ANOTHER 252,000ha of managed investment scheme land has been sold cheaply to foreign interests.

And farm groups are fuming the land was not sold in smaller lots.

Canadian pension fund Alberta Investment paid just $415 million for land formerly owned by collapsed managed investment giant Great Southern - which listed the land as being worth $1 billion.

Great Southern committee of inspection member Phil Capicchiano said McGrathNicol had ignored a proposal put forward by his committee, the Victorian and National Farmers' Federations and real estate agent Elders to sell the land in smaller lots.

He said this would have maximised the return for investors by obtaining more for the land.

"It sold for less than $1800 a hectare - if you advertised rural land with trees on it in The Weekly Times, there would be a feast over it," Mr Capicchiano said.

"Did we get market value for it? If we haven't, there's been a breach of section 420a (of the Corporations Act, which states liquidators must try to achieve maximum value when selling off the assets of a failed company)."

Mr Capicchiano was livid Alberta said it intended to break some of the land up and sell it back to farmers - at a profit, according to Mr Capicchiano.

VFF president Andrew Broad said MIS was "some of the worst legislation ever to pass the Australian Parliament".

"MISs have accumulated the land and water assets of Australians through tax benefit, put it in conglomerates so big that Australians can't buy it, and then sold to foreign ownership," Mr Broad said.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission had told Mr Capicchiano it would consider intervening if he produced legal opinion that the sale process did not comply with the Corporations Act.

However, he could not source funding to pay for the legal analysis.

The purchase comes as Chinese government officials admit they plan to spend billions buying Australian agricultural assets by making purchases of less than $200 million, which will avoid scrutiny from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Treasurer Wayne Swan and receiver McGrathNicol failed to return calls.