(07 January 2012, Channel 4)--It is being dubbed the second scramble for Africa: millions of acres of land are being snapped up by companies from Asia and the Middle East, our foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Rugman reports.
Nations like Ethiopia are desperate for the investment. But critics claim it's at the expense of smallholder farmers - many of whom say they're being thrown off their land to make way for the large multi-nationals.
Think of drought-stricken Ethiopia and you might not expect to see modern machinery owned by a foreign multinational, cultivating vast farms in one of the poorest countries in the world. The goal here is simple: to double Ethiopia's agricultural production and to make it self-sufficient. So that handouts from Britain, America and others are no longer required.
Agrarian revolution
Vinay Shekar is on the front line of this agrarian revolution. He's a farm manager from India running an estate in Ethiopia. His company is called Karuturi and these 29,000 acres are a small slice of its empire - with the Ethiopians pledging almost 800,000 acres to the Indian firm so far.
Ethiopia's land is owned by its post-Communist government - and that land can't feed its people. Farming methods are medieval, with the land parcelled up among millions of small scale tenant farmers. So now the country's Agriculture Minister, Ato Wondirad Mande, is giving foreign companies like Karuturi cheap leases to revolutionise food production. Read more from Channel 4 »
Nations like Ethiopia are desperate for the investment. But critics claim it's at the expense of smallholder farmers - many of whom say they're being thrown off their land to make way for the large multi-nationals.
Think of drought-stricken Ethiopia and you might not expect to see modern machinery owned by a foreign multinational, cultivating vast farms in one of the poorest countries in the world. The goal here is simple: to double Ethiopia's agricultural production and to make it self-sufficient. So that handouts from Britain, America and others are no longer required.
Agrarian revolution
Vinay Shekar is on the front line of this agrarian revolution. He's a farm manager from India running an estate in Ethiopia. His company is called Karuturi and these 29,000 acres are a small slice of its empire - with the Ethiopians pledging almost 800,000 acres to the Indian firm so far.
Ethiopia's land is owned by its post-Communist government - and that land can't feed its people. Farming methods are medieval, with the land parcelled up among millions of small scale tenant farmers. So now the country's Agriculture Minister, Ato Wondirad Mande, is giving foreign companies like Karuturi cheap leases to revolutionise food production. Read more from Channel 4 »
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