The “blood sugar” plantations in Cambodia have been accused of violently evicting villagers in order to raze farmland and build their plantations. Representatives from Coca-Cola and Pepsi said they are not aware of sugar in their supply chain supplied by rights violators.

Investors and hedge funders paying next to nothing for vast tracts of land in some African countries is a worrying trend and puts into context the Zimbabwe land policy and reform.

Eight Eastern Africa governments under their umbrella organization IGAD have been urged to ensure tenure security for customary land rights because it is an essential element for sustainable development.

South Africa’s proposed laws to restrict foreigners from owning land will apply to farms and exclude residential property, Rural Development and Land Affairs Minister Gugile Nkwinti said.

Company says it will invest part of the new $275 million into its cow farms, raising its current herd of 30,000 cows to 200,000. Another part will be used to pay debts and for its palm oil projects.

A land grab twice the size of France is under way in Ethiopia, as the government pursues the seizure of indigenous lands to turn them over to dams and plantations.

On February 11, Chai Bunthonglek, a land rights activist from Klong Sai Pattana village and member of the Southern Peasant Federation of Thailand was gunned down. Four locals have been slain in similar attacks since 2010.

The tighter restrictions don't apply to buyers from the US, New Zealand or Chile because of their existing free trade agreements with Australia.

Two Southeast Asian countries, Myanmar and Cambodia, have declared to participate in the global rice business through foreign investors from Middle East, China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand.

"A lot of money is going into (land) speculation; this has worsened the situation," says Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

An inter-ministerial fact-finding committee from Yaounde has inspected the palm nurseries and other investment sites of the Sithe Global Sustainable Oils Cameroon Limited (SC-SOC) located in the South West Region of Cameroon.

The foreign ownership debate in Australia needs to evolve to – or be merged with – a broader debate about the future of the agricultural sector.