UK

Last week, bids closed for an 83% stake in Fonterra's biggest supplier, Dairy Holdings, which oversees 72 South Island farms. Bidders reportedly include Chinese dairy giant Bright Dairy, a pastoral fund owned by Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, British private equity firm Terra Firma. US private equity firm Carlyle Group and the Harvard Endowment Fund.

The Zambia Development Agency has short-listed 10 local and foreign companies (such as Chayton Capital or Pro Alia Investment) which expressed interest in the development of Nansanga farm block (155 000 ha) in Serenje.

Increasing industrial production of oil palm in sub-Saharan African countries, carried out by foreign corporations, is destroying the livelihoods of thousands of Africans and the biodiversity of ecosystems.

The 4th annual Agriculture Investment Summit is the leading conference where end investors come together to debate investing in agriculture as an asset class.

Convention stratégique (Strategic agreement) entre la société West Africa Farms (WAF) et la Communauté rurale de Ngnith au Sénégal

Four months before South Sudan becomes an independant nation nine percent of the country has been targeted by investors, a Norwegian People's Aid report reveals.

Farm Lands of Guinea Limited controls nearly a quarter of a million acres of underutilized West African agricultural holdings under an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture of Guinea.

Private investment in Africa's agriculture is rising. says Neil Crowder of British firm Chayton Africa, which recently acquired a farm in Zambia.

Papers for the LDPI conference on global land grab (University of Sussex, UK, 6-8 April 2011) are being posted online at the Future Agricultures website

Au Mali, le Parti pour la Renaissance Nationale a rendu public un mémorandum relatif à la politique gouvernementale de cession des terres agricoles dans la zone Office du Niger.

"The more state regulates and bans things, the more difficult it is to do business"

As a relatively new and untapped asset class, farmland remains mysterious to some insitutional investors. Greg Bright spoke to Charmion McBride, chief operating officer, global farmland, at Insight Investment in the UK.