It alleges that the dealings of Karuturi Global, one of India’s largest flower growers, in the African nation do not smell as sweet as what it grows

A 'villagisation' programme that has been linked to the leasing of large tracts of land for commercial agriculture has left people from Ethiopia's Gambella region bereft of land and loved ones, casting donor support in an unflattering light

Survival uncovers shocking new evidence of human rights abuses against tribes in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, as government efforts to develop lucrative sugar cane plantations in the region intensify.

Ethiopia's state project to make it into one of the world's top sugar producers requires the resettling of semi-nomadic herders in permanent villages, where they can work on sugar plantations.

The company leased 10,000 hectares in Ethiopia’s western Gambella region for 60 years for $9.42 per hectare annually and plans to lease an additional 290,000 hectares from the government.

The Ethiopian government says concerns about foreign investors exporting food are outweighed by the plantations’ capacity to bring the country foreign exchange and technology, as well as creating employment.

Representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, Finance, and Transportation will participate in a forum on November 14-15 [2009] in Addis Ababa to officially mark the beginning of a cooperative project under which Ethiopia made one million hectares of land available for Saudi private companies to develop.

In India, Karuturi is being accused of sexual harassment while in Africa his struggling flower business in Kenya and Ethiopia has withered – first over tax arrears and debts and later over land deals gone wrong.

After nearly a year of protests, demonstrators in Ethiopia turned their anger to foreign investors who they blame for occupying land appropriated by the government.

The property of a Dutch agricultural company, Solagrow, was torched by hundreds of people, angered by the company having fenced off 100 hectares of prime communal grazing land, leased by the government.

Karuturi Global Ltd., one of the largest investors in Ethiopia’s farm industry, is challenging the termination of its project, claiming the government broke the terms of its agreement with the company.

The Kwegu, the smallest and most vulnerable tribe in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley, is starving as a result of the massive Gibe III dam and associated large-scale irrigation for commercial plantations on tribal land.

The arrangement will provide a government-to-government framework to encourage commercial partnerships between New Zealand and Ethiopian agricultural interests.

Karuturi, like many other large-scale investors, underestimated the complexity of opening land for large-scale commercial agriculture.

The Ethiopian military responded to an attack on a farm in Gambella region owned by Saudi Star Agricultural Development Plc with arbitrary arrests, rape, and other abuses against scores of local villagers, says Human Rights Watch.

The growing insecurity and violence in Gambela, seen in the recent loss of human lives and attacks on government institutions, should be seen as a clear warning to investors about the dangers involved in large scale agricultural investments, says the Anywaa Survival Organisation.

Karuturi Global Ltd. may receive an additional 200,000 hectares (494,211 acres) of land from the Ethiopian government if its current 100,000-hectare concession is developed within two years, the Agriculture Ministry said.

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.

Punjab-based farmers are set to acquire 50,000 ha of farm land on lease in Ethiopia for growing high-value cash crops, including pulses and maize, for export to India and Europe.

Ethiopia plans to offer 3 million hectares of land over the next two years for investors to develop large-scale commercial farms, a government official said on Thursday.

Ethiopian officials have revoked land leases in Addis Ababa that were held by dozens of investors, including Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi.

Karuturi Global Ltd., an Indian flower grower, demanded compensation from the Ethiopian government for a series of failed land deals as it prepares to exit the Horn of Africa nation.

Today, the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources with support from the European Union and Germany launched a 3.8 million euro project to support responsible agricultural investment in Ethiopia.

A violent attack on a tea plantation leased by Indian-owned Verdanta Harvest Plc, a subsidiary of the Noida-based Lucky Group, has renewed concerns over Ethiopia’s policy of leasing out large tracts of land to international investors.

In Ethiopia, some 43 firms have acquired agricultural land but scores of these have already left the sector, while 16 of them are currently under probation.

Karuturi said it will borrow "hundreds of millions" of dollars from a sovereign wealth fund to invest in farming in East Africa after development banks declined to provide assistance because of “unfair” criticism by advocacy groups

Discussions with EU officials covered various aspects of human rights violations in Ethiopia with a focus on the large-scale land-lease to local and international commercial farmers, the evictions of Oromo farmers from their homes and farmlands, and the situation of Oromo refugees in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.

While millions of people in the Horn of Africa suffer a terrible drought, foreign investors are harvesting tonnes of cereals to be exported to Asia and the Gulf states.

Ethiopia’s government ruling tribal junta has defended its plan to offer 2.7 million hectares of farmland to foreign companies despite millions of citizens who need food aid from the international community.

Anywaa Survival Organisation is greatly concerned about the worsening security situation in Ethiopia and the government's criminalisation of food security, land and human rights defenders, journalists and political opponents.