China increasingly is buying farmland and agricultural companies in South America to feed its ever-growing population.

New studies released in London today suggest that the frenzied sell-off of forests and other prime lands to buyers hungry for the developing world's natural resources risk sparking widespread civil unrest—unless national leaders and investors recognize the customary rights of millions of poor people who have lived on and worked these lands for centuries.

An influx of foreign funds seeking Australian farmland has pushed lawmakers to consider legislation that would increase scrutiny of overseas purchases after foreign ownership of land almost doubled since 1984.

“There is no villagization programme,” Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi, founder of Karuturi Global, told Mint via telephone. “This is a completely jaundiced western vision. They assume anything in Africa has to be done by the whites and the Chinese and Indians should have businesses only in their own countries.”

Population growth and rising consumption by a minority of people around the world are fuelling global land acquisitions and Africa is a “prime target”, says the International Land Coalition.

Report calls for international community to enact reforms aimed at reducing financial speculation on commodities markets, limiting the further expansion of crops and land dedicated to biofuels, and halting “land grabs”.

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.

Tanzania is among countries currently faced with increased pressure from foreign investors acquiring unprecedented sizes of land for various bio-fuel projects and food production.

The level and manner of foreign investment in Australian agriculture is sounding alarm bells amid growing concern that the nation's own food security could be compromised.

Rich soil, a tropical climate, and an abundance of water: the region of Gambela in the west of the country is fertile. Foreign investors are renting thousands of hectares of it to develop intensive agriculture without regard for the environment and the population, reports Le Monde.

Land has been the play-thing of centralising authoritarians throughout Ethiopia's recent history.

As more and more fertile lands and rivers are in the hands of few investors, some villagers in southern Africa have started experiencing food shortages, a situation which was not there before.

The article suggests the need to render the government a custodian (and not owner) of land in conformity with the FDRE Constitution

Article details the diversity of outcomes and arrangements falling under the blanket term ‘land grab,’ examining transfers of ownership and control of land and the implications of political processes as reflected in land policy

Investment by Indian-owned Karuturi Global has raised questions about whether Ethiopia is literally giving away the farm, or conversely, launching a 'green revolution' to help Ethiopia feed itself.

Joining the neo-colonial bandwagon, Indian companies are taking over agricultural land in African nations and exporting produced food at the cost of locals

"We’re dealing with a different enemy now: not with an enemy that emerges from the center to the periphery, as they used to say, but with an enemy that comes at us from all sides."

Foreign investors have spent a record $12 billion buying up Australian farmland and agricultural businesses over the past year, but have put off investing a further $14 billion until the outcome of a Senate inquiry in March 2012, a new report by Ferrier Hodgson says.

The global rush to acquire large amounts of land in developing countries has done more harm than good, especially to the poorest people who often lose access to land and resources essential to their livelihoods.

The most comprehensive study of large land acquisitions in developing countries to date published Wednesday online by the International Land Coalition (ILC) has found more evidence of harm than benefits.

Ce que le débat sur l’accaparement fait apparaître, c’est bien une ligne de clivage plus ancienne et fondamentale, opposant les partisans du « laissez-faire » et les défenseurs de nouvelles régulations fondées sur la reconnaissance des droits des populations et des souverainetés nationales

Iowa State University has landed in some hot water regarding its involvement with an international land development project in Tanzania.

Under agreements with exporting countries in Africa, Europe and East Asia, GCC countries can cultivate large areas, which will pave the way for stabilizing food prices on the one hand, and reducing inflation on the other.

The 19th century had the Great Scramble for Africa, when developed nations raced for several decades to lay claim to new territories and their riches. This century may yet be known as the Great Selloff of Africa.

The 6,000 hectare farm in Nasarawa, one of Nigeria's main rice growing belts, is expected to yield 36,000 tonnes of milled rice annually at its peak.

Report from FIAN on the international conference against land grabbing which took place in Mali in November 2011

If you care, and you attend or attended college, it is your responsibility as a student or alumni to speak up and say that you care. If enough of us do so, they will listen!

Company now manages farms on 3.6 million hectares and believes that, overall, US$25 billion of institutional capital has gone into the acquisition of farms.

The following report, by independent researcher Anna Bolin, explores the global trends and influences at work behind agriculture mega-projects like MIFEE in Papua.

Foreign investors aren't just after land in Africa. Access to water is essential – which can bring them into direct competition with the needs of local communities