Although these reports are worrying, the lack of reliable information has made it difficult to understand what has been actually happening. Against this backdrop, the World Bank, under the leadership of Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, along with other development partners, has highlighted the need for good empirical evidence to inform decision makers, especially in developing countries. One result is this report, Rising Global Interest in Farm- land: Can It Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits? To prepare the report, a multidisciplinary team was tasked with carrying out a multicountry study on large-scale agricultural land acquisition and this task proved to be less straightforward than originally anticipated, the effort has.
