Saudi Arabia and the UAE are worldwide leaders in buying farmland in third-party countries, followed by China and Japan, says the World Bank.

Wealthy countries short of fertile land are gazing hungrily at Canada's prairies

Un financier new-yorkais vient d'acquérir 400 000 hectares de terres au Soudan. En plus de constituer l'une des plus importantes transactions de ce type depuis la vente de l'Alaska au XIXe siècle, cette transaction fait partie d'une stratégie troublante: la firme Jarch Capital parie que le Soudan, et d'autres pays africains, sont sur le point de se morceler en plusieurs États.

Never mind the food miles: when prices are soaring around the world some countries have found a way of keeping their own consumers happy - farming out their farms overseas. One of Asia’s poorest countries, Cambodia, is at the top of their wish list.

Ce qui se passe aujourd’hui à Madagascar, mais aussi en Indonésie, aux Philippines, au Soudan, est dramatique. Les gouvernements exsangues sont en train de brader leur seul bien restant : les terres, au détriment des populations locales.

PT Daewoo Logistic Indonesia and Cheil Jedang Samsung will jointly build an integrated corn industry on the islands of Buru and Sumba with an investment of US$50 million.

"We are trying to promote Qatari investment in [Sri Lanka's] farm sector.”

Of all the places on this planet where you might think of investing, Sudan would surely not normally be at the top of anyone’s list. But that is not the view of Philippe Heilberg of Jarch Capital in New York, who told the BBC that his company was leasing 400,000 hectares in the relatively more stable south part of the country.

Local farmers have protested against the government’s initiative to invite foreign investors in corporate farming, thus allowing them to take 100 per cent of the yield.

The solution to the food crisis exists, and is being fought for in many communities. It is called food sovereignty. We need to stop corporate land grabbing for industrial agrofuels and commodity production.

When the Kwara State Government invited the displaced Zimbabwean farmers to the state for the Tsonga farming project, many thought it was another white elephant exercise.

South Sudan's administration is looking into a 4,000 sq km land investment by a US businessman because of questions over who owns the plot, a senior official said on Tuesday.

At least 31 bodies have been found in the Madagascar capital after protests called by an opponent of the president turned violent, taking the toll in the unrest to 34, officials said Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, one of the world's biggest rice importers, has received the first batch of rice to be produced abroad by local investors, state news agency SPA reported on Monday.

The Saudi Arabian cabinet on Monday decided to establish a $5.3-billion fund to support agricultural development by offering soft loans and necessary credit facilities, the Saudi daily newspaper Saudi Gazette reported.