Gallery

Agriterra's operations in Mozambique.

Un agricultor cosecha hojas de tabaco en una granja de Zimbabue. Photo Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters)

Venture capitalists, merchant bankers and large conglomerates are all piling in.

Protests in Madagascar in 2009.

Workers at an 11,000ha farm in Bako, Ethiopia, run by the Indian company Karuturi. The company also runs a 300,000ha farm in the Gambella as part of Ethiopian government effort to promote large-scale agriculture Photograph: Xan Rice/Guardian

Banana and plantain market at Ikire, Osun State of Nigeria (Photo: IITA)

Clearing land at the Montana Continental farm in Ruvuma Region, Tanzania

Stop MIFEE mobilisation

China, now a net corn importer, may have bought as much as 3.5 million metric tons in the first half of the year and may import up to 20 million a year by 2015.

“Whatever Chinese consume more of, need more supply of from outside, this is our area,” Cofco charmain Frank Ning said, whether that means engaging in farming, logistics, processing or trading ventures in supplier countries.

Most countries will find it a rather “sensitive matter” to either sell or give long-term leases for food production areas to other foreign entities, Kroeber said. Still, cash-rich Cofco can offer “very attractive terms,” he said.

Mathieu Pedriault