On Feb. 14, four days before Armenia's highly contested presidential election, Hasmik Evoyan and others protested the sheep deal in front of Armenia's National Assembly building in Yerevan.

Abu Dhabi-based firm Al-Dahra agreed to invest $ 400 million to buy eight Serbian farm companies and develop them to grow and process food and fodder for export, in the biggest investment in Serbian agriculture for decades.

BRICS states, except Russia, are enhancing and facilitating land grabs abroad in a way that is inconsistent with their proclamations of sustainable development, cooperation solidarity, and respect of national sovereignty.

In its 2012 Annual Report, Louis Dreyfus Commodities says it owns and operates a total of more than 180,000 hectares of farming land distributed around the world, and that it is looking into more farming opportunities in the Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Tanzania.

A consortium of Saudi groups - comprising dairy giant Almarai, grain importer Al Rajhi and Salic, the agriculture arm of the country's Public Investment Fund sovereign wealth fund – buys Continental Farmers Group, which has large farming operations in Poland and the Ukraine.

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.

Action Aid International Sierra Leone (AAISL) and its partners have successfully ended a four day strategic conference and campaign planning meeting on ‘Land-Grabbing’ in Freetown.

Bank's accountability panel says complaints by Ethiopians of forced evictions in Gambella should be looked into.

The land is a source of wealth for a few, whether it's here in the Spanish State or on the other side of the planet, writes Esther Vivas.

“Fair Fruit is grown by Cameroonian farmers who were forced off their land by a transnational company seeking to establish its vast plantations."

On 2 March, officials of Swiss company Addax Bioenergy went to install pegs on a large stretch of boli land without reference to the owners of the land and in contrast with the lease agreement which says the company shall only concentrate on the upland.

Rural land produced some of the best investment returns in Europe since the financial crisis began five years ago, appreciating by 51 percent across England

Land grabs in Canada have not been well-documented. Provinces do not keep inventory on large-scale land acquisitions. This blind eye approach has some people, particularly farmers, worried.

The Federal Government and Singapore's Olam, which has 6,000 hectares under cultivation of rice, announce collaboration towards managing the impact of an imminent rice crisis in Nigeria.

It alleges that the dealings of Karuturi Global, one of India’s largest flower growers, in the African nation do not smell as sweet as what it grows

People in Indonesia consider the food crisis as an excuse, deliberately created so that corporations could assert control over the necessary business which is central to most people’s lives.

With the coming of big industrial farms in Ethiopia, local people, villagers and pastoralists are being threatened, intimidated, forcibly displaced and herded into camps by the military, their homes destroyed.

There's been considerable disquiet over the presence of foreign buyers in the farmland market place, but the stats on the extent of foreign ownership and the emerging trends are far from clear.

Africa’s agriculture and food industries are attracting increasing interest from investors. This trend is largely fuelled by the fact that the continent has 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, with favourable weather conditions in many countries.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has initiated a position in Archer Daniels Midland when it is anticipated that companies like ADM and Bunge will seek out targeted acquisitions of global farmland in order to both expand and diversify operations

US-based Aslan Global Management, a leader in the "patient capital" movement, manages more than 12,000 hectares of farmland in Ukraine and Mozambique on long-term lease and just entered into a 99-year lease for 45,000 hectares in Tanzania.

“In the very short term land will became scarcest for Mozambicans because the government is attracting foreign investors arguing that we have huge unused land“, a spokesperson for UNAC told IPS. “What happens, in fact, when investors come, their appetite is centered on land already being used by locals.”

Thousands of Punjabi farmers have bought land in distant Georgia lured by cheap prices, angering some locals.

Today, more than a quarter of all the land in Liberia is leased or owned by logging, mining, or factory-style agriculture companies. Nothing is wrong with that — unless you happen to be one of the people who used to live on that land.

With 6 million hectares earmarked for agricultural commercialization, notably rubber plantations, millions of Burmese have been or stand to be dispossessed of land.

Communities have more hope than ever of seeing off companies trying to acquire their land, with support from media and NGOs.

Describing itself as a consultant and “master distributor” of products designed “to bring working capital to a variety of projects” – including upgrading farmland overseas and forestry –Intelligent Partnership published a 76 page report on the alternatives sector this week.

“We are not against land investments, but the land should not be given out to foreigners. Citizens should reserve the right to access it,” says Mr Bernard Baha of ActionAid in Tanzania.

‘Feed Indonesia, then feed the world’. Backed by this slogan Indonesia companies, and companies from South Korea, China and Singapore as well, are buying land in the Indonesian province of West Papua in order to grow crops.

Speakers to include reps from IFC, Phatisa, AAF, Ruchi Soya, Vita Rice, Swiss Re, ECOWAS, and the Government of Ghana.