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 organizers. 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, sugar cane, biofuels, soybeans, tea and other crops in eight countries.