Seeds, land and fertilizer are among the top places food and agriculture executives and economists said they would put their money, betting on global population growth.

German investors have bought 11 dairy farms covering more than 3,600 hectares in New Zealand's South Island

Investing in Adecoagro is “a way to play the potential global shortage of food, especially in emerging markets,” says Francis Gaskins, president of IPOdesktop.com

Bangladesh wants to invest in growing rice in Cambodia for future exports back to Bangladesh and has requested long-term land leases for up to 99 years, such as Cambodia has already granted to other countries.

Gulf nations need to step up investments in African and South East Asian farmland if the region is to play its part in averting a global food crisis, agriculture experts say.

"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

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.

"A large [Indian] agri-export company is already in advanced stages of discussions with the Paraguayan government and may announce its foray into the country shortly” says Paraguay’s ambassador in New Delhi,

Companies from the kingdom are meeting with representatives of the state of Western Australia to discuss buying equity in farms and investing in the wheat supply chain.

Someone needs to put Fonterra and the Feds into the same room.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to inaugurate the food estate on Feb. 12-13.

Until last year, people in the Ethiopian settlement of Elliah earned a living by farming their land and fishing. Now, they are employees.

On December 22, Ukraine's parliament adopted a surprisingly unanimous decision to extend the moratorium on the sale of agricultural lands until 2012. Now the ball in the president’s court – he has always considered land to be a commodity.

Earlier this year, delegates to the annual session of China’s parliament debated a proposal to seek employment for up to 100 million Chinese in various African countries to solve two of China’s greatest challenges—food security and unemployment.

Cash-rich overseas pension funds and investors have been scouting for New Zealand dairy farm investments,

Instead of offering incentives on a similar scale to local farmers, Islamabad is offering legal and tax concessions, with legislative cover, to foreign investors in the form of specialised agricultural and livestock 'free zones' and may also introduce legislation to exempt such investors from government-imposed tax bans. The most worrisome aspect of such wheeling-dealing is the government's decision to develop a new security force of 100,000 men spread across the four provinces to ensure stability of the Arab investments.

A Kuwaiti company partly owned by the emirate's sovereign wealth fund is preparing to join other Gulf states in buying up agricultural land in Asia, part of a global land grab to ensure food security.

A focus on agricultural productivity should not become a cover for foreign private companies to grab land or impose expensive, input-intensive methods in the name of modernisation.

Yes Bank expects a $150 million Tanzanian rice and wheat project to reach full production by 2011, the first of several large African farms it is funding. "We are looking at a more inclusive model wherein the local farmers can be organised into a producers company, and they would be the suppliers to the processing facility. It's predominantly not to acquire huge tracts of land."

A memorandum of understanding and cooperation will be signed between the Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Qatari land deal in Kenya’s Tana River Delta has been seized upon by locals who have promised to fight it – to the death, if it comes to that.

Neo-colonialists are buying up agricultural land in Africa – and local farmers could be crushed unless there are international rules to protect them.

“African countries have not been in a reasonable bargaining position,” AU Agriculture Commissioner Rhoda Peace Tumusiime told Reuters in an interview at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. “The pace of the trend was very fast and they didn’t envisage that there should be benefits to the community.”

Saudi Arabia's desire to secure its sources of food for its citizens by establishing overseas joint ventures in food production has received a positive response from a Philippine trade delegation.

“We are looking at the food sector, financial services, telecommunications, hospitality and transport,” Zain said, adding the firm was aiming to buy minority stakes that would give it “some extent of control”.

The Sudanese delegation to the Arab League is urging the pan-Arab organization to set up a food security fund worth at least $50 billion to ensure stable future food supplies, a Sudanese official said.

Tanzania may find itself on similar a pathway like Zimbabwe where 4,500 commercial farmers own over 90 per cent of arable land including some so-called absent landlords living luxurious lives in London.

The government has defended its decision, saying that under the agreement, Qatar will help Kenya develop an equivalent number of hectares for its own food security.