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.

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.

Group says regent abused position in pursuing relationship between Iowa State University and Ratsetter's agribusiness corporation, which is developing a farming operation in Tanzania.

Bangladesh yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with South Sudan to take a 10-year lease on Sudanese farmland to grow crops aimed at ensuring food security of both the countries.

Jeremy Grantham of US asset management firm, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo and Company (GMO), says global investors should have 30% of their portfolios exposed to natural resources, with half of that in forestry and farmland, to take advantage of the growing global food crisis. That is double today's averages.

Colombia's Conservative Party proposed a constitutional amendment to limit land purchases made by foreigners to avoid "land grabbing," reported local media Thursday.

Report just released by Tanzanian NGO Haki Ardhi looks at recent experiences with land grabs in the fertile Rufiji Basin.

Given the power imbalances at play, it is folly to assume that land-seekers will suddenly embrace, en masse, a set of voluntary rules promoting sustainable and equitable investor practices, says Michael Kugelman

HighQuest Partners in the US say that between 65-80 million hectares of additional land is going to have to be brought into production, globally, within the next 10 years and that this means more foreign farmland investment.