Myanmar government has been allocating land for large-scale private agricultural businesses in the country’s biodiversity-rich forests at an alarming rate. Between 2010 and 2013, the area of land marked for commercial agriculture has increased from nearly 2 million acres to 5.2 million acres.
Investment in agricultural production and trade often harms the rights of local and indigenous peoples while failing to contribute significantly to economic development, according to a new report from the Rights and Resources Institute.
Singapore-based Golden Agri-Resources, which has oil palm plantations covering 250,000 ha in Indonesia, wants to expand in Kalimantan. Rights groups accuse the company of taking land from local people without free and informed consent.
Ethiopian Sugar Corp. is tapping loans from Development Bank of China to build six sugar-processing factories and plant 150,000 hectares of sugar cane in the region bordering Kenya. This may exacerbate conflict in the ethnically diverse region.
Canada's National Farmers Union (NFU) has released an update to its 2010 report, "Losing Our Grip", about growing corporate control of farmland and the acceleration of debt among farmers.
The Kwegu, the smallest and most vulnerable tribe in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley, is starving as a result of the massive Gibe III dam and associated large-scale irrigation for commercial plantations on tribal land.
More than 200 representatives from remote northeastern Cambodian province refused to accept gifts from land concession company in exchange for clearing their communal land for a rubber tree plantation.
Interest in Vietnam's farmland is growing due to suitable soil and climate conditions, convenient location relative to markets like China and increasing demand for high-tech agricultural products.
An updated report from Canada's National Farmers Union on the threat posed to family farms and food sovereignty by the corporate buy-up of farmland, rising farm debt and agribusiness financing of inputs.
Fourteen companies have been put on a watchlist by Cambodia's Ministry of Environment for failing to live up to their investment promises. The ministry also said it had reduced the firms' land concessions by 14,000 hectares.
A group of Namibian youth activists have condemned their government’s intention to approve the lease of 10,000 hectares of fertile land to a Chinese company to grow tobacco for export.
As the world reaches the limits of available farmland and water for irrigation, countries are turning to international markets to meet domestic food demand. New analysis explores trends and consequences in the international food market.