According to asset managers, a window is emerging for institutional money to flow into agriculture due to change of ownership, notably in markets such as Australia and the US.

La crise diplomatique actuelle dans le Golfe va-t-elle redonner du poids stratégique à la question agricole aux yeux des dirigeants qataris ? Interview de Sébastien Abis

Draft report on Australia agriculture regulation calls for the sale of any farmland or agribusiness worth less than $250 million to foreign interests to be exempt from any review process.

Some liken farmland investment to real estate and infrastructure 20 years ago.

Au Maroc, la coopération entre le Doha et Rabat ne porte visiblement pas sur l'achat de terre, du mois pour l'instant.

Investment bank Macquarie Group is buying two farms in Australia's "wheatbelt" bringing its total holdings in Western Australia to 45,000 ha.

Face aux difficultés enregistrées en Afrique, les pays du Golfe réorientent leur stratégie d’investissement agricole vers des territoires moins risqués, notamment les États-Unis et l'Europe de l'Est.

The desert states of the Gulf are changing tack in their multi-billion dollar search for food security.

D'ici à 2030, le petit émirat souhaite ne plus dépendre des autres Etats pour nourrir sa population. Réaliste ou utopique?

Wealthy Gulf Arab companies are boosting their investment in Africa's vast lands and untapped resources, marking a shift for investors who have traditionally directed their money towards assets in the United States and Europe.

“When things are mortgaged up to the hilt and the banks are involved then it’s either bank ownership or foreign ownership,” says South Australian sheep farmer Brian Wilson

Que la agricultura industrial está detrás del uso intensivo del agua es una realidad no suficientemente conocida ni denunciada, sobretodo cuando sabemos que usa más agua de ríos, lagos y acuíferos que la que reponen las lluvias o las nieves.

Mawashi, Qatar’s livestock company, plans to invest in industrial agriculture and food sources outside Qatar to serve the vision and objectives of the Qatar National Food Security Programme, it was announced yesterday.

La Declaración de la Conferencia Especial para la Soberanía Alimentaria realizada en Buenos Aires cuestiona la posición adoptada por la FAO en relación al acaparamiento de tierras en América Latina.

The Australian Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce is pushing for even tougher restrictions on foreign ownership of farmland and agribusinesses than those advocated by his party, fuelling Liberal anger at Tony Abbott's failure to rein in National Party ''freelancing'' on sensitive economic issues.

Qatar has been investing in large areas of farmland overseas to ensure access to food supplies, but it also aims to produce most of its food domestically by spending massively to boost crop yields and convert semi-desert into agricultural land.

Saudi Arabia's largest dairy company said Wednesday it is buying Argentine farm operator Fondomonte S.A. for $83 million to secure access to a supply of animal feed.

Foreign investors have spent a record $12 billion buying up Australian farmland and agricultural businesses over the past year, but have put off investing a further $14 billion until the outcome of a Senate inquiry in March 2012, a new report by Ferrier Hodgson says.

Farmers have urged the state government to establish a register that would list Victorian farms that have been bought by foreign owners. The call comes as concerns grow over the level of foreign ownership of Australian farms and over the control of productive food resources.

Under the National Food Security Program, Qatari companies would produce five basic food items -- white and red meat, rice, sugar and grains (including wheat) -- in countries like Sudan, India, Australia, Argentina, Turkey and Brazil, among others.

Chinese and other eastern investors are looking to buy agriculture land and agribusiness across the globe, and Ukraine is increasingly on their radar.

Report says that GCC investment in farmland in Africa and Latin America will continue to grow.

Countries in north Africa and the Middle East are urgently seeking ways to soften the blow of surging food prices for their citizens, alarmed by protests against authoritarian rulers from Algeria to Yemen.

The shift of power in Australia’s Federal Parliament, which is now largely in the hands of a few independents representing rural and regional constituencies, combined with the increasingly vocal calls for scrutiny of foreign investment has sent signals of a more protectionist stance for Australian agriculture.

Qatar gives special attention to investments in Sudan in agricultural fields and livestock.

Qatar está en conversaciones preliminares con los gobiernos de Argentina y Ucrania para comprar tierras agrícolas destinadas a la producción de cereales.

The urgency among Gulf states to pursue farmland acquisitions has diminished as food prices have gone down and controversy has gone up. Still, Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with its plans.

Both private and public sector investors from countries such as Qatar, Libya, Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the Arab world as well as China and Korea elsewhere now hold long term rights to a total of two million feddans of arable land in Sudan, according to figures from the country’s agriculture ministry.

"Already we have received a lot of interest from the UAE to invest in Ukraine's agriculture sector, and we are offering all kinds of projects such as leasing of 100,000 hectares of land to the creation of animal farms with 3000 cows," Ukraine's agriculture minister said.

Agricultural experts have called for a halt to moves by Gulf investors to snap up foreign land, amid claims that poor nations are losing much-needed farmland in a calculated land grab.