A recent jump in rich country land purchases in the developing world has caught the attention of analysts in trade and human rights circles.

2017 went down as one of the deadliest years ever for land defenders. It was also a pretty bad year for several land grabbers.

Chinese investment in Africa is expanding beyond a race to secure minerals and energy sources to put an increasing focus on agriculture, the chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank said on Wednesday.

Karuturi Global Ltd, the Indian multinational that made its name in the global cut flower industry and recently acquired more than 300,000 ha in Ethiopia to produce food, is continuing its painful and massive decline.

COFCO, Hopu Investment, Temasek, IFC and Standard and Chartered announce that the transaction to acquire Noble Agri through a holding company has gone through.

Almost 70% of all concluded and planned Saudi investments in offshore agriculture are in Africa, according to a new report from Standard Bank

Claims of Chinese "land grabs" in Africa, to grow food for importing, have been overstated – for now - although "this could be a longer term motivation", Standard Chartered said.

Standard Bank Plc has affirmed its commitment to finance agriculture in Africa over a long term because Africa has vast stretch of arable lands. Additionally, the bank intends to improve food security and eliminate hunger in the world.

A South African farmers group said on Friday it had received fresh offers from African states, including Sudan and Mozambique, to invest in agriculture to grow export crops and some of the deals will be concluded soon.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries must invest in foreign arable land to boost its food supply and increase food security in the region in the long term, Standard Chartered economists said on Tuesday.

The co-founder of Microsoft and his wife rank as the largest private farmland owners in the US, with over 242,000 acres across the country.

African agriculture has a big investment problem: lots of private equity interest but few opportunities because most farms and companies are too small to absorb the cash or provide attractive returns.

The ministerial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation met in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, last week, attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and representatives of more than 300 Chinese companies.

Besides energy and minerals, which make up the lion's share of African exports to the BRICs countries, there is growing interest in its arable land - less than 25 percent of which is cultivated - as a source of food for export.

A handful of wealthy countries are responsible for most international farmland acquisitions - what some critics term "land grabs" - in a trend that is redrawing the global map of land ownership.

South African farmers moving to neighbouring African states are not putting SA’s food security under threat, says Willie du Plessis, a director of agricultural banking at Standard Bank.

‘In order to feed a growing population with an increasing standard of living, the price of water and food must continue to rise."

Standard Chartered Bank's Africa private equity arm and a unit of Reliance Capital are in talks to invest in Dubai-based Karuturi Overseas.

A six-month investigation by Gideon Sarpong, Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi and Audrey Travère has uncovered the extent to which the relentless exploitation of rubber and palm oil resources by Socfin is fueling deforestation and displacement of indigenous populations in Nigeria and Ghana.

Compagnie Fruitier in Ghana hopes that issues of land allocation to local farmers would be expedited to avoid the problem of encroachment on lands already allocated.

The Development Bank of Japan is the first in Japan to agree to invest in a food-focused private equity fund by backing a fund managed by Proterra Investment Advisors (Proterra Asia).

New investigation by Global Witness uncovers more than 300 banks and investors back six of the world’s most harmful agribusinesses to the tune of $44bn.

Global Witness exposes how more than 300 banks and investors back six of the world’s most harmful agribusinesses to the tune of $44bn

Federal Government of Nigeria has opened negotiation with Peoples Republic of China over $4.5 billion loan to facilitate the production of agricultural machineries for large scale farming in selected states across the country.

The World Bank’s board has granted a massive agribusiness project in East Africa a waiver that exempts it from following the bank’s Indigenous Peoples Policy—sparking fears that the development lender is making an end run to resurrect a policy that it abandoned in public.

The Middle Eastern kingdom needs hay for its 170,000 cows. So, it's buying up farmland for the water-chugging crop in the drought-stricken American Southwest.

Dairy investors John Penno and Juliet Maclean are selling out of Chinese-controlled Purata Farms, the Canterbury corporate they founded 15 years ago as Synlait Farms.

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.

In Uganda it is the top leadership that initiates the land grabs for global land thieves. Whole communities are being displaced and scattered.

Bloomberg's Alan Katz reports on Morgan Stanley's farming venture on the steppes of Ukraine which it abandoned in July 2009. The failed gamble demonstrates how Wall Street firms, in the last gasp of a debt-fueled bull market, strayed further from their traditional businesses to embrace diverse projects with unfamiliar risks.