In this month's Global development podcast, the Guardian looks at land grabs, explores why they are happening, considers their implications and examines what – if anything – can be done to ensure large-scale agricultural investments are used for local development.

Presentations from the Briefing on “Land access, land acquisitions and rural development: New challenges, new opportunities".

The terms of farmland deals are hardly made public. Although a theoretical possibility exists in a few cases for some transfer of technology for agricultural development, risk also exists to peasant farmers who cannot compete with well-resourced commercial farms. Take, for instance, the case of barley and oilseeds producers in Ethiopia.

Answers from the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation to questions from member Futselaar (SP) about the withdrawal by the Dutch development bank FMO of Plantations et Huileries du Congo.

A mediation process is unlikely to address long-lasting tensions and tenure issues that arise when ‘development’ projects on public lands take over large tracts of ancestral land

The World Bank’s private sector arm approved a US$200M loan to agribusiness giant Louis Dreyfus Company under the guise of “sustainable development.

Uganda still grapples with mass forced evictions being aided by international development financiers that are hosted and protected by big nations.

For farmers in Asia as elsewhere, land ownership and effective control is the key to any radical transformation of the food systems and for attempts to achieve genuine sustainable development to really matter.

Serbia has neither clear rules of the game nor a development strategy for the agricultural sector, which is why the government confuses itself with Gulf State investors in secret meetings and makes real deals under the grain.

The African Development Bank and the FAO form a new strategic alliance that involves joint advocacy and policy advice activities to promote the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems.

The project leaders of Wanbao Africa Agriculture Development Limited seemed to have an emerging-market hubris every bit as blinding as that of their colonial predecessors.

The report titled, Unmasking land grabbing in Ghana: restoring livelihoods; paving way for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), narrates how land grabbing is affecting rural livelihoods and threatening food security the country in the long run.

Despite claims that a massive agricultural development deal in Mozambique will benefit the country’s citizens, there are indications that the project is designed to benefit a select few and could leave 100,000 Mozambicans displaced, write Khadija Sharife, Luis Nhachote

KfW, the German Development Bank on behalf of the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, along with AgDevCo and Root Capital, announces the launch of the Lending for African Farming Company (LAFCo)

Several prominent development finance institutions are funding Feronia, a Canadian agribusiness company accused of land grabbing and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Oil palm development should never have been initiated in Palawan, the last ecological frontier of the Philippines

Under an agreement between the Volta Regional Coordinating Council and China's Ningxia Province, the Ningxia Agricultural Development Group will begin investing in 100 hectares acquired at the irrigation site.

Agriculture is central to Chinese and Brazilian development efforts – how trailblazing are their methods?

African Development Bank (AfDB) country director, Freddie Kwesiga, said the co-operating partners look forward to specific interventions to ensure improved land tenure and equitable access to land by partnerships of small, medium and large-scale investors.

Amidst intensified conflicts stemming from the presence of the Socfin Agricultural Company in the Chiefdom, the event aimed to address longstanding grievances and foster a path toward peace and development.

Beginning with an initial farm development in Senegal, African Agriculture, a United States-based Africa-focused company, has embarked on a journey to deliver protein to the world.

Open letter to the heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

The Japan International Cooperation Agency says the project will advance sustainable agricultural development in the northeastern region of Mato Grosso State and bring benefits to Japanese and global food security

Research shows that the plantation model of development has failed to deliver promised benefits to Liberia’s rural people and that they benefit far more from retaining their traditional lands.

The president of the African Development Bank says that this year it will launch the Africa Investment Forum as a transactional platform to leverage global pension funds and other institutional investors to invest in African agriculture

Reports about land-grabs in Africa often attack the corporations that stand to profit from such projects. But little is said of the international development banks that fund the projects.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization is helping to build staple crop processing zones Nigeria, which 'can become a model for leveraging technical assistance and investments with development banks'.

500,000 people in northern Mozambique will be severely affected if the country's Council of Ministers approves the Lúrio River Valley Development Project (DVRL).

Ethiopian Sugar Corp. is tapping loans from Development Bank of China to build six sugar-processing factories and plant 150,000 hectares of sugar cane in the region bordering Kenya. This may exacerbate conflict in the ethnically diverse region.

The approach taken by Ethiopia and India to reaching development goals and fulfilling environmental promises by leasing or buying large tracts of fertile land affects land, water and indigenous people.