The landholders can't mortgage what they don't officially own, or get aboveboard municipal services or utilities.

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This reduces rents and thus the incomes of the landholders as a portion of national income.

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Another 10m larger landholders can choose to repay 75% of their debts, and have the remainder written off.

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Ted Turner is one of the largest private landholders in the U.S., with 2.1 million acres in 13 states.

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His radicalism scared criollo landholders, and Mexico declared independence only in 1821, in conservative reaction to a liberal Spanish government.

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Among the leviathan landholders were those who took care of their workers, some patronizingly, others with a genuine measure of respect.

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There are huge power imbalances among international companies, government and local landholders.

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The process slips into chaos when a large number of small landholders are involved, as when the Oklahoma City field was discovered in the late 1920s.

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Not every deal is a "land grab" - much depends on local context, the investor's track-record, the terms of the lease, and whether these reflect the free, prior and informed consent of local landholders.

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The drilling companies typically acquire leases with landholders who have access to oil and mineral rights below their land by using a landman (either an employee of the company or an independent agent), who offers a fixed price per acre for the right to drill, plus a royalty percentage of the value of the produced hydrocarbons.

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