BAKO, Ethiopia/JOHANNESBURG, Nov 12 (Reuters) - For centuries, farmers like Berhanu Gudina have eked out a living in Ethiopia's central lowlands, tending tiny plots of maize, wheat or barley amid the vastness of the lush green plains.

Now, they find themselves working cheek by jowl with high-tech commercial farms stretching over thousands of hectares tilled by state-of-the-art tractors -- and owned and operated by foreigners.


Many small Ethopian farmers do not share their leaders' enthusiasm for the policy, eyeing the outsiders with a suspicion that has crept across Africa as millions of hectares have been placed, with varying degrees of transparency, in foreign hands.

"Now we see Indians coming, Chinese coming. Before, we were just Ethiopian," 54-year-old Gudina said in Bako, a small farming town 280 km (170 miles) west of Addis Ababa. "What do they want here? The same as the British in Kenya? To steal everything? Our government is selling our country to the Asians so they can make money for themselves."
Full report: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN11358061

It's a very interesting article. I don't really don't know what to think. I feel sorry for the local farmers, but we at the same time need to modernize the production and bring foreign expertice.

What do you guys think?

Ethiopia can't sustain development with traditional farming. most importantly, chronic starvation needs to be eliminated and for that to happen the entire agricultural industry needs a major overhaul. modernizing agriculture is badly needed. being able to feed your people is the first step towards civilization, it's unfortunate Ethiopia has yet to achieve that.

Ethiopia can't sustain development with traditional farming. most importantly, chronic starvation needs to be eliminated and for that to happen the entire agricultural industry needs a major overhaul. modernizing agriculture is badly needed. being able to feed your people is the first step towards civilization, it's unfortunate Ethiopia has yet to achieve that.

Ethiopia has yet to achieve the first step towards civilization? NO.

A written language, hundreds/thousands of years of royal blood lines, a rich theological tradition, and written law make Ethiopia civilized.

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That aside, these sorts of deals can be done in constructive and mutually beneficial ways, but that takes great care.

Ethiopia can't sustain development with traditional farming. most importantly, chronic starvation needs to be eliminated and for that to happen the entire agricultural industry needs a major overhaul. modernizing agriculture is badly needed.
I think we all agree that something needs to be done. The question is if selling out land to foreign investors is the best way, or helping the local farmers.

I think foreign investment is needed right now. The fastest way to solve the situation seem to be through selling land. But the government must re-invest what ever they earn to the locals. Being dependent on Saudi Arabian, Indian and Chinese farmers doesn't feel safe.

I think we all agree that something needs to be done. The question is if selling out land to foreign investors is the best way, or helping the local farmers.

Never , it's never been good and will never be good.

Ethiopia is has more than 65million people. Agriculture is the easiest thing that exists on earth.

Buy Tractors, Fertilizer, Seeds and that's it. 40-80 acres of land/ person. 100 hours of training for tractors.

But must have infrastruture as well. you can't have Agriculture with no Infrastructure.

What you can do is invite investors into Food transformation instead of selling them land.

DRC is buying tractors, seeds and Fertilers ( for certain area).but the governement made a deal about selling 100,000 acres f land to White South Africans:bash:( They better never hand them any land, because i will be pissed off and angry for the rest of my life and start a rebellion against these South africans and the governent, they will never farm in peace). Congolese are good farmers.( no reason why we should sell our country for the sake of profits that will end u in corrut f****ers).


foreign investment is needed right now. The fastest way to solve the situation seem to be through selling land.

Selling land will make Ethiopians poorer, don't you get it:bash::bash:

The little poor Malawi was begging for aid and almost half of it population almost starved.
Guess what they did; they invested 200 million USD in Agriculture Subsidies in defiance of the poison mosnters ( IMF/WB). and nOw Malawi exports Corn and even donated 10,000 tonnes of corn to the UN Aids agency.

government must re-invest what ever they earn to the locals. Being dependent on Saudi Arabian, Indian and Chinese farmers doesn't feel safe.


It wil never feel safe reguadless the so called investor.

Food production is Natuional security . If someone controls your prood production he can starve you in a matter of months.

After reading some of the comments i must say the people have no idea what is going on in Ethiopia since 1991.

