Mozambique
Fertile land, a skyrocketing demand for soybeans and rice, and a government willing to cut big land deals, have put the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique at the center of the land rush sweeping the African continent. In 2013, the nation was the third poorest on the planet, with almost half its children under five stunted by malnutrition. Recent discoveries of world-class coal and gas deposits in the north, as well as other mining and forestry concessions, are slowly changing its fortunes. Massive infrastructure projects are springing up, many financed largely by loans from nations eager to curry favor with political leaders and get in on the action.