Countries that have recently invited India, through the ministry of agriculture, to lease land for farming include Egypt, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Senegal, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago and Tunisia.

People see the Chinese as moving into Africa, kicking poor farmers off their land, and growing food to be shipped back to China for domestic consumption. This seems unlikely, however, says Doug Saunders.

Southern Pastures, registered in Auckland, is seeking $500 million from local and offshore investors to initially buy outright, or controlling shares in, farming concerns throughout the southern hemisphere, but with a bias towards New Zealand.

Even with new guidelines on land leases in Africa, the deals could lead to growing problems down the road, warned Emmy Simmons, a longtime USAID official

Under the new policy, foreign land ownership would be tied to “productivity and partnership models with South African citizens,” minister Gugile Nkwinti told parliament.

"We are launching the fund with the aim of deploying up to $1 billion for large-scale agricultural projects," Beltone told Reuters.

Noble Group Ltd., the commodity supplier backed by China Investment Corp., wants to buy and build coal mines, ports and plantations to benefit from rising Asian demand, Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Leiman said.

El Tejar SA, Argentina’s largest agricultural producer, is weighing an initial public offering in New York to tap rising investor demand for farming assets.

An Observer investigation reveals how rich countries faced by a global food shortage now farm an area double the size of the UK to guarantee supplies for their citizens

Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co. plans to invest in Georgia, including the purchase of farm land, following a fact-finding trip in April.

Citadel's Karim Sadek dismisses talk of land grabbing as an “academic concern”, saying “there should definitely be a priority for the produce to be sold on the local market, if there is a paying market for it”.

Saudi Star Agricultural Development Plc, the newest food growing company formed by Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi, is to acquire 100,000sqm of land in Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) this week, its senior official disclosed.

Runaway farmland and borderland giveaway deals need to be publicly scrutinized to ensure transparency (detect corruption and criminality) and to make certain that private interests (sweetheart deals) have not overtaken the public interest, or secret deals are not made to harm the Ethiopian national interest.

"Some Saudi princes told president Lula they do not want to invest in agriculture in Brazil in order to sell here in Brazil, they want food supply sources," says Brazilian minister of Development Miguel Jorge

The State has stepped up the drive to buy idle land to make available to investors, hoping to snap up vast fallow land across the Rift Valley and Coast provinces and towns near Nairobi.

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

Human rights workers said risks to the rural poor over such deals are significant because they are regularly evicted to make way for foreign investors.

A UAE company is seeking a 98-year lease on vast tracts of farmland in Tanzania to grow rice in order to secure food supplies for the Gulf countries.

A foreign company intends to clear 10 000 hectares of land in the Bwabwata National Park in northern Namibia in order to set up a large-scale irrigation scheme for crop farming

The Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors said that Saudi businesspeople were keen to invest in Turkey, particularly in agriculture. “The Kingdom has a huge program involving billions of riyals for agricultural investment in countries with fertile soil and plentiful water.”

“At this point, Turkey cannot even produce enough food for itself. Why should it even think about renting its own land?” says Abdullah Aysu, a spokesman for the Initiative for the Confederation of Farmers’ Unions

The United Arab Emirates has decided to make robust investments in Pakistan’s energy agriculture, education and health sectors, which need huge investment, official sources said yesterday.

Some of the world's biggest sugar players, including Brazil's Cosan, New York-listed Bunge and privately held US multinational Cargill, might join China in the race for CSR's sugar division

Indonesian global palm oil giant, Golden Agri-Veroleum will invest more than US$1.6 billion dollars on more than 240,000 hectares of oil palm to boost the country’s oil palm sector.

Lawrence Asset Management's Ravi Sood suggests investing in food production in low-cost areas that are water-rich – Brazil, tropical Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The much-discussed Congo land-lease, granting 200,000 hectares to South African farmers with a further 10 million hectares in the balance, appears to mark a departure from the usual terms underpinning foreign acquisition of fertile land by multinationals

The list of Indian companies that have purchased land in Africa is quite long and includes companies in businesses ranging from agriculture and horticulture to engineering and metals.

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.

Mr Massimov said Kazakhstan was negotiating an agreement with China to fund farming projects in Kazakhstan. “We are not giving China any land. The land code forbids it. But if we have a buyer [for crops], be it China or Arabia, then let’s sell,” he said.