Fear of unrest and hunger for profit are sparking massive acquisitions of farmland.

A US firm, Dominion Farms, has acquired 30,000 hectares of swampy land in Gassol Local Government of Taraba State in Nigeria for commercial rice farming.

"AIMI's investment in Farm Lands of Guinea Inc. gives the company and its shareholders exposure to the exciting growth prospects presented by this large-scale agricultural opportunity in West Africa," said Mark Pajak, Acting Chairman of AIM Investments.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has led a Kenya-based American investor to inspect about 30,000 hectares of marshy land in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State for possible commercial rice cultivation

The President informed them of 3 available modules of investment that they could take advantage of including processing without getting involved in physical production where an investor buys products from farmers, processes them or engage in core plantation and process the produce into finished items or contracting out-growers so that they as a community of producers can benefit.

The traditional asset play on agriculture by Wall Street -- farmland -- has pushed to dizzying heights.

Agricultural analyst at Citi Investment Research, Tim Mitchell, recently calculated that "rural raiders" from overseas had spent "well in excess of $12 billion" over the past four years on Australian agribusinesses and farms.

Adecoagro, one of the leading agricultural companies in South America, announced today that it has acquired Compania Agroforestal de Servicios y Mandatos, a company which owns a 4,960 hectare farm named "El Colorado", located in the region of Bandera, in the province of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, for a total price of US$18.0 million

New report provides a detailed examination of the role of the Indian government and Indian companies engaged in overseas agricultural land acquisitions in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Asian Agri Capital, a Singapore private-equity firm that focuses on early-stage plantations, is seeking to raise $100 million to invest in palm oil and other tropical commodities in Southeast Asia and Latin America

Karuturi expects to acquire 311,700 ha of land in Tanzania that is similar to Ethiopia and has already applied for 1000 ha of land at Rufiji Basin, Coast Region.

The government of Pakistan has offered 6mn acres of its agricultural land to resourceful countries and multinational companies (MNCs) for corporate farming, corporate sources have said.