Overseas agriculture investment by developing countries is “on the rise” due to food security concerns, the UN said on Thursday but it warned that similar moves to secure food in the past had been “mostly unsuccessful”.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) said in a report that foreign direct investment flows in agriculture jumped to $3bn (€2bn, £1.8bn) annually in the 2005-2007 period, up from $600m during the 1990s.