Angola

For investors like Susan Payne, the chief executive of Emergent Asset Management, farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is a hot bet.

Corporate pitch from Uruguay-based private equity firm Allied Venture for Indian investors to go into outsourced agriculture in Latin America

Le gouvernement du Cap-Vert a créé une société anonyme à capitaux publics en vue d’exploiter et gérer des terres agricoles mises à sa disposition par les autorités angolaises dans le cadre de la coopération entre les deux pays

Yes Bank expects a $150 million Tanzanian rice and wheat project to reach full production by 2011, the first of several large African farms it is funding. "We are looking at a more inclusive model wherein the local farmers can be organised into a producers company, and they would be the suppliers to the processing facility. It's predominantly not to acquire huge tracts of land."

Most Chinese investment in African agriculture is concentrated in southern Africa: Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi and, increasingly, Angola.

The Angolan government plans to invest $1 billion in 2009 in the farming sector and welcome in U.S. Chiquita Brands International Inc to its banana industry. Other foreign companies and countries, including China have also said they plan to invest millions of dollars in the war-shattered nation’s coffee, sugar, cassava and palm oil industries.

Lonrho, the pan-African conglomerate listed in London, has secured leasehold rights to 25,000 hectares of rice paddies in Angola and is negotiating two bigger land deals in Mali and Malawi, in another sign of investor appetite for African land.

Lonrho Agriculture will develop 25,000 hectares of agricultural projects in the Provinces of Uige, Zaire and Bengo in Angola.

La chute du cours des céréales sur les marchés mondiaux n'a pas stoppé la course aux terres agricoles par les pays qui en manquent.

The initial welcome given to rich countries’ investment in African farmland by agricultural and development officials has faded as the first ventures prove to be heavily weighted in favour of the investors. The FAO warned of such a trend when it said this year that the race to secure farmland overseas risked creating a “neo-colonial” system.

Soaring food prices, supply fears among import-dependent countries and rising demand for biofuels have driven up investment in agricultural land, notably in Africa.

Angola, one of the world's fastest-growing economies, has launched an ambitious plan to exploit both its fertile soils and high global food prices to attract $6bn (€4.3bn, £3.4bn) in agriculture investments over the next five years.