Lao Red Loong Durian is leasing 500 hectares of land in Vientiane province, Laos and has completed the development of a first-phase 60-hectare pilot zone, planting over 7,000 Black Thorn durian trees.

Farmers in Uzbekistan say the government is forcing them to surrender land to Chinese businesses under the guise of state-backed development, taking thousands of hectares of fertile cotton and wheat fields out of the hands of locals.

The Schmidt Agricola family business is planning a 10,000-hectare cocoa farm in the Brazilian state of Bahia, where similar super-sized cocoa farms are also under development in partnership with large cocoa companies like Cargill and Barry Callebaut.

The head of the African Development Bank says big foreign companies are not paying Africa fairly for its role in fighting climate change. He calls this unfair practice “carbon grabs.”

In addition to the greenfield port north of Port Sudan, the project would have included a 400,000-acre agricultural development in the Nile region, hundreds of miles of new roadways, a large free trade zone

The Luapula Council of Chiefs has joined other stakeholders in rejecting the proposed US$72 billion Vietnamese rice investment project spearheaded by VietZam Development Corporation Limited that is said to involve 6 million hectares of land.

The Nyumba Foundation has received the go-ahead to grow edible oil crops on 40,000 acres Agricultural Development Corporation land in Kilifi county.

Qantas Super plans to generate a higher proportion of returns from the agricultural sector after committing $200 million to the development of high-yielding horticultural crops on properties managed by farmland investor goFARM.

Iran's seventh development plan calls for extra-territorial cultivation of food crops this year on 400,000 ha in Iraq, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Africa and Latin America.

This new white paper titled The Evolution of Farmland as an Asset, released by Steve Bruere, president, Peoples Company, and Ailie C. Elmore, instructor, University of Illinois, takes you behind the curtain, not only recounting the history of farmland investment, but examining why events occurred, and how those events drove, and are continuing to drive, the development of a promising and worthy asset class.

As part of the initiative, development bank BNDES could set up a fund to attract foreign capital, and Japan, South Korea, China and Saudi Arabia have shown interest backing investments of this type.

The pact with China's Guangxi Fenglin Wood Industry Group and a company the Zambian government said was called Development Company Ltd. of China, will include 100,000 hectares of plantations of slash pine.

New report by the Oakland Institute examines the African Forestry Impact Platform bankrolled by European development finance institutions, Japanese oil interests, and an Australian investment firm.

What if foreign investors, US corporation funds, pension funds, land development companies, and wealthy investors continue to buy more US farmland?

OPEC Fund for International Development has signed a $30m loan agreement under its Food Security Action Plan with Banco Sudameris with 40 percent to be allocated to farmers and agribusinesses in Paraguay.

Dewji is talking to funders, including the African Development Bank and Proparco, to raise money for planned investments, which includes developing 30,000 hectares under plantation of sisal.

An integrated agricultural company, Saro Oil Palm Limited has embarked on pre-planting activities in preparation for the development of a 10,000-hectare oil palm plantation in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of Edo State.

Un appel à manifestation d’intérêt a été lancé par le ministère de l’Agriculture et de l’Élevage en partenariat avec l’EDBM (Economic Development Board of Madagascar), en vue d’attirer des opérateurs économiques à investir dans l’agri-business.

Examples of large-scale land acquisitions in Sierra Leone (Addax/Sunbird Bioenergy and Socfin) and the DR Congo (Feronia) call for European and African governments and development banks to stop funding such operations

In a new report, Greenpeace Africa and Green Development Advocates (GDA) expose the disastrous effects of the illegal Camvert oil palm plantation in Cameroon, which is supplied with seedlings by the French research agency CIRAD.

The French development bank, AFD Group, says it no longer has any connection with PHC - Feronia, since the DRC oil palm plantation company was taken over by the Straight KKM2 fund.

The Public Investment Fund has transferred its ownership stakes in Almarai, the National Agricultural Development Company, and the Saudi Fisheries Company to the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC).

The oil palm plantation company PHC is funded by European and US development banks and companies.

Update report on the Addax land grab in Sierra Leone - originally fuelled by European development banks, then taken over by Sunbird Bioenergy and then by Brown Investment Plc

IDH is working with FMO, the Dutch development bank -- which last year granted Zambian fully integrated tilapia operation Yalelo a $10.5 million senior secured loan facility -- to draw up guidelines for investing in African aquaculture.

Feronia, a company 38% owned by the UK government’s development bank, has been accused of a series of environmental and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Laos government has awarded land concessions to foreign and domestic companies for the use of about 11.7 million hectares. “But the amount of land actually being used for development is about 549,248 hectares,” Chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Economy, Technology and Environment said.

The World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have reaffirmed their support for the Ukrainian government’s plans to lift a more than decade-long moratorium on the purchases of Ukrainian farmland

Navis, which is backed by the US government’s development finance institution Overseas Private Investment Corporation, will also look to acquire 10,000 acres for a durian plantation, starting in Pahang state.

Feronia Inc. announces that its operating subsidiary, Plantations et Huileries du Congo, did not make its scheduled semi-annual principal and interest payment under its secured term debt facility with a syndicate of European Development Finance Institutions.