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Reuters24 Aug 10African governments need to raise their level of accountability and ensure that they improve and protect their own food security through quid pro quo side-agreements negotiated when they lease or sell their arable land to foreign interests, says Keith Mullin of Thompson Reuters
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IPE Magazine01 Jul 10Report on the growing popularity of farmland investment in the developing world for European pension funds
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Agrimoney28 May 10Farmland, whose $5,000bn value equates to about 7-10% of the value of world equity markets, could be worth 15-25% of share values by 2020, Hardman & Co analysts say
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Agriprods18 Feb 10There is something amazingly patronising in the way Payne claims that Emergent has ‘adopted’ a Mozambican village of 3,000 people and hired its citizens to clear 2,000 acres of land to farm it with her firm.
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Sake24.com14 Feb 10There are some 17 private equity funds expecting to invest $2bn-odd in agriculture in Africa in the next two years.
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![Billions more mouths to feed: Funds investing in farmland]( "Billions more mouths to feed: Funds investing in farmland")
The Spectator13 Feb 10Listening to Susan Payne you could be forgiven for thinking land funds are a holy grail for the ethical investor: money-making opportunities with a sanctifying air of do-goodery.
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New York Times Magazine19 Nov 09There’s a whole school of economic thought that says that Collier is wrong, that big is not necessarily better in agriculture — and that the land deals therefore might be unwise not because they’re wrong but because they’re unprofitable.
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Spore31 Aug 09"Liquidam as terras africanas. Constrangem milhares de pequenos produtores à miséria. Isto é intolerável. A terra deve continuar a ser um património da comunidade em África", afirma o presidente do comité executivo da Rede das Organizações Camponesas e Produtores Agrícolas da África Ocidental (ROPPA), Ndiogou Fall
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Spore31 Aug 09"They are selling off African land for a song," said Ndiogou Fall, president of the executive committee for the Network of Peasant Organizations and Producers in West Africa (ROPPA), which is calling for dialogue between governments, producers and African and foreign investors.
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Spore31 Aug 09"On brade les terres africaines. On contraint des milliers de petits producteurs à la misère. Cela est insupportable. La terre doit rester un patrimoine de la communauté en Afrique", affirme ainsi le président du Comité exécutif du Réseau des organisations paysannes et des producteurs agricoles de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ROPPA), Ndiogou Fall.
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BBC05 Aug 09For investors like Susan Payne, the chief executive of Emergent Asset Management, farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is a hot bet.
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Der Spiegel30 Jul 09Because of the political sensitivity of the modern-day land grab, it is often only the country's head of state who knows the details. Der Spiegel investigates.
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Reuters02 Jul 09The emergence of the farmland asset class is not without pitfalls with the provision of food always highly political and a tentative global economic recovery potentially threatened by the H1N1 flu pandemic, fund managers said.
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Soyatech11 May 09Aimed at public and private market investors, this conference will explore opportunities for global investments in agricultural lands, commodities and infrastructure in North and South America, Australia, China, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
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![‘Agrologistics’ at home and abroad]( "‘Agrologistics’ at home and abroad")
Ghana News03 May 09Private equity used to stay away from anything to do with agriculture, put off by the uncontrollable risks of bad climate and natural disasters. And yet in the last three years some big funds have been launched in the agribusiness space, and they are busy trying different ways of mitigating the risks.
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Reuters07 Oct 08Soaring food prices, supply fears among import-dependent countries and rising demand for biofuels have driven up investment in agricultural land, notably in Africa.
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Farms.com15 Sep 08As with timberland, while direct ownership and management (i.e., being a farmer), is a possibility, such a route is similarly fraught with difficulties. One of the most significant of these is the issue of diversification in the farmland itself - especially with a single investment. A well-diversified holding of farmland (row crop, permanent crop, pasture and even timber) will, therefore, not only require a significant investment, but may also involve land holdings in a number of different locations.
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![Buy into Africa]( "Buy into Africa")
Investor Chronicle15 Aug 08Cru, a small specialist fund management firm, recently launched a Malawi-based fund called Africa Invest. The fund has made an initial investment of £2m in 2,000 hectares of land that’s producing paprika for western supermarkets. With land prices starting at £800 per hectare (compared to £10,000 in the UK) it’s relatively easy to amass large farms that can be upgraded with new technology, mechanisation and better production methods. According to Cru, annual returns on capital should exceed 30 to 40 per cent.
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![Food Is Gold, So Billions Invested in Farming]( "Food Is Gold, So Billions Invested in Farming")
New York Times05 Jun 08Huge investment funds have already poured hundreds of billions of dollars into booming financial markets for commodities like wheat, corn and soybeans. But a few big private investors are starting to make bolder and longer-term bets that the world’s need for food will greatly increase — by buying farmland, fertilizer, grain elevators and shipping equipment.
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![Hedge funds muck in down on the farm]( "Hedge funds muck in down on the farm")
Financial Times25 Apr 08Hedge funds and investment banks are swapping their Gucci for gumboots as they bet on rising food prices by buying farms.