A planned large-scale food production system in Merauke, Papua province, aimed at improving national food sustainability, could prove detrimental for locals, an activist says.

Ingleby Agricultura, controlled by the Rausing family, paid EUR 8.2mn for purchasing 2,000ha of arable land in Western Romania from Danish company FirstFarms

Qatar-based Hassad Food has initiated its investment in Australian ­agriculture with the purchase of the prized Kaladbro Estate in far western Victoria.

In the past two years there has been a remarkable increase in purchases of large-scale farmland by foreigners throughout Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.

SilverStreet Capital aims to raise $100m to buy farms in South Africa growing produce including corn, wheat, soya beans, fruit and tea. It will also target aquaculture.

Kuwaiti firms and other Gulf Cooperation Council members are looking to invest in agriculture and food in Turkey, and could sign a number of contacts this year, the head of Turkey's investment agency said on Sunday.

An Observer investigation reveals how rich countries faced by a global food shortage now farm an area double the size of the UK to guarantee supplies for their citizens

Saudi Arabia, along with Abu Dhabi and Kuwait, want to buy more than $1 billion worth of Aussie farmland in a 21st century land grab.

Right now communities in Latin America, as around the world, are suffering a new kind of invasion of their territories

"If the government wants to eliminate famine, it should give farmers access to more land, and not give it away for corporations"

Since Saudi Arabia abandoned its wheat cultivation programme two years ago, due to dwindling water resources in the desert kingdom, it became a major buyer of wheat from global markets.

Gulf oil producers have abandoned long-standing nationalistic policies of achieving food self-sufficiency and switched to a more realistic approach of using their strong financial muscle to invest in farm projects in fertile countries.