First of all you guys need to know that Ethiopia is ruled by an enemy regime, others say Ethiopia is under proxy colonialism since 1991, the government of Meles Zenawi is enemy of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people,that is what most Ethiopians would tell you. It is generally agreed that the regime was installed by the USA in 1991, beside the USA it got support from Egypt,Sudan,Libya,UK and some other western and arab countries who are traditionally hostile to Ethiopia. The reason for the hostility is the Nile river and ambition to expand islamic and arabic influence in the horn of Africa from the side of Arabs, and colonialist motive from the side of western countries who see Ethiopia as a threat to their culture and influence in Africa.

You guys are totally wrong if you assume the government in Ethiopia is like any other in Africa. It is not, it does not serve Ethiopian interest but that of foreign countries.
So this selling of land to foreigners is just another example to show that the regime is an enemy of the country and people it leads.


You want to know a little about the past actions of dictator and traitor Meles Zenawi ?

read:

http://www.ethiopians.com/Views/On_the_Identity_of_PM_Meles_Zenawi_by_NegussayAyele_June07.pdf

Exposes of the anti-Ethiopian political agenda, culture and desiderata of PM Meles and his TPLF do not emanate solely from former TPLF stalwarts. Either by Freudian slips or by carefree mendacity TPLF elements have revealed what they do and do not stand for. As has been adumbrated in pages of this and earlier commentaries, the case of PM Meles is well documented over the past 20 years.


To mention a few:

! Demonizing and denigrating Ethiopian historical figures, especially Emperor Menelik II and fraudulently dumping any and all historical shortcomings or invented faults vis-a-vis Tigray and Eritrea to him.

! Calling the Ethiopian flag nothing but a "rag" and Ethiopian history full of "debris".

! Designating only his Tigray/Tigrign (Eritrean) ethnic group "golden" thereby betraying prejudice against, disdain for or outright hatred of other Ethiopians
implying also the "golden" group's right to rule "ueber alles".

! His shameless obsequious service to EPLF/Eritrea.s Isayass Afewerqi and his secession agenda at the expense of Ethiopia and with loss of life and limbs of
hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians, particularly Tigrayans, to achieve it.

! Pillaging of Ethiopian economic, educational, agricultural, power,communications, industrial resources and military assets taken wholesale to EPLF/Eritrea and Tigray.

! Waging and winning the 1998-2000 war provoked by EPLF/Eritrea--with the sacrifice of 100,000 casualties and then withdrawing from the outskirts of Asmera without any benefit for Ethiopia and Ethiopians such as recovering the Afar seacoast region of Assab. Why the military campaign? What would have happened if the campaign had not taken place since the outcome of the campaign was status quo ante?

! Signing an illegal document in Algiers in 2000 on defunct colonial "treaties" in advance of "commission" decisions having stacked the deck in favor of pro-EPLF/Eritrea outcome at the total expense of Ethiopia. No head of state or government of his country would do that unless forced to do so. The host,President Bouteflika of Algeria has not done that with Morocco vis-à -vis Saharawi Republic. Yet, he beamed as a peacemaker.

! Stating that the notion of Ethiopia being more than 100 years old is a "fairy tale" but Tigrayan history is thousands of years old.

! Asserting that Eritrea and Ethiopia were both formed a century ago.

! Hating, hounding, killing, torturing, imprisoning, banishing, intimidating,blackmailing and terrorizing patriotic and democratic Ethiopians, especially
Amharas, Oromos, Gurages, Somalis, Afars, Southern and Western peoples as well as individual Tigrayans.

! Alienating land, economic resources and businesses from the vast majority of Ethiopians and rendering them as renters, borrowers and beggars.

! Disarming Ethiopians so they will be unable to defend themselves and their families against the terrorism of TPLF/minions and then turning
around and accusing unarmed Ethiopians of spawning terrorism and genocide.

! Jailing Ethiopians with integrity, intelligence and dedication to Ethiopia,human rights activists and political personalities and making them and their
families suffer for years on without any due process to vegetate until they die, as was the case of Professor Asrat Weldeyes and many others since 1991. The world has witnessed in askance the current case of the renowned and innocent prisoners of conscience that have been languishing in Kaliti for nearly a year and a half for no substantiated charge and no due process.

! This may be a first time when a regime not only steals an election in broad daylight, but also following that by hauling en masse the popularly elected
representatives of the people to prison.

