In this excerpt from her book, ‘Will Africa Feed China?’, Deborah Brautigam discusses China-Cameroon agricultural development and investment.

As climate change, population growth and environmental damage shrink the amount of arable land on the planet, wealthier countries and corporations look to developing countries for land.

Conversation with Maria Antonelli about the main drivers and implications of land transactions around the world, with a particular focus both on the role of EU.

Can we minimize downsides and maximize benefits of transnational land investments?

In four years, Hassad Foods has accumulated 255,000 hectares of agricultural land with the aim of producing 165,000 tonnes of grain and 100,000 lambs annually.

Land rights activists have been expressing their fears and concerns about the malicious trend of selling or leasing large farmland to foreign multinational companies and governments.

The government has not presented satisfactory and truthful explanations about its actions, let alone credible defense of its role as agency and facilitator of the abominable practices of farmland grabbing.

The seizing of the poor farmers' land is destroying their only hope of survival on earth.

Le rêve d’Amadou Toumani Touré de « faire du Mali une puissance agricole » est-il en train de se réaliser??

Le Comité de la sécurité alimentaire (CSA) de l'Onu s'est contenté de "prendre note" d'un code de conduite sur les investissements fonciers à l'étranger, sans pour autant l'adopter, au grand dam d'ONG défendant les petits exploitants agricoles de pays en développement.

The UN Committee on Food Security has failed to endorse a code of conduct on foreign land investments, in a blow to efforts to draft international guidelines to regulate so-called "land grabs".

India and Mauritius have resumed discussions over a proposal to hand over the twin islands of Agalega to India for tourism development and possibly agriculture.

Du point de vue de GRAIN, ce rapport très attendu de la Banque mondiale est à la fois une déception et un échec.

Nationwide advertisements have been placed in newspapers today, calling for an end to foreign ownership of New Zealand farmland.

La polémique autour de l'accaparement de terres, en particulier en Afrique, est relancée par une étude de la Banque mondiale qui tarde à être publiée alors que le cours du blé repart à la hausse

Australia's opposition leader Tony Abbott said his Liberal-National coalition of center-right parties could revise the country's foreign investment laws if it wins power in the Aug. 21 general election.

New Zealand's state-owned farm company Landcorp dismisses as conspiracy theory the notion that its bid for the Crafar farms is political interference

The government of Brazil is studying the possibility of prohibiting the purchase of land by foreigners. A discussion with the journalist who broke the news, Mauro Zanatto.

South Korea's Hyundai Corporation is trying to purchase 10,000 ha of farmland in Brazil to grow soybeans for the Korean market

Unfortunately, the US Senate inquiry into Goldman Sach's alleged malfeasance is unlikely to question why the company in 2008 decided to acquire ten intensive poultry farms in China's Hunan and Fujian provinces for $300 million.

Selon le Parti pour l’indépendance et le travail, la nouvelle loi sénégalaise sur la privatisation des terres est une vaste opération de bradage des terres utiles du Sénégal au profit des agrobusiness, entamée avec la bénédiction des institutions de Bretton Woods.

Director General of UNIDO: says land acquisition through foreign investors must be carefully considered and strictly scrutinized.

"The Chinese want a secure food supply, and they're coming into New Zealand to do that, by the look of it," a local farm union official says

In a move to attract foreign investment, Cambodia has awarded big concessions to companies, mainly from China, Vietnam and South Korea, to run mines, power plants and farms, leading to a rise in forced evictions by state officials profiting on the sale and lease of farmland for use by foreign and local companies.

As many foreign and local investor are seeking to win a license to invest in the giant agriculture project in Papua, Indonesia, one unnamed South Korean investor has obtained a permit. Mitsubishi is also bidding. Binladin Group has been rejected.

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.

A delegation of 26 Egyptian agriculture companies led by Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza, is now inspecting land proposed by the Ethiopian government for Egyptian investment projects.

Vita Grain Group, which is backed by US $60 million of funding, owns more than 20 different strains of hybrid rice seeds. Vita Grain is looking for funding to expand its seed production beyond Africa to Asia, the US and South America. The company is also setting up a rice mill in Mauritius and is in talks with partners in Botswana, Madagascar and Mozambique to develop rice production units.

Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd is exploring opportunities in other African countries besides Liberia for its palm oil business expansion.

Civil society, including African farmers unions, need to educate local people that such land deals are not in their interests, however couched in 'win-win' terminology they appear to be.