Ethiopia to lease 3 million hectares to foreign investors
December 31, 2009 -- Companies and governments are buying or leasing African land, reports Bloomberg. Ghana, Madagascar, Mali and Ethiopia alone have approved 1.4 million hectares of land allocations to foreign investors since 2004, according to the International Institute for Environment and Development in London.
“African agricultural land is cheap relative to similar land elsewhere; it is probably the last frontier,” said Paul Christie, marketing director at Emergent Asset Management in London.
One advantage to starting a plantation 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the border with war-torn Southern Sudan and a four- day drive to the nearest port: The land is free. Under the agreement with Ethiopia’s government, Indian company Karuturi Global pays no rent for the land for the first six years. After that, it will pay 15 birr (U.S. $1.18) per hectare per year for the next 84 years.
Land of similar quality in Malaysia and Indonesia would cost about $350 per hectare per year, and tracts of that size aren’t available in Karuturi Global’s native India, Karuturi said.
The government plans to allot 3 million hectares, or about 4 percent of its arable land, to foreign investors over the next three years. “This strategy will build up capitalism,” says Omod Obang Olom, president of Gambela regional state. “The message I want to convey is there is room for any investor. We have very fertile land, there is good labor here, we can support them.”
Workers in Elliah, Ethiopia, say they weren’t consulted on the deal to lease land around the village, and that not much of the money is trickling down.
Worker Omeud Obank, 50, said “These Indians do not have any humanity,” speaking of his employers. “Just because we are poor it doesn’t make us less human.”
To read more, click here.
December 31, 2009 -- Companies and governments are buying or leasing African land, reports Bloomberg. Ghana, Madagascar, Mali and Ethiopia alone have approved 1.4 million hectares of land allocations to foreign investors since 2004, according to the International Institute for Environment and Development in London.
“African agricultural land is cheap relative to similar land elsewhere; it is probably the last frontier,” said Paul Christie, marketing director at Emergent Asset Management in London.
One advantage to starting a plantation 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the border with war-torn Southern Sudan and a four- day drive to the nearest port: The land is free. Under the agreement with Ethiopia’s government, Indian company Karuturi Global pays no rent for the land for the first six years. After that, it will pay 15 birr (U.S. $1.18) per hectare per year for the next 84 years.
Land of similar quality in Malaysia and Indonesia would cost about $350 per hectare per year, and tracts of that size aren’t available in Karuturi Global’s native India, Karuturi said.
The government plans to allot 3 million hectares, or about 4 percent of its arable land, to foreign investors over the next three years. “This strategy will build up capitalism,” says Omod Obang Olom, president of Gambela regional state. “The message I want to convey is there is room for any investor. We have very fertile land, there is good labor here, we can support them.”
Workers in Elliah, Ethiopia, say they weren’t consulted on the deal to lease land around the village, and that not much of the money is trickling down.
Worker Omeud Obank, 50, said “These Indians do not have any humanity,” speaking of his employers. “Just because we are poor it doesn’t make us less human.”
To read more, click here.
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