Capital flows into Africa, include farmland acquisitions by foreign investors, rose 16 percent in 2008 to a record $62 billion even as FDI that year fell 20 percent worldwide

Question - via video - to the 2010 World Economic Forum on Africa in Dar es Salaam on land grabbing in Ethiopia

MCC is playing a key role in commodifying Africa’s farmlands

Saudi Arabian investors are looking to expand their agricultural investments in the United States to secure long-term food supply because of water shortages in the desert kingdom, Saudi officials said on Thursday.

As African leaders, many out to line their own pockets, sign away their people's land to foreigners, the continent's people face not having enough food to eat.

The Asian Peasant Coalition and Peasant Movement of the Philippines slam World Bank’s “seven principles”.

Recently, Kanayo Nwanze, head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, told a news conference: "It is the wrong language to call them land grabs. They are investments in farmland--like investments in oil exploration."

Friends of the Earth International warns that voluntary principles on land acquisitions announced by the World Bank and supported by the UN will legitimize and promote land grabbing in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Saudi Arabia is attempting to strengthen its position in what seems certain to be a growing competition for food among the nations of the Middle East.

New report by Oakland Institute exposes the role of the World Bank’s private sector branch, International Finance Corporation, in fueling land grabs.

We, the peasants and small farmers of the world, do not need agribusiness and international investment schemes to eat.

"Here’s what I’m sure of: these deals will make the rich richer and the poor poorer, creating clear winners who benefit while the losers are denied their livelihoods."

Contract covers the lease of 25,000 ha in the Regional State of Gambela for a period of 25 years, with option for renewal.

"A key obstacle to more transparent debate and informed decisions by governments and investors [involved in global land transactions] is the lack of science-based information," writes Surendra Shah in Nature magazine

The World Bank's principles, which would be entirely voluntary, aim to distract from the fact that today's global food crisis, marked by more than 1 billion people going hungry each day, will not be solved by large scale industrial agriculture, which virtually all of these land acquisitions aim to promote.

Les principes de la Banque mondiale, qui seraient totalement volontaires, visent à détourner notre attention du fait que la crise alimentaire actuelle, marquée par un milliard de personnes en manque de nourriture, ne sera pas resolue par l'agriculture industrielle à grande échelle, ce que toutes ces acquisitions foncières cherchent à promouvoir.

Los principios del BM, que serían totalmente voluntarios, intentan distraer del hecho de que la crisis alimentaria global de hoy en día con la cifra récord de más de mil millones de personas sufriendo hambre, no será resuelta por la agricultura industrial a gran escala que van a aplicar prácticamente todos los inversionistas que están adquiriendo tierra.

نقول لا للمبادئ المعلنة من طرف البنك الدولي التي تهم الاستثمارات “المسؤولة” من طرف الشركات الزراعية الغذائية.

In Ethiopia, farms backed by foreign investors are growing with abundance, while native farmers subsist on food aid.

Contract covers the lease of 3,012 ha in the Gambela Regional State for a period of 50 years, with option for renewal.

The global rush to acquire agricultural land in bountiful Africa evokes concern and protests.

I personally know of the efforts of a leading Japanese company that is cooperating with African farmers to create sustainable systems that blend technology with traditional African lore

Farmers in Africa may starve as their fields are bought to profit rich foreigners, writes Jo Chandler in The Age

But company says it does not want to tarnish Saudi Arabia's image by buying farmlands abroad

Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital is seeking to buy Kenya’s firms and long-term land leases as it seeks agro-based raw materials to feed its food business.

Rebuttal from Ethiopia's ambassador to Japan against the article "Japan, please don't go grabbing Ethiopians' land," insisting that the government is only leasing out "unutilized land and some other land holdings by government-owned enterprises".

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.

Japan should shun this new kind of colonization like a plague, no matter what well-paid city-based officials may say.

Nigeria is offering to lease farmland to Gulf countries seeking food security and will allow investors to export all of their produce, the head of a private Nigerian agriculture consultancy firm said on Monday.

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