http://qz.com/275489/in-ethiopia-foreign-investment-is-a-fancy-word-for-stealing-land/
It’s been called by some to be a new form of colonialism
<
http://www.channel4.com/news/africa-succumbs-to-colonial-style-land-grab>.
Others say it isoutright theft
<
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/liberia/9584931/Protest-at-the-great-African-land-grab.html>
.
Since 2000, over 37 million hectares of land, mainly in the world’s poorest
nations, have been acquired by foreign investors “without the free, prior,
and informed consent of communities” in what, according to Oxfam
<
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/take-action/campaign/food-farming-and-hunger/land-grabs/>
and
other organizations, constitutes a “land grab.” It’s a portion of land
twice the size of Germany, according to researchers
<
http://landmatrix.org/en/>.
More than 60% of crops grown on land bought by foreign investors in
developing countries are intended for export, instead of for feeding local
communities. Worse still, two-thirds of these agricultural land deals are
in countries with serious hunger problems. A report by the University of
Virginia in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Milan says
that a third to a fourth
<
http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/9/6/064030/pdf/1748-9326_9_6_064030.pdf>
(pdf,
p. 1) of the global malnourished population, or 300 to 550 million people,
could be fed from the global share of land grabs.
Instead, the land is used to grow profitable crops—like sugarcane, palm
oil, and soy. The benefits of this food production “go to the investors and
to the countries that are receiving the exports, and not to the benefit of
local communities,” says Paolo D’Odorico, professor of environmental
sciences at the University of Virginia. He attributes the phenomenon to a
global “commodification of land” and says the problem will only get worse
in the coming years as food prices continue to rise globally.
Land grabs in the developing world create a system so unequal that
resource-rich countries become resource dependent.
In Ethiopia, one of the world’s largest
<
http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2009/04/ethiopia-aid-alemu>
recipients
of foreign aid, the problem is particularly acute. In a country where over
30% of the population
<
http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp265490.pdf>
(pdf) is
below the food poverty line, crops are exported abroad—primarily to India,
Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.
Multinationals buy up the land
<
http://www.smh.com.au/world/multinationals-carving-up-africa-for-food-20131229-301jk.html>
from
the Ethiopian government for lease and bring in workers to farm it.
Favorable climate conditions and government relief have led Ethiopia to be
chosen as a new production site by many flower growers present in
Kenya. Bangalore-based Karuturi Global, the world’s largest rose exporter,
has rose plantations in the country, and is planning the development of a
300,000-hectare lease in the Gambella area.
Alfredo Bini <
http://www.alfredobini.com/>, an Italian photojournalist,
examined Ethiopian land grabs in his recently released photo series
<
http://www.photoville.com/2014-exhibitions/land-grabbing/>, “Land
Grabbing.” For the investors, Bini explains, the deals were not “land
grabs” but opportunities to get huge returns on investments.
As Birinder Singh, the executive director of Karuturi in Ethiopia, plainly
states in his interview with Bini: “When someone calls it ‘land grab,’ we
call it ‘land development.'”
“These companies—mostly Saudi and Indian—are signing deals with the
Ethiopian government to lease this land… for 25, 30, sometimes 50 years,
depriving local populations of the ability to harvest their crops and feed
themselves,” Bini told Quartz. “The government says the lands are empty and
not being harvested but from what I saw and documented in my reporting this
is entirely not the case.”
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[image: Ethiopia land grabbing]Farming women walk along a bank to reach
their plot in the Agula region of Tigray. The average size of plots
cultivated by the local farmers is no more than 0.6 hectares, hardly
sufficient to guarantee sustenance for typical, large Ethiopian families.(Photo
by Alfredo Bini)
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[image: Ethiopia land grabbing]Burning forest around the Karuturi facility,
in the Gambella region of Ethiopia, to allow access to bulldozers preparing
the ground for oil palm and sugar cane plantations. The area is near a
national park where the second largest animal migration in Africa occurs.
Karuturi claims they have preserved the free movement of animals through
corridors of intact forest.(Photo by Alfredo Bini)
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[image: Ethiopia land grabbing]A school in Arabhara, a village near the
Kebena River, between the town of Amibara and the Aledeghi natural reserve.
This area is included in the government-owned Metahara Sugar Factory’s
20,000 hectare expansion plan. The native Afar herders have declared they
are ready for an armed revolt rather than accepting their villages being
moved.(Photo by Alfredo Bini)
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[image: Ethiopia land grabbing]The planting of sugar cane cuttings in Awash
near Amibara and the Aledeghi natural reserve. This area is included in the
government-owned Metahara Sugar Factory’s expansion plan, aimed at boosting
sugar and biofuel production.(Photo by Alfredo Bini)
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[image: Ethiopia land grabbing]A rose growing in one of the greenhouses
springing up around Holeta. Favorable climate conditions and government
relief have led to Holeta being chosen as a new production site by many
flower growers present in Kenya, including Karuturi.(Photo by Alfredo Bini)
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[image: Ethiopia land grabbing]Once cut, the roses are taken to the
stocking and shipping area where they are packed and readied for the daily
shipments to Holland.(Photo by Alfredo Bini)
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[image: Ethiopia land grabbing]Executive director Birinder Singh in the
Ethiopian offices in Addis Ababa for Bangalore-based Karuturi.(Photo by
Alberto Bini
Received on Fri Oct 17 2014 - 12:09:23 EDT