Many foreign companies are now positioning for investments in the Philippines such as the Far East Agriculture Corp., a consortium of at least 10 agribusiness companies from Saudi Arabia. Next month, these companies are expected go back to the Philippines for site selection in areas of rice, corn, poultry and livestock production.

UAE foreign investment in food production have so far focused on leasing Pakistan and Sudan’s agricultural land, with new prospects in Cambodian rice, Canadian wheat and Australian beef. Alongside the strategic deals at the national level, private investment has followed which should open new channels of trade, for example, Al Qudra Holding has plans to grow grain and vegetables in Vietnam and Croatia as well as Pakistan.

Formally, it is colonialism. Deals are often judicially incomplete. Populations are not part of this process and the traditional law is ignored. Agreements are not transparent.

Cash-rich overseas pension funds and investors have been scouting for New Zealand dairy farm investments,

The Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) says these land deals exclude farmers and threaten their livelihoods.

Interview with Kieran Forde, an Irishman who works in Saudi Arabia for the Tabuk Agriculture Company (TADCO), which will be shifting food production for the Saudi market to Egypt

An audio recording of the panel on global land acquisition, held on 22 October 2009 at the European Development Days 2009 in Stockholm, is available online.

Ernest Corea, a former senior consultant with the Washington-based Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), told IPS the surrender of nationally-owned farm land and land rights to foreign interests - whether individuals, the corporate sector or governments - amounts to an erosion of sovereignty.

The Congolese government said it had signed similar agreements with China, Brazil and Israel.

"The idea is to show that the Arabs may invest in agriculture in Brazil without the need for purchasing land," says Eduardo Sampaio

Black Earth Farming Ltd., which controls an area of Russian farmland four times the size of New York City, plans to start exporting grain and begin forward sales with traders and fertilizer suppliers.

Officials in Ethiopia hope that the investment can help improve agriculture, replacing ox-and-plough with tractors, but some are concerned about whether the deals benefit the lessors.