(April 06, 2012,--GAMBELLA)--When the Ethiopian government asked Thwol Othoy if he wanted to be resettled, he agreed, attracted by promises of a better life - a clinic, school for his children and land to farm.
But he now struggles to feed his family. After moving from western Ethiopia to the tiny town of Abobo in the Gambella region, he was allocated less than half his previous two acres on which he used to grow maize. "The food is not enough," said Thwol, 35, sitting by his thatched hut, barefoot and in tattered shorts with an open shirt exposing his bony chest.
Thwol and his family were moved off government-owned land under the east African nation's two-year-old commune programme, which pools scattered rural residents into new communities, ostensibly to provide them better access to services.
But some rights groups and observers fear the programme has another goal: to shove farmers aside for eager -- and often foreign -- investors who cultivate land for crops that will be exported to fuel rocketing food demand in China and other developing nations.
But he now struggles to feed his family. After moving from western Ethiopia to the tiny town of Abobo in the Gambella region, he was allocated less than half his previous two acres on which he used to grow maize. "The food is not enough," said Thwol, 35, sitting by his thatched hut, barefoot and in tattered shorts with an open shirt exposing his bony chest.
Thwol and his family were moved off government-owned land under the east African nation's two-year-old commune programme, which pools scattered rural residents into new communities, ostensibly to provide them better access to services.
But some rights groups and observers fear the programme has another goal: to shove farmers aside for eager -- and often foreign -- investors who cultivate land for crops that will be exported to fuel rocketing food demand in China and other developing nations.
"Livelihoods and food security in Gambella are precarious, and the policy is disrupting a delicate balance of survival for many," Human Rights Watch said in a January report. The government aims to resettle 1.5 million of its approximately 82 million people by next year. Officials say there is nothing sinister about the plan. Read more from Business Recorder, Pakistan »
1 comment:
Minimum subsistance holding should be 10 hectares, so that small holder can grow two three crop in a year in different plots at different time of the year. Keep his live stock and poultry and move around so that he does not have to use any fertilizer and be able grow fruit tree and wood for burning. Than his expense will be only seeds and tilling. The government is letting land more cheaply to foreign investers than to its own peasants. Traditional all peasant land should be ownership of Peasants and government should never have right to move them. This is the duty of the UN now to supervise, but it has its name for higher ideal but not in substance where poor peasant is concerned especially where government like Ethiopia are ignorant and ambitious. African governments especially Ethiopia are Tyrants.
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