(2 June 2012, By Graham Peebles)--Graham Peebles highlights the injustices and hardships caused to
ordinary Ethiopians by their government’s policy of giving away
agricultural land to foreign cash-crop investors and land speculators.
It is a colonial phenomenon: appropriate land for the needs of the colonists and to hell with the indigenous people. Might is right, be it military or economic. The power of the dollar rules supreme in a world built upon the acquisition of the material, the perpetuation of desire and the entrapment of the human spirit.
Africa has for long been the object of Western domination, control and usury – this was so under the British, the French and the Portuguese of old. Now the “new rulers of the world” – large corporations from America, China, Japan, the Middle East, India and Europe – are engaged in extensive land acquisitions in the developing countries.
It is a colonial phenomenon: appropriate land for the needs of the colonists and to hell with the indigenous people. Might is right, be it military or economic. The power of the dollar rules supreme in a world built upon the acquisition of the material, the perpetuation of desire and the entrapment of the human spirit.
Africa has for long been the object of Western domination, control and usury – this was so under the British, the French and the Portuguese of old. Now the “new rulers of the world” – large corporations from America, China, Japan, the Middle East, India and Europe – are engaged in extensive land acquisitions in the developing countries.
The vast
majority of available land is in sub-Saharan Africa where, according to a
report
by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, “80 per
cent [of worldwide land] … that is potentially available for expanded
rain-fed crop production” is thought to be. Huge industrial agricultural
centres are being created, producing crops for the investors’ home
market.
Meanwhile, indigenous people, subsistence farmers and pastoralists are forced off the land, the natural environment is levelled, the land is purged of wildlife and small rural communities that have lived, worked and cared for the land for centuries are destroyed. The numbers of people potentially affected by the land grab and its impact on the environment is staggering. The UN report states: “By 2020, 135 million people may be driven from their land as a result of soil degradation, with 60 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone.”
This contemporary land grab has come about as a result of food shortages, the financial meltdown in 2008 and in light of the United Nations world population forecast of 9.2 billion people by 2050. It is also the result of three main consequent pressures.
Often investors are simply speculators seeking to make a fast – or
indeed slow – buck by “land banking”, sitting on the asset waiting and
watching for the price to inflate, then selling. According to a report
by the Oakland Institute, “along with hedge funds and speculators, some
public universities and pension funds are among those in on the land
rush, eyeing returns of 20 to as much as 40 per cent”. Land, not as home
but as a chip to be thrown upon the international gambling table of
commercialization.
Ethiopia for sale
Everything has a price. This applies even to the people and land of a country, sold into destitution by governments motivated by distorted notions of development at bargain basement prices and with 99-year leases. In some cases the land is literally given away. As the Oakland Institute report states, in Mali one investment group was able to secure one million hectares of fertile land for a 50-year term for free.
Elsewhere two dollars per hectare (roughly equal to two Olympic-size athletic grounds) is the going rate. According to a report in the Guardian newspaper, “The lowest prices are in Africa, where, says the World Bank, at least 35 million hectares of land has been bought or leased. Other groups, including, Friends of the Earth, say the figure is higher.”
The Ethiopian government, through the Agricultural Investment Support Directorate, is at the forefront of this African land sale. Crops common to the area, such as maize, sesame and sorghum, as well as wheat and rice, are grown for export to Saudi Arabia, India and China rather than for the benefit of Ethiopians.
The Oakland Institute research “shows that at least 3,619,509 hectares of land (an area just smaller than Belgium) have been transferred to investors, although the actual number may be higher”.
The government claims that the land available for lease is unused and surplus to requirement but this is disingenuous nonsense. Large areas of land are in fact already cultivated by smallholder subsistence farmers and pastoralists using land for grazing, all of which are unceremoniously evicted. Villages are destroyed and indigenous people expelled from their homeland and forced into large-scale village programmes. Read more from ess Information & Analysis » | By Graham Peebles
Related topics:
Unlawful Imprisonment in Ethiopia (by Graham Peebles)
Media Control in Ethiopia (by Graham Peebles)
Dis empowerment and suppression of freedoms in Ethiopia)
Meanwhile, indigenous people, subsistence farmers and pastoralists are forced off the land, the natural environment is levelled, the land is purged of wildlife and small rural communities that have lived, worked and cared for the land for centuries are destroyed. The numbers of people potentially affected by the land grab and its impact on the environment is staggering. The UN report states: “By 2020, 135 million people may be driven from their land as a result of soil degradation, with 60 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone.”
This contemporary land grab has come about as a result of food shortages, the financial meltdown in 2008 and in light of the United Nations world population forecast of 9.2 billion people by 2050. It is also the result of three main consequent pressures.
1. Food insecurity, especially in the Middle East and on the Asian continent;
2. Growing worldwide demand for agro-fuels; and
2. Growing worldwide demand for agro-fuels; and
3. The rise in investment in land and soft commodities, such as coffee, cocoa, sugar, corn, wheat, soya and fruit.
Ethiopia for sale
Everything has a price. This applies even to the people and land of a country, sold into destitution by governments motivated by distorted notions of development at bargain basement prices and with 99-year leases. In some cases the land is literally given away. As the Oakland Institute report states, in Mali one investment group was able to secure one million hectares of fertile land for a 50-year term for free.
Elsewhere two dollars per hectare (roughly equal to two Olympic-size athletic grounds) is the going rate. According to a report in the Guardian newspaper, “The lowest prices are in Africa, where, says the World Bank, at least 35 million hectares of land has been bought or leased. Other groups, including, Friends of the Earth, say the figure is higher.”
The Ethiopian government, through the Agricultural Investment Support Directorate, is at the forefront of this African land sale. Crops common to the area, such as maize, sesame and sorghum, as well as wheat and rice, are grown for export to Saudi Arabia, India and China rather than for the benefit of Ethiopians.
The Oakland Institute research “shows that at least 3,619,509 hectares of land (an area just smaller than Belgium) have been transferred to investors, although the actual number may be higher”.
The government claims that the land available for lease is unused and surplus to requirement but this is disingenuous nonsense. Large areas of land are in fact already cultivated by smallholder subsistence farmers and pastoralists using land for grazing, all of which are unceremoniously evicted. Villages are destroyed and indigenous people expelled from their homeland and forced into large-scale village programmes. Read more from ess Information & Analysis » | By Graham Peebles
Related topics:
Unlawful Imprisonment in Ethiopia (by Graham Peebles)
Media Control in Ethiopia (by Graham Peebles)
Dis empowerment and suppression of freedoms in Ethiopia)
1 comment:
What will Arab get out it...
DOMINATION THROUGH BACK DOOR.
what will Ethiopia get out it..
WRATH OF GOD !!!
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