Afrifresh manages 14 farms across South Africa, with over 3,000 hectares under irrigation, in addition to its export agency business.

Corporations and bankers do not believe in farming as a way of life; they believe in farming as a very profitable business that they control. Their goal is not to improve family farming in Africa, but to eradicate it.

African governments need to raise their level of accountability and ensure that they improve and protect their own food security through quid pro quo side-agreements negotiated when they lease or sell their arable land to foreign interests, says Keith Mullin of Thompson Reuters

Unless these organizations are firmly held accountable to international human rights standards, they will not only fail to push their industries towards more responsible behavior, but they will become little more than window dressing for corporate misconduct.

A lucrative agro-industrial crop like palm oil, in a context of entrenched corruption and an authoritarian regime, lends itself to land grabbing and agrarian violence.

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

This week's episode of Reveal looks at how Arizona pension managers fueled a crisis by investing in an agribusiness deal that depleted local water supplies.

African Africulture Inc takes control of 20,000 ha previously granted to Senhuile in Senegal plus 2.2 million hectares in Niger

Already in conflict with local communities over land grabbing, Plantation et Huilerie du Congo (PHC) has just acquired new concessions to expand its palm oil plantations in Boteka. This deprived local communities of nearly 2,500 hectares of arable land.

In spite of its lofty ideals, FPIC (free and priori informed consent) has one failing — it has no legal backing.

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.

Investors are thinking big when it comes to farmland purchases, reports Andrew Shirley in Knight Frank's Wealth Report 2011

Al Dahra Group is interested in 180,000 acres. Selu Ltd, another private party has eyes on 20,000. Currently, NIA has 10,000 acres under irrigation with plans to add another 10,000 in the medium term.

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 Kenya, a row is brewing between local leaders, members of the community, and Siaya county government following a notice to allocate land within Yala Swamp to a new investor, Lake Agro Limited.

Residents of Yala swamp, in Kenya, have begun the process of registering the land to ward off cartels seeking to benefit from the process after the departure of Dominion Farms

Despite objections by numerous community organisations and representatives, Siaya Kenya's National Land Commission will provide Lake Agro Ltd 17,250 acres of land at the Yala Swamp for agricultural use in a 66 years lease agreement.

US company Dominion Group could be preparing to leave Kenya after 15 years of running a multi-billion farming project at Yala in Siaya County as its CEO Calvin Burges has written letters to employees telling them of plans to close down the business.

A consortium hoping to buy dozens of south-west dairy farms aims to operate “on a scale not considered in Australia before,” a spokesman for the consortium says.

In a fresh push to have the lands reverted to local communities, Henry Belsoi, a resident of Chesoen in Bomet Central said the leases held by Unilever and other multinational tea companies should have ended after the declaration of independence in 1963.

The continued invasion of tea estates has reignited discussions on historical land injustices, with some local leaders attributing the unrest to unresolved grievances over land ownership.

The Jah Agric Farm in Bayaba, Gambia, initiated by Jah Oil Company, is to farm rice, potato, and onion imports on 1,200 hectares, with plans to expand to 15,000 hectares nationwide.

The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) has approved the sale of more than 100 hectares of Karuturi Flower Farm in Naivasha by Shalimar Flowers.

Seven years after the farm was placed under receivership due to debts owed to Kenya Revenue Authority and a local bank, the final nail has been hammered on its coffin. Workers now worry for the Sh300 million they are owed in salary arrears, union dues and savings.

A delegation from the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) expressed interest in Zimbabwe’s agricultural potential and acknowledged the country’s strategic importance in the region.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission wants the Murang’a County Assembly to block any plans to renew the land leases held by Kakuzi until claims on historical land injustices are resolved.

Two directors of the bankrupt Karuturi flower farm have moved to court accusing the company’s creditors and receivers of destroying a property they had been using as a wildlife and bird-watching lodge for "high value" visitors

Daybreak Cropping, a partnership between Warakirri Asset Management and the Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board, paid $97 million for the 22,000 ha broadacre farm.

The fate of the Multi-billion shilling Yala swamp Dominion Farms project in Siaya hangs in the balance following a fallout between an America investor and Nyanza politicians.

A conference organised by the East Africa Legislative Assembly and the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation has chided East African governments for leasing land to foreigners without the explicit consent of existing users