Despite the lucrative returns that foreign investors can achieve by investing in African agriculture, the on-the-ground realities of operating in the continent is often less rosy.

Dr Fahd bin Abdulrahman Balghunaim, minister for agriculture for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, speaks to This is Africa about the government's strategy in Africa.

US stevia company acquires 50 acres of farmland in Cambodia for a propagation centre from which it will coordinate a planned expansion to 5,000 acres.

Trading as Kimberley Agricultural Investments, it's understood that a Chinese investment group is interested in developing a major sugar industry in the region, as well as a meatworks capable of processing 500,000 head of cattle a year.

With demand for food rising with China's growing population and economy, domestic companies are looking to boost investments in resource-rich foreign countries such as Brazil and Indonesia to fill the food supply gap at home.

Canadian and Chinese governments in negotiations to set up mega dairy operations in Canada to produce milk without quota, then process it in Canada with all the product going back to China.

Saudi Arabian dairy and food producer Almarai Co's board has approved a $4.2 billion, five-year investment plan that will fund the expansion of its farms.

Major agricultural investor in Ethiopia, Saudi Star, has bigger problems there than it might have expected.

In South Sudan, between 2007 and 2010, about 9% of the total land surface was leased or in the process of being leased for large-scale land investment.

The company may invest as much as 200 billion CFA francs ($380 million) to develop industrial palm-oil plantations and processing facilities in Ivory Coast within five years.

Cevital, Algeria’s biggest sugar producer, asked Ivory Coast’s government to make land available for the production of rice, sugar, maize and vegetable oil, according to a company official.

Zambia's Vice-President Guy Scott calls on private companies in the country to invest in agriculture and commercialise the sector to boost production of more maize for export.