Many see the voluntary guidelines as an important opportunity to address wider issues of land inequality, historical dispossession and agrarian change, rather than simply as a route to “responsible investment”

Royal FrieslandCampina NV, a Dutch dairy company, is seeking to buy a 51 percent stake in Engro Foods Ltd. of Pakistan, the country's second-biggest listed dairy firm and owner of one of the country's largest dairy farms.

Cargill Inc said on Monday that it will spin off Black River Asset Management LLC and split the hedge fund arm into three separate employee-owned firms. The subsidiary owns farms in Colombia, covering over 120,000 acres.

Chinese investors increasingly explore a new natural-resource boom in Australia: agriculture, pouring in 632 million Australian dollars ($450 million), almost twice as much as the year before.

"There will be concerns about agriculture investment unless land ownership is opened to foreign investors,' says the OECD's Jan Rielander.

Belgian NGOs organised a protest on the occasion of the World Bank’s annual conference on land and poverty which is taking place in Washington, DC this week.

KPMG says food and farming is one of the "hot sectors" for Chinese overseas investment in 2015.

New Zealand-based Fonterra, the world's biggest dairy exporter, said that it and Abbott would invest a combined $300m in setting up a so-called "farm hub" in China, to produce "high quality dairy".

Investment plans include a new dairy farm of 5,000 cows and eventually another farm of 20,000 cows that will be the biggest in Egypt.

UK-based company uses the idea of helping African communities, together with deception around yields and profits, to lure investors–including retired individuals–into handing over their life savings.

The European Union (EU) has provided Tanzania a grant of 59.5 million euros for improved agri-business and trade facilitation that will support the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania.

RAI Novosti reports that the heads of the Razgulay Group, Russia's largest farmland holder, have been arrested for fraud.

Olam international has concluded a $211 million sale for its vast Victorian almond orchards on the Murray River at Mildura and Robinvale as part of a minimum 18-year lease-back deal.

"For instance, SAGCOT targets to help 100,000 farmers in all regions it operates. Nothing is said about 38 million farmers in Tanzania!" says the head of the Network of Farmers’ Groups in Tanzania (Mviwata)

The briefing suggests a series of questions for asset owners to pose when considering a land investment either directly or via a shareholding to enable them to make an informed risk assessment.

The leading sugar miller in Mauritius, Omnicane, has a 25 per cent share in the company and recently said there were plans of raising the stake to 50 per cent when the factory is commissioned.

Wilmar has flagged the purchase of another 778 hectares of land in the Burdekin region south of Townsville, Australia as part of its campaign to lock up as much supply as possible.

It is understood the agricultural division of the $163 billion Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has been sniffing around Australian agricultural land recently and has had discussions in Australia with landholders such as PrimeAg.

For years, Romania has been a playground for foreign investors. Drawn by the vast amounts of available land, along with prices lower than in the rest of Europe, more than 700 000 hectares of land are now owned by foreign investors.

The UAE is eying lands overseas in order to provide ongoing food supply to face the increase in the country’s population as the UAE imports steadily soared in the past few years, Ministry of Economy official said.

Concerns about land grabbing stem from a desire to hold the government accountable when the drive to make Thailand the Kitchen of the World ends up destroying ecological systems, small farmers' livelihoods, and our food security.

The UN has proposed that countries set limits on the size of agriculture land sales to regulate the growing trend of so-called farmland grabs.

Conference organised by the Greens / EFA in the European Parliament

German-based Ekosem-Agrar unveiled a E50m bond issue to raise funds for doubling its Russian milking herd, and expanding its 160,000-hectare landbank, extending the wave of investment heading into the country's dairy market.

The extent of the surge in UK farmland prices has driven foreign buyers and pension funds to the sidelines, leaving farmers to pay prices more than double those three years ago, property consultancy Savills said.

Standard Chartered Bank’s Private Equity division has invested $74 million to acquire a minority stake in ETC Group Mauritius, one of the largest owners of African farmland.

In the past few months, GRAIN staff have been participating in a range of meetings and workshops in different parts of the world on land grabbing. Here are some of the documents we prepared for these meetings.

Film traces the story of the current mad race for control of farmlands, and the consequences it could have if nothing is done to protect the interests of small farmers and developing countries.

If a similar case arises when land invasions happened during the time that a bilateral investment agreement has been signed, then the outcome in South Africa might be quite different, says South African lawyer

The Australian Parliament has moved to quell some of the anxieties surrounding a perceived foreign buy-up of local land, last week passing a motion regarding foreign ownership of agricultural land and agribusiness.