China

A Chinese company's controversial bid to buy 16 New Zealand dairy farms has stalled again after a mystery backer agreed to finance another legal appeal against the purchase.

When a Chinese investor bought a farm outside this village a few years back, he was pleased enough to name it Golden Land. The soil was rich, the sunshine and rain bountiful. The land, deep in rural Russia, was also largely devoid of people. No more.

China’s growing agribusinesses and demand for soybeans and meat is bringing intensive farming and the risk of further deforestation in Brazil and beyond. Tom Levitt reports.

The approved sale of sprawling Australian cotton farm Cubbie Station to Chinese interests has sparked a political row as Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce insists foreign ownership is not in the national interest.

Australia approved a Chinese company's bid for giant (100,000 ha) cotton farm, including entitlements to a massive 537,000 mega litres of water, or enough to fill Sydney Harbour.

Study finds reports of 86 Chinese agriculture projects covering 9 million ha of land in developing countries and confirms the existence of 55 projects covering 4.9 million ha.

Authorities in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza said that a group of Chinese businessmen are investing US$250 million in an agricultural project covering 20,000 hectares in the Limpopo Valley.

Politicians and economists say that the Australian public is only worked up about foreign ownership of agricultural land because the community is misinformed. This drives the belief that a register of foreign land holdings will calm everyone's anxiety. Given that Queensland has had such a register for 20 years, and that disquiet about foreign ownership still resonates among Queenslanders, this means that something else is at play.

Leading Australian economists, commentators and even political enemies have joined the federal Minister for Trade and Investment Craig Emerson in condemning Opposition plans to tighten control over foreign investment.

Jessica Mutch spoke to Fred Pearce in London about the Crafar farm buy-up by a Chinese company and whether New Zealand should be nervous about land grabbing.

Australia's conservative opposition on Friday earmarked tighter scrutiny of foreign investment in agriculture as a priority if the party is elected to government next year, as recent polls suggest.

A Chinese property conglomerate is bidding for a 15,000 hectare farming project in the Australian outback as Canberra looks to open the remote north for farming to tap booming demand for food from Asia, especially China.