The problem of food security poses a real threat to global stability. Meeting in Italy last weekend, agriculture ministers of the G8 industrialized countries recognized the extent of the problem. They pledged to continue fighting hunger. But beyond calling for increased public and private investment in agriculture, the final communiqué of the ministerial meeting was short on fresh proposals.

Malagasy farmers have backed a move by the country's new president to stop a $6 billion land deal with South Korea's Daewoo Logistics, saying it would have come at the expense of local people's needs for land.

The UN’s food security expert, Olivier de Schutter, has called for a “code of conduct” to regulate the purchase of swathes of farmland across Africa, Asia and Latin America by Gulf states and private companies pursuing agribusiness.

The global food shortage coupled with vast tracts of surplus arable land in Africa made the continent the world's greatest farming opportunity, Avril Stassen, an investment adviser for Agri-Vie's $100 million (R957 million) agribusiness private equity fund, said last week.

“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”.

Saudi investors launched agricultural projects in Indonesia worth $1.3 billion last year, a top business official said on Monday, as the world's top oil exporter seeks to secure food supplies from abroad.

Vietnam Rubber Group, the nation’s largest producer and exporter, plans to plant 200,000 hectares of trees in neighboring Laos and Cambodia, betting on a rebound in global demand in the next decade.

A move by Madagascar's army-backed leader to nix a huge South Korean farming deal has exposed the risks of such ventures in Africa, where land remains an emotive issue prone to populist or nationalist opposition.

Deposed President Marc Ravalomanana brought the house of Madagascar down upon himself. But he has been replaced by a young untested leader who, although he has some public support, is full of himself and clearly contemptuous of democratic institutions. The result is that investment in Madagascar, and perhaps across the continent, will be hurt, writes Stephen Hayes

Are there any answers to this looming crisis? Some countries are buying land. There is vague talk about governments introducing “water management reforms”. Even more opaquely, there are calls for “multi-country discussions on trans-boundary issues, international trade and investment flows”.

Cambodia's traditional sectors are foundering in the wake of the global financial crisis, but the Kingdom's farmlands could bring billions from Middle Eastern countries seeking food security.

Investment in the agriculture sector is currently problematic due to the international financial crisis; last year’s interest in buying up land or companies in this sector has melted away.

Saudi Arabia has announced the arrival of the first food crop harvested in Saudi-owned farms abroad, in a sign that the kingdom is moving faster than expected to outsource agricultural production.

An Israeli delegation is set to visit Cambodia on March 16, hoping to forge agreements in agriculture and telecommunications

A South Korean company said Thursday it may delay a controversial project to develop a huge area of Madagascar for farmland due to political unrest in the Indian Ocean nation."We may have to delay our investment in Madagascar mainly due to political instability there," Shin Dong-Hyun, managing director of the financing and strategic planning department of Daewoo Logistics, told AFP.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday that he is sending a high-level business mission to the Philippines in April to look for investment opportunities in the Philippine agriculture sector.

According to Nograles the vision of the political leaders of Mindanao is that if the 26,000 hectares of contiguous agricultural land can be developed in the joint venture partnership with the Saudi chamber of commerce, a lease agreement could gurantee 50 years of food security for the Kingdom.

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.

Some fear that the land grabs could worsen poverty because few benefits will flow to the poorer host countries, and small farmers could lose out. Although the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is drawing up guidelines to protect their interests, it is far from clear whether anyone will follow them.

Nomadic herders, rarely a priority for governments, are being dispossessed by bioethanol developments in Kenya, says Michael Taylor of the International Land Coalition (ILC), and they also depend on the “unused” land that Madagascar offered Daewoo.

The stalled Jordanian agricultural megaproject in Sudan is expected to be resumed at the beginning of 2009

As the Caribbean and the rest of the world are still grappling with the global food crisis, Guyana is seeking to sell its vast land and water resources to United States investors as an area suitable for agriculture and aquaculture investment.

Rich governments and corporations are triggering alarm for the poor as they buy up the rights to millions of hectares of agricultural land in developing countries in an effort to secure their own long-term food supplies.

Cambodia is in talks with several Asian and Middle Eastern governments to receive as much as $3bn in agricultural investment in return for millions of hectares in land concessions, according to a senior government official.

Daewoo Logistics Corp., a South Korean natural-resource development company, expects a project to lease vast tracts of farmland in Madagascar to grow corn and palm oil may cost about $6 billion over the first 20 years. The investment will pay for the lease costs as well as building a port, roads, irrigation, and power plants, along with schools and hospitals for locals, Shin Dong Hyun, a manager leading the project, said today by phone.

Investors are pouring billions into Russian agribusiness—and trying to reverse decades of Soviet mismanagement.

Schroders is deferring the launch of its Agricultural Land Trust due to current market and economic conditions. The group said it felt it was appropriate to delay the launch, which was initially scheduled for the third quarter, and look again at the closed-ended product in early 2009.

In the past week, the alleged claim by Egypt’s Agriculture minister Amin Abaza that Uganda offered his country over 2 million acres of fertile land to produce wheat to feed the Arab nation’s 81 million people has rattled Ugandans.