Kuwait China Investment Co, a firm linked to the Gulf Arab state's sovereign wealth fund which is approaching governments in Southeast Asia to invest in farmland, said it had secured final approval to list its shares on the Kuwaiti bourse.

Swedish company Black Earth Farming (BEF) since 2006 has bought 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) of Russian farmland after the government finally allowed land to be privatised after decades of state ownership.

The Sudanese government will take back a plot of land allocated for a Jordanian agricultural megaproject if the government does not implement the project within two weeks

Bangkok was wary of GCC efforts to ensure its food supplies by purchasing rice growing lands, and now political instability is chilling the investment climate. Tom Spender reports

Zimbabwe Investments Authority acting chief executive Mrs Elina Karwi said the most basic requirement towards facilitating agriculture-related FDI was making land for agriculture available.

Philippine President Arroyo will meet with Saudi Minister of Agriculture Fahd Bin Abdulrahman Balghunaim to discuss bilateral agricultural projects and with members of the Saudi business community for talks on proposals for investments in the Philippines.

Un document interne, récemment mis en ligne sur le site web de l’IRRI, révèle que l’Institut a conseillé l’Arabie saoudite dans le contexte de sa stratégie d’acquisition de terres agricoles à l’étranger pour sa propre production alimentaire.

An internal document recently posted on IRRI's website reveals that the Institute has been advising Saudi Arabia in the context of its strategy to acquire farm land overseas for its own food production.

Agricultural experts have called for a halt to moves by Gulf investors to snap up foreign land, amid claims that poor nations are losing much-needed farmland in a calculated land grab.

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.

Lao Minister of Industry and Commerce confirms that his government is in negotiations with Thailand to join a rice land deal with Kuwait.

Congo Republic wants to amend the terms of a multi-million hectare land deal with South African farmers, a top aide told Reuters on Wednesday, saying the current accord would deprive its own farmers of land.

A private agricultural investment firm in Abu Dhabi plans a Dh925 million (US$251.8m) farmland deal in Egypt to grow wheat for the African nation’s domestic market.

Janan, a UAE agricultural investment firm, will expand its farmland portfolio in a deal with Egyptian agricultural authorities next week.

A United Arab Emirates company will sign a deal with Egypt to cultivate 100,000 feddans, about 42,000 hectares, of land with wheat, corn and feed, the official news agency Mena reported on Tuesday.

There may emerge a situation when Ukrainians will be starving in spite of having the most fertile black earth.

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 scramble by wealthy states to snap up developing world farmland to ensure their own food security -- especially in Africa -- could trigger conflict in poorer countries, World Food Programme deputy executive director Sheila Sisulu said on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt. "I fear... conflict," she said.

Private Saudi firm Planet Food World (PFWC) will invest around $3 billion in agriculture in Turkey over the next five years to export food products to the Gulf region, the head of its Turkish unit said.

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.

Lester Brown, the president of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute, says even if the investor comes in wielding impressive, shiny new technology, it will be of little benefit to the small farm holder.

Thailand is keen on reaching bilateral agreements with Qatar on various economic investments from agriculture particularly on food, oil and gas and tourism sectors, visiting Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said yesterday.

"We believe there are many opportunities for investment in Thailand and Philippines and for both countries in Bahrain," a Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry representative said. "Food security is one area we are trying to emphasise. We had discussions in planting and growing bananas and rice in both countries."

We need non-binding principles, not regulation, to make land grabbing win-win, says Japan's Prime Minister before the G8 Summit

Undeterred by recent debates, a Bahrain scouting mission left for a week-long trip to the Philippines and Thailand yesterday, where it hopes to secure fruit and vegetable plantations.

Gulf oil producers are considering plans to invest in farming projects in the Philippines to face a steady increase in domestic food demand and reduce a painful import bill, said the region's private sector leader.

It's a tsunami of land deals and, as all of the experts who have studied the phenomenon have agreed, no nation is truly prepared for its implications.

Uganda's minister of agriculture literally pleaded with the agribusiness delegates at a forum in Capetown to take advantage of Uganda’s extremely advantageous deals for private investors in the agricultural sector.

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.