Lured by a new business model, wealthy nations flock to farmland in Ethiopia, locking in food supplies grown half a world away

Documentary highlighting the investment opportunities in Ethiopia, produced for the Saudi-East African Forum.

As the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, announces plans to increase investment in agribusiness by up to 30 per cent in the next three years, NGO reports shed light on the IFC's role in the 'land grab' movement and flaws in its approach to the food crisis.

There’s a whole school of economic thought that says that Collier is wrong, that big is not necessarily better in agriculture — and that the land deals therefore might be unwise not because they’re wrong but because they’re unprofitable.

An Abu Dhabi-based private sector investment firm has signed a contract to lease up to 700,000 hectares of farmland in Morocco, a company executive said yesterday.

Farmers from South Korea, Kuwait and the United States have also arrived in Kwara state, some 400 km northwest of Lagos, which is keen to attract more investors and help Nigeria end its import reliance.

Investment in agriculture is soaring. So, worryingly, is distrust of markets and trade.

International farmland-investment standards of the kind being worked upon are much needed. But agricultural agencies such as the FAO are not equipped to establish good property-rights regimes in the developing world, writes the Globe and Mail

More and more of Africa's farmland is being bought up by private companies and countries. But should this trend be welcomed as much-needed foreign investment or is it a new form of colonialism? Join the Riz Khan show on Al Jazeera Thursday 19 November 2009.

The 450 civil society organisations taking part in a parallel forum were not won over by FAO's optimism about a code of conduct. "Land grabbing by external capital must stop," read a declaration by participants at the forum.

The French farming minister warned these "predatory investments" prevented countries from feeding themselves. Al Jazeera reports.

Across the street from the conference, human rights and farmers' groups protested sporadically throughout the three days. Small farmers' groups put on street theatre, re-enacting scenes of land-grabbing by foreign companies, with thugs bearing sticks pretending to threaten the small land owners.