in Nidera, which produces soybeans on over 20,000 ha in Argentina.

Just how much security the new land investments may provide countries and corporations remains uncertain, experts say. Future governments in countries now renting or selling land may well fail to abide by deals their predecessors cut, particularly if they face food or land shortages at home.

Tokyo-based Sojitz says it will invest in Brazil's Cantagalo General Grains SA, which farms 150,000 hectares and collects 2 million metric tons of grains a year.

Chinese producers in Brazil should not export soybeans to China, but chicken, says former Minister of Agriculture Roberto Rodrigues, now director of the FGV Agribusiness Center

Imagine a land of 14 million hectares, bigger than Switzerland and Austria combined. Populated by millions of farming families that together practice shifting cultivation. Now imagine a foreign consultant saying that all of these are abandoned lands.

Company approaching 10 other state-owned companies from Chongqing Municipality to fund the construction of massive soybean production facility in the Brazilian state of Bahia

The fact that President Jakaya Kikwete accepted an invitation to Saudi Arabia recently to discuss the possibility of farmland allocation is important, as it means that Tanzania is attentive to the proposal.

The maps show the percentage of the land grabbed, with respect to the total land area, from different countries.

There are now a few examples in Canada of outside corporations buying and/or leasing land and farming it themselves. In fact, a huge corporate farming entity is being planned for First Nations land in the three Prairie provinces.

Donlinks, one of China's biggest vegetable oil producers, will partner with British Virgin lslands-registered Genius Link Capital, to make an offer for S. Kidman & Co, Australia's largest landholder.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has issued up to $40 million to New Europe Property Fund L.P. managed by NCH Capital Inc. to improve the efficiency of its agricultural projects in Ukraine.

Macquarie Group's new farmland fund, which is targeting farms in Australia and Brazil, has purchased its first two properties in Australia worth a total of almost $40 million.