Farmers from the developing world called on governments this week to curb a global land rush in which millions of hectares of their terrain are being taken over by foreign private investors.

UAE investors are pumping huge funds into the agricultural sector given the availability of vast arable lands and water and production inputs along with a large market which can serve as a gateway to European and African markets.

"I look forward to watching the [CFS] evolve and address issues such as land acquisition," says UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

African governments should avoid rushing into big land lease deals with foreign investors or risk deepening poverty and ramping up social tensions, an official at the UN's Food and Agriculture Office said

Foreign ownership of watersheds or agricultural land plays into the perennial food security fears that are common in a nation forced to import about 60 per cent of its food.

An American university is buying a New Zealand dairy farm for more than $28 million as officials and would-be overseas investors get ready for new rules.

Emirates Investments Group is looking to buy food and agricultural assets in Australia and New Zealand as global demand climbs, CEO Raza Jafar said.

GRAIN says the World Bank's much anticipated report on the global farmland grab is both a disappointment and a failure.

As foreign investors in Russia are all too aware, there is a perennial conflict within the country’s political elite on how to balance the need for foreign investment and outside technology with an impulse to maximize state control over sectors that carry outsized economic or social significance.

The World Bank appears deeply torn. While the report endorses the Bank's open-door globalisation agenda, the sub-text dissents on every page.

While the Bank warns of a lack of transparency and the potential harm to poor people, it ultimately endorses the land grabs in the name of productivity and sound investment.

In a 164-page report that actually endorses the practice of the sale of vast tracts of agricultural land to foreign buyers, the global lender nevertheless frets over the fall-out of northern legislation that makes investors view every farm, jungle and meadow in the third world the same way they view an oil field, says the EU Observer

In Cambodia, an assessment of the impact of foreign farmland acquisitions has been hampered by a lack of data, including the total number of concessions awarded and an accurate set of GPS coordinates for each concession, the World Bank says.

The World Bank report calls for global implementation of investment principles it drafted last year but notes that enforcement mechanisms do not exist.

Abu Dhabi finalises scheme to purchase 29,400 hectares of land in Sudan

Michael Burry, the former hedge-fund manager who predicted the US housing market’s plunge, said he is investing in farmland. “I believe that agriculture land -- productive agricultural land with water on site -- will be very valuable in the future.”

As global wheat prices rise, Africans are feeling the pinch when buying something as simple as bread. Mozambique bread riots could be a warning sign for African nations who have leased fertile agricultural land to foreign countries.

The creation this week of the 'Save our Farms' campaign to block foreign ownership of New Zealand farm land has fired up a debate that needs to be had.

Nationwide advertisements have been placed in newspapers today, calling for an end to foreign ownership of New Zealand farmland.

Singapore-listed Golden Agri Resources said it was “actively evaluating” taking a share in a 220,000-hectare project being offered by the government of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

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.

Public opinion is clearly against the Crafar farms sale on the basis that NZ is "selling the farm", while selling a controlling stake in a processing plant is seen as another issue altogether. There is a strong argument for conditionality either way, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

Prime Minister John Key yesterday warned of other potential foreign buyers of large tracts of New Zealand farmland lining up behind the Hong Kong company bidding for the Crafar farms as his Government signalled a new focus on overseas investment rules.

Critics say Australia's Labor party has failed to come to grips with country's future food security, including the acquisition of domestic farmland by foreign investors

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?

If the offer is successful, Singapore's Olam will either hold 100 per cent or between 50.1 per cent and 90 per cent of NZ Farming Systems Uruguay

A farmland development group backed by Jacob Rothschild is to become the first Brazilian company to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange

At least 24 countries have been given approval to invest in New Zealand's agricultural sector, covering 154,855ha and a wide range of sectors from sheep farming to viticulture

Wilmar, which already owns 200,000 ha of sugar cane plantations in Indonesia, said it intended to use Sucrogen’s proven expertise in the sugar business to pursue growth strategies in “Indonesia and other high potential Asian markets.’’