A multilateral framework would not only improve the protection of the human rights of the local population concerned; it could also avoid beggar-thy-neighbour policies, with countries competing against each other for foreign direct investment and thus lowering the requirements imposed on foreign investors.

A South Korean provincial government has leased a major plot of farmland in Mindoro to grow corn

As for the Chinese delegation and those of them who had the chance to state their minds one did not get the impression at all as regards purchase of land

Kuwait sees good investment opportunities in Africa and is in talks with countries there about securing food supplies, state news agency Kuna said citing the country's finance minister.

The Philippine government hopes it can sideline land reform by leasing lands to foreign governments and corporations.

Nigerian economist Jonas Chianu argues that the exchange of land for development provides a way out for growth.

While Oman has yet to indicate it will follow the course, it is in this make-or-break moment for a new, more stable capitalist system that the Gulf – and perhaps Oman in the future – are forging a rather novel form of global venture, that is, government-funded offshore farming.

"We have no choice but to continue leasing and buying land," said Abdullah Al Obaid, head of the strategy unit at the Ministry of Agriculture in Saudi Arabia.

While sovereign wealth funds have been buying up tracts of land, AgriTerra has been taking a different tack.

Ouyang Riping, PDG d’une société agricole chinoise, a une mission : transformer le Sénégal en grenier à sésame… pour la Chine ! Dakar lui cède 60 000 hectares pour cultiver et exporter le sésame vers Pékin. En échange, les chinois apprennent aux paysans sénégalais à obtenir deux récoltes de riz par an. Coopération originale ou marché de dupes ?

2009 is the year characterised by Arab' 'land grabs', where developing countries have been targeted by the kingdom as having the potential to feed the swelling food demands of Saudi Arabia

On 8 July 2009, almost a hundred development practitionners from all over the world convened in Utrecht to participate to the DPRN Expert Seminar “Commercial Pressures on Land: rethinking policies and practice for development”.