Forced evictions off land; ‘displacement by market forces’; the fencing off of common lands and water for private use - are all manifestations of a deeper entrenched development problem on the African continent.

Karuturi in a statement said the floods had affected its maize crop in over 12,000 hectares of land that has been leased to them.

There are a number of problems hindering an efficient implementation of the King Abdullah Initiative for Saudi Agricultural Investment Abroad, according to a Ministry of Commerce and Industry report.

Synthesis report from the World Agriculture Investment Conference, London, UK, 4-5 October.

BrasilAgro, which amassed some 170,000 hectares of land in less than four years, has turned seller, disposing of the first property which it bought for a price 10% higher than the start of the year.

onValues has released "The Responsible Investor's Guide to Commodities", a report aimed to help institutional investors navigate the environmental, social and governance challenges of commodities-related investments, including farmland.

Bloomberg's Alan Katz reports on Morgan Stanley's farming venture on the steppes of Ukraine which it abandoned in July 2009. The failed gamble demonstrates how Wall Street firms, in the last gasp of a debt-fueled bull market, strayed further from their traditional businesses to embrace diverse projects with unfamiliar risks.

In Brazil, government surveys found foreigners owned 10% of the nation's cultivated land. Much of that was funds with international backing in London or New York.

A small but growing number of the world's wealthy are shoring up their portfolios with investments in forestry and farmland in an effort to take the sting from losses in more traditional assets as the financial crisis trundles on.

It has been reported that the Tanzania Investment Centre has partnered with the country's prison service to market the latter’s 130,000 hectares of land to investors.

With famine hitting the horn of Africa, the European Parliament holds a full-day hearing on food security challenges in developing countries, looking at EU policies, sustainable farming, commodity speculation, land grab and other key food-related issues.

Black River Capital Partners Fund (Food) LP, a fund managed by the private equity arm of US agribusiness and trading giant Cargill, has offered to acquire 28.11 percent of Philippine fruit and vegetable grower AgriNurture Inc. for $30.4 million.