The U.S. should reassess its support for the government of Ethiopia, amid concern that more than half a million people are being evicted to make land available for foreign investment in agriculture, advocacy groups say.

The world’s governments approved new guidelines for rules on land use on Friday to protect the poor and fight hunger, but aid groups said they were too weak to stop large-scale land grabs by big business in underdeveloped countries.

Land is the missing element at next month's big UN sustainable development summit known as Rio+20, where nations of the world will meet June 20-22 with the goal of setting a new course to ensure the survival and flourishing of humanity.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the top four countries on a massive investment spree to acquire agricultural resources.

A new report from the Oakland Institute examines a controversial land investment deal in Sierra Leone. Pambazuka News caught up with its Policy Director to find out why the report has attracted so much attention.

With the purchase of nearly 15,000ha of land in Jerramungup last month, the Qatar-based Hassad Food Company now owns 250,000ha of farmland in Austalia

Dalla Al Baraka, a Saudi conglomerate with $5 billion in annual revenue, has acquired two million acres of farmland in eastern Sudan to produce food for export to the Middle Eastern kingdom. While the investors are hoping to wean Saudi Arabia off imports from South America, such agreements cause concern among local Sudanese farmers.

Last week, the Land Matrix "land grab" database was released. On paper, they have a strong methodology and strict criteria about projects to be included. In practice, they seem to violate their own rules, at least when it comes to Chinese "projects" in Africa.

Indigenous people fear collective retaliation by government security forces.

Land rights are essentially political issues; but where women’s land rights are concerned, the solutions take on a legal dimension.

"During my research trips in Africa, I came across posters against the land grab deals," Liberti told IPS. "One said: ‘Future generations will damn your graves, because you did not leave them any land.’"

China, the world's most populous country and biggest consumer of grain, should expand its farming overseas to ensure enough food for its people because of limited land and low productivity at home, agriculture experts said on Wednesday.

We hear from Liberia, where foreign investment is finally starting to flood in after years of civil war. Big international companies are arriving and taking over vast areas of the country - in a move some local farmers and activists describe as a land grab.

Two key areas requiring urgent attention are global agricultural norms and financialization.

The craze in recent years for huge investments in bio energy and agribusiness in Tanzania has seen small poor farmers being dispossessed of their lands through tricky contracts and the false hope of making riches overnight.

Ethiopia’s government said it plans to clear land and provide infrastructure for investors to accelerate a commercial farming drive in the west of the country, amid opposition to the plans that left 19 people dead.

The focus of this year's World Water Day is on water and food security, and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility launches a campaign to educate institutional investors on the impacts of large acquisitions of farmland in the global South.

"The CFS is expected to adopt the VGs in May. Then for part two: laws with an enforcement mechanism. National laws, because that is where it really counts. And multilateral rules, too, to discipline foreign investors," write IATP.

Companies investing in land in Africa and elsewhere need guidelines to ensure the human rights and dignity of local communities are protected

Small farmers lose livelihoods as 'controversial' palm-oil producing multinational moves in, report says

IMF/World Bank paper looks at how foreign investors are buying up farmland in developing countries.

Senator Bill Heffernan and the managing director of the Australian Agricultural Company David Farley join The Business to discuss overseas investment in Australia.

The scariest aspect of this unfolding phenomenon is that despite the foreseeable terrible consequences, the appetite among the rich countries to own a piece of this developing-country fertile land continues to grow, turning to an ugly competition.

BASF interviews Prof. Dr. Harald von Witzke, International Agricultural Trade and Development Institute of the Humboldt University, Berlin

African officials have called for greater equity and fairness in trade with the GCC countries that use agricultural land in Africa to feed their populations while famines continue to ravage the continent.

In an effort to improve food security, the government has been investing in agriculture projects abroad, especially in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, Pakistan, Romania, Sudan and the Americas, to secure food supplies and safeguard against market fluctuations.

Despite the African Union's commitment to strengthening women's access and control of land by placing land rights in the domain of human rights, it is silent on the issue of land grabs. This is a gap that the AU needs to plug.

The report outlines elements of a Global New Deal including developing principles for responsible agricultural investment.

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”.