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.

The Chinese company ZTE received an allocation of approximately 10,000 hectares of land from the Ministry of Agriculture. The deal aims at boosting production of wheat and maize, state media reported.

Saudi Arabia wants to secure supplies for sugar, rice, wheat, malt and fodder with farmland investments overseas, its agricultural minister said in remarks published on Tuesday.

The Congo ventures are not core businesses to be based in the Congo but instead, extensions of businesses located in South Africa

We call upon Ethiopians to take note of the consequences of long-term leases of farmlands to foreign governments and companies including its potential to undermine the future existence of the Ethiopian people.

The Indian construction company has decided to cultivate pongamia pinnata and edible oil seeds there

Private corporations from Asian and Middle Easter countries are facing Africa’s virgin lands to secure their population’s food needs. Ethiopia is in the forefront of African states offering fertile land for long-term lease to these corporations and states. This

Sebuah investigasi Observer menunjukkan bagaimana negara-negara kaya mendapatkan jaminan untuk memenuhi kebutuhan warganya, dengan memanfaatkan lahan seluas dua kali lipat daratan Inggris. Dan, lahan tersebut berada di Afrika, kawasan yang identik dengan kekurangan pangan. Guardian melaporkan hasil investigasi tersebut pada hari Senin.

An Observer investigation reveals how rich countries faced by a global food shortage now farm an area double the size of the UK to guarantee supplies for their citizens

Since Saudi Arabia abandoned its wheat cultivation programme two years ago, due to dwindling water resources in the desert kingdom, it became a major buyer of wheat from global markets.

GRAIN speaks with Nyikaw Ochalla, an Anuak living in exile, about the consequences for the Anuak and other local communities from the land grabs happening in Gambella province and the rest of Ethiopia.

"What they are saying is that the local people are now suffering very badly as a direct result of these foreign companies taking over."

"Today, the Oromo issue is not hidden from the world leaders and stakeholders. However, it is being ignored. The Meles regime is selling Oromo land on world market, although this government does not have the right to sell Oromo land."

Citadel's Karim Sadek dismisses talk of land grabbing as an “academic concern”, saying “there should definitely be a priority for the produce to be sold on the local market, if there is a paying market for it”.

"EAC Partner States should resist the leasing or selling of large chunks of land to foreign entities for production of food or bio-fuel feedstock solely for export, which will be disadvantageous to food security in the region" says the East African Legislative Assembly

"What Karuturi is doing is what Africa needs, wants and deserves," says Ram Karuturi. Yet 400 Ethiopians have signed a petition saying they received no compensation after being evicted from land taken over by Karuturi.

Saudi Star Agricultural Development Plc, the newest food growing company formed by Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi, is to acquire 100,000sqm of land in Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) this week, its senior official disclosed.

Three options both governments were looking at are whether Egyptian investors would own and cultivate farmland, whether land would be owned in partnership with Egypt and Uganda, or whether land would be owned as a concession right.

Over the years many Big Ideas have been imposed on Africa from outside. The latest is that the region should sell or lease millions of hectares of land to foreign investors.

Runaway farmland and borderland giveaway deals need to be publicly scrutinized to ensure transparency (detect corruption and criminality) and to make certain that private interests (sweetheart deals) have not overtaken the public interest, or secret deals are not made to harm the Ethiopian national interest.

Minerals Energy Commodities Holding (MEC) is in talks with Indonesia to lease 100,000 ha of farmland in East Kalimantan for UAE's food security.

Listening to Susan Payne you could be forgiven for thinking land funds are a holy grail for the ethical investor: money-making opportunities with a sanctifying air of do-goodery.

While many peasant organizations are relentlessly drawing attention to this devastating land-grabbing, the UN and other agencies have been characteristically slow to act.

Standard Chartered Bank's Africa private equity arm and a unit of Reliance Capital are in talks to invest in Dubai-based Karuturi Overseas.

Ethiopia must harness its enormous agricultural potential, not by selling it off as a cheap commodity, but by supporting farmers in growing culturally appropriate crops for domestic markets, using agro-ecologically sustainable farming methods.

The main objective of this essay is to draw the attention of fellow Ethiopians to the issue. So that it stays front and center in our contemporary political agenda, until we manage to mobilize the necessary popular pressure and try our best to stop it from taking effect.

As swathes of their country’s land is leased, cleared and prepared for food production by foreign companies, Ethiopians are divided over whether this constitutes ‘agro-colonialism’ or much-needed development

Heightened land values have caused several Egyptian banks, private companies and government bodies to purchase agricultural land in Africa, in addition to focusing greater attention on Egypt’s land resources.

As interest in transnational land acquisition for food production grows, the importance of legal customary tenure recognition becomes more apparent.

How could Meles know the legitimate owners of the land, namely the future generation of Ethiopians, may not need the land say 20 years from now?