! Training and using brutal assassination squads referred to as "Agazi" to make Ethiopians, especially young ones, prime targets for sharp shooting at close range for bull's eye practice, so bullets land on their temples.

! Using a phony "constitution" , humbug parliament and kangaroo courts to harass and throw out of business journalists, academics and public servants,
human rights advocates, students and teachers who try to tell the truth or ask critical questions.

! Cutting up the rest of Ethiopia to pieces bantustans style, thereby creating conditions of internecine ethnic or tribal, cultural, languageand/or regional
tensions with an express aim of proximate or ultimate imploding and disintegrating Ethiopia.

! Spawning, for the first time, people against people enmity between Eritreans and the rest of Ethiopians as never before as distinguished from conflicts between governments and armed rebels or shiftas, while the civilian populations lived amicably, if on occasion uncomfortably.

! Intervening in the internal affairs of Somalia by invading it unprovoked and thereby arousing dormant Somalian antipathy and irredentist claims. The
repercussions of this TPLF hubris, which is fraudulently and tragically being publicized as an Ethiopian intervention against an Islamic threat is yet to
be felt. The net result is actually to pile up the coals of Somalian/Islamic antipathy and sense of fury and revenge down the road against Ethiopia and Ethiopians at large, long after the TPLF regime is out of the scene.

! After seven years of saying the Hague decision was wrong and the TPLF will not abide by it although it had signed in advance that it would abide by any decision.Meles and his TPLF are finally dancing around to accept the loss of Badme, which they knew will happen all along. The Ethiopian people are the
only ones that have been fooled and that have paid the price in life, limbs and repression.

! Annexing large chunks of choice fertile land from Gondar and Wello into Tigray without any due process or consent by the peoples of the said regions
and for what it is worth blocking direct border link between "Amhara" region and Sudan, while Tigray now shares borders with Sudan.

! Many thousands mostly young Ethiopians in all parts of the country have been killed, tortured or languish in local "Gulag" jails outside of public scrutiny.

! Perpetrating fraud at every turn in every way in the nominal "legislative","judiciary" "executive" and other institutions and functions to hoodwink the
international community.

! Declaring the right to free press--which operates largely in Addis Ababa so the foreign community, can be impressed--thereby drawing the best and
brightest journalists who do their best at their craft. Then the regime keeps putting them on the carpet in its kangaroo courts to levy exorbitant sums of money for its coffers for trumped up charges until they dry up and then thrown in jail or forced into exile. Finally, the regime has incarcerated all the leading journalists and closed down all "free" presses.

! The arrogance and hatred for Ethiopians by PM Meles and his TPLF is such that when confronted by peaceful demonstrators they do not shoot in the air because it is wasting bullets and they do not use other non-lethal methods of containing a crowd because they may be too expensive. So, their gendarmes just shoot to kill.

! Treacherously sowing the poisonous seeds of hatred, enmity and distrust between the people of Tigray and Ethiopians by spreading insidious propaganda that if the Meles regime goes down, there will be genocide against Tigrayans that would make Rwanda's interhamwe slaughter look like child's play as Bereket Semon bellowed.



Full report: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN11358061

It's a very interesting article. I don't really don't know what to think. I feel sorry for the local farmers, but we at the same time need to modernize the production and bring foreign expertice.

What do you guys think?

No no, the Meles regime does not give a damn about Ethiopian problems, it mass produces them.
The selling of Ethiopian land by Meles should be viewed as a form of earning money for the time being, maybe Meles is collecting enough money for his Tigray republic, he does not give a damn about Ethiopia minus Tigray. For him Ethiopia minus Tigray is a land that belongs no one.
Also remember that rich Ethiopians both from at home and abroad are not allowed to buy land for commercial farming. The non-Ethiopians who read this would surely be surprised, but that is the truth, that is why we say the Meles regime is an enemy one.
A so-called investor from India or Saudi Arabia can buy land in Ethiopia but Ethiopians can not !:ohno:



I think we all agree that something needs to be done. The question is if selling out land to foreign investors is the best way, or helping the local farmers.

I think foreign investment is needed right now. The fastest way to solve the situation seem to be through selling land. But the government must re-invest what ever they earn to the locals. Being dependent on Saudi Arabian, Indian and Chinese farmers doesn't feel safe.