Venezuelan Minister for Agriculture and Land and the president of the Chinese Heilongjiang Beidahuang State Farm Business Trade Group have signed an agreement to form a joint venture food company.

Company says it is "difficult to acquire land or farms overseas" but aims to set up 15 to 20 feed mills in South Asia and Central Africa over the coming five years.

"We don't invest in commodities; the trend is for them to fall. The value is in owning the land ... And we are not investing in land anywhere else in the world, except Brazil," says Daniel Ward of the Virginia Tech endowment

Afrifresh manages 14 farms across South Africa, with over 3,000 hectares under irrigation, in addition to its export agency business.

The company is currently looking at concluding another deal in Africa as well as other opportunities on behalf of regional investors for large scale production of crops in areas such as Africa, Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

The Verkhovna Rada's committee on agricultural policy and land relations is checking reports that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is renting farmland in Ukraine

Felda Holdings, the world's largest estate owner, is in talks to buy up to 90,000ha of land across South-East Asia

Karuturi's 15 John Deere tractors plough 500 hectares a day on its 300,000 land concession in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. This is land clearance on a gigantic scale.

Foreign investment in Australia's food chain is increasing at a rate that is causing concern, and not just for people on the land.

Brazil is preparing rules that will block foreign governments, state-owned companies and speculators from buying agricultural land while allowing in “genuine” private sector investors.

Investors from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain are currently planning to inrease investment in the agriculture sector of the Philippines as part of their government’s food security programmes.

Saudi company Menafea Holding intends to invest $125 million in a 5,000-hectare farm in Zambia.