New database tracks large land deals

New York

LARGE purchases of farmland can at times be cloaked in secrecy, but a new online database is aiming to shed light on such deals globally by publishing contracts between governments and investors, according to its organisers.

OpenLandContracts.org, based at Columbia University in New York and backed by the World Bank, lists details of 69 deals so far involving palm oil plantations, sugarcane, biofuels, soyabeans, tea and other crops in eight countries. Organisers expect to have some 100 entries by year's end.