Ethiopia

In a recent letter to the Ministry of Agriculture, Girma urges the Ministry to stop giving land to an Indian company, warning that such a deal would damage Meles Zenawi’s “good reputation” on the campaign against global warming.

Chadha Agro Plc, one of India’s giant operators in agro business, is set to receive 100,000 ha of Oromian land (an area nearly twice the size of Singapore country) in addition to the 300,000 ha of land given to various other Indian investors recently.

The lure of cheap land and the promise of making big money are making local farmers and NRIs invest in African countries like Liberia and Ethiopia, whose economies were wrecked by the civil wars.

Several African leaders have bought lands in Ethiopia to develop agricultural projects or tourism resorts. They are let to bypass a 2007 ban on export of cereals, still in place for other investors.

Africa is up for sale by the acre to the highest bidder. But how can rice exports from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia be justified?

Mr. Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, will make scheduled appearances at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, January 27

India's ACIL Cotton Industries said it plans to invest nearly $15 million to start contract farming of crops like coffee, pulses, oilseeds, cereals, potato, sugarcane and vegetables through lease-hold agricultural land in Brazil, Congo and Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia, resentments over land grab have already started claiming lives. The TPLF regime has already killed 10 protesting ethnic Anuak farmers and has sent thousands more to concentration camps.

Not a single farmer has been dispossessed of his holding on account of foreign investment, blasts Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Diaspora is just airing the voice of the voiceless Ethiopians for those who are on a land bonanza to stop hurting our people. There is a great danger coming. When? No one knows but it is coming.

News of the deal has aroused very vehement protest from the Sudanese Farmer’s Union and the tenants in the Gezira Scheme.

A controversial new farms policy has led to a number of arrests and the killings of 10 local farmers, say local activists.