In Mozambique, there has been an unofficial halt to new large land grants.

The National Renaissance Party calls on the Government of Mali to publish a full list of beneficiaries of land and the areas granted to them.

A local subsidiary of Saudi Arabian firm Abbar and Zainy has proposed turning a wide swathe of land in Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao – including the site of the Maguindanao massacre – into a banana plantation.

Dubai business leaders have urged the Government to snap up farmland overseas to grow basic staples as a buffer against soaring food prices.

Unlike other Gulf countries that are usurping African land to expand their agricultural capacity, Qatar intends to transform its own barren land into an agricultural powerhouse.

Modern machineries of all sorts, owned and run by agri-companies, are turning the soils inside out, destroying forests and beginning to pollute the environment to get more production.

Despite opposition from Ethiopia's President and environmental authorities, a rainforest area providing livelihood to an indigenous people has been leased out to make tea plantations.

The investment is to enable Wellard grow the business through a number of identified agribusinesses opportunities throughout the wider Asian region.

In recent years sixteen investors, from Israel, Ethiopia and the Netherlands, have opened large-scale farms nearby the village of Hidi, south of Addis Ababa.

Land grabbing poses no harm on the environment or on the local community, says Saudi billionaire Sheik Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi who is seeking to expand his farmland in Ethiopia from 10,000 hectares to 250,000 hectares.

Africa is bracing for short-term trouble, but sustained high prices could spark agribusiness investment across the continent.

Following the suggestion of French NGOs, La Via Campesina and ROPPA, with the support of FIAN, Friends of the Earth International, CCFD – Terre Solidaire and Peuples Solidaires, took leadership to facilitate an assembly of convergence of all groups interested in launching a strong appeal against land grabbing in Dakar.