The sharpest tensions in the countryside hinge on alleged land grabs, in which the government and private developers are forcing farmers to leave their property for little or no compensation.
Savills international farmland market report for 2012
Over the last two months, the price of corn has been climbing. On July 19th, it exceeded $8 per bushel for the first time, taking the world into a new food price terrain. With heat and drought still smothering the Corn Belt, we may well see more all-time highs in coming weeks as the extent of crop damage becomes clearer.
Joe Azelby, JP Morgan’s head of Global Real Assets, is seeing a structural shift in many institutional portfolios toward real assets, including farmland.
Ethiopia has provided more than 71,000 hectares to 12 Ethiopian and international investors in the previous financial year according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
BFS has a land bank of 220,000 hectares under a Protocol d’Accord from the government of the Republic of Guinea
Thailand's Department of Special Investigation chief Tarit Pengdith said his department had not found any instances of foreigners owning farms or growing rice via nominees. Farming is forbidden to foreigners under the Foreign Business Act.
African Development Bank (AfDB) country director, Freddie Kwesiga, said the co-operating partners look forward to specific interventions to ensure improved land tenure and equitable access to land by partnerships of small, medium and large-scale investors.
Overview of the palm oil sector in West Africa - major players (Siva, SIAT, Sime Darby, SIFCA, Bolloré, Olam...), hectarage under foreign corporate control, etc.
The Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food has published an Annual Monitoring Report on the sugarcane-to-ethanol project of the Swiss firm Addax Bioenergy. Some positive changes are acknowledged by SiLNoRF, e.g. on employment. However, there are still many issues of concern, such as communities asking for a written agreement from Addax to prevent it from using more than the demarcated land.
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.
