The Woyanne ruling junta’s agriculture minister, Tefera Derbew, has sold 1.8 million hectares of Ethiopian farmland to India, according to a report by an Indian journal. Under the deal, India will use the land for 70 years. Read the report below.
NEW DELHI (Prokerala.com) — Ethiopia has offered to Indian investors 1.8 million hectares of farmland, equalling nearly 40 percent the total area of principal grain-growing state of Punjab, in what could give a big push to the country’s food security.
“So far, we have transferred 307,000 hectares of land to foreign and domestic investors. Some 79 percent of this land has been transferred to Indian companies. This land is on 70-year lease,” said visiting Ethiopian Agriculture Minister Tefera Derbew.
“We are now proposing to transfer another 3.6 million hectares of land to investors from overseas. And I am confident that more than half of this 3.6 million hectares will go to Indians,” Derbew, who is here on a three-day official visit, told IANS in an interview.
The land offered by the East African nation, at the horn of the continent, equals 50 percent of the cultivable land of Punjab, often called India’s granary, accounting for 23 percent of its wheat and 10 percent of paddy output.
“How much land will actually go to Indian investors depends entirely on the interest of investors. If they come and take all the land, then also we will be very happy. Indian investors are very welcome in Ethiopia,” Derbew said.
According to the visiting minister, Indian investors have so far committed $4.7 billion investment in Ethiopia and most of it is related to the farm sector. He said the investment was going to rise sharply in the coming years with interests arising in mining as well.
Indian firms have interests in cotton, palm oil, rubber, oilseeds and horticulture.
Derbew said an Indian company was in the process of getting 100,000 hectares of land for sugarcane production. “India has expertise in sugar. We are in talks with several Indian companies to help develop the sugar industry in our country.”
Officials here identified the company as Karuturi Global, one of the largest global players in the organised floriculture industry. The investments planned, they added, could go up to over $100 million for a sugarcane crushing and processing unit in Ethiopia.
The minister said the trade balance, which was hugely skewed towards India, would tilt in Ethiopia’s favour once the projects materialise. “Our bilateral trade is over $500 million. But most of it are Indian exports. Our exports are negligible.”
He said there was also scope for Ethiopia to export potassic fertiliser to India.
Derbew said his government had also liberalised the norms for allocation of land for all major infrastructure projects, including those for roadways and railways, and was in talks with several Indian companies in this regard.
“We target to build over 2,000 km of rail link in the next five years. Similarly, there is also a huge investment potential for road infrastructure,” said Derbew, adding: “We hope Indian companies will take advantage of this opportunity as well.”
(Gyanendra Kumar Keshri can be reached at [email protected])
11 thoughts on “Woyanne sells 1.8 million hectares of land to India”
Weyane is paving the way for revolution. Let the Indians come, growth their crops, and the Ethiopian youth sit behind and watch. We know what will follow. If Meles is alive by then, he will find himself in the gallows.
What do you mean by ‘Tefera Derbew’??? The land is sold by the Woyane government.
Yes, India might have, indeed, bought agricultural land in Ethiopia, but would you also report the land that were allocated to the English farmers that were expelled from Zimbabwe and the farms that were acquired by American investers, including a huge coffee farm owned by the STARBUCKS subsidiary group. No No….. You guys won’t be brave enough to report that or challenge the Uncle Sam’s land grab in Ethiopia that has reduced the poor coffee farmers in Ethiopia into a chat farmers….. No no that would upset uncle Sam…… Or is it self sensorship……. Ahyawin ferto dawelawin
Zenawi the number one enemy of Ethiopia has done all this mess and I really want see where he and his cronies will stay after this. All our Ancestors have fought and defend our country from any kind of colonization and we reach to this point in the 21 first century.
This is not the first time for woyanee selling the land now i am
worrying for them not to sell the people along with the land
they are getting very desperate …..
Some may not know that the Indian gvt is giving the Ethiopian gvt money to build large sugar farms. These two deals may actually be connected. The ET government is hoping not only to meet the current deficit of sugar supply in the country but be able to export.
After so many heroes fought and gave their life to prevent colonization of Ethiopia, the leader of the country and senior representatives are going around the world to market the land of these very heroes. They are saying “we are hungry and need food aid but we have a lot of fertile land that we are unable to use so please come and become the landlords and hire us as farmhands so that we can produce food for your people”
This is disgraceful!
Ay ethiopia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Esk meche deres tbechachekyalch? Aybekam wey? Wegenachen yet yederes? Megbya ata!
Bhageru, btweledebet bta, legochun yet hono yasdegachwe? yetbota hedo, yenur, yetes hedo serto yebla yasznal!!!!!!!!!!
Betselot metagel brcha new!!!!!!!!!!!
Look people do you think selling Land to India is a big deal these woyane leaders don’t even give a dam as long as they are making profit to themselves and they have been selling Land before also they and MR. al-moudi wore selling {stealing} ethiopians almost two decades now so let us not getting desperate now like we do not now and like this is happing now . Like i said we need to do less talk and let us take some action . woyanees are saying we are just talking and we can’t do nothing to them . yes they are right it has been 19 years since they have been in power and they are not even popular since the day one but they are still in power . people don’t you think it is not the woyanees it;s us, we need to be us one not like some people when they get offer to a business and Land run leaving everything behind and working for woyanee .we have seen that time to time this is one of the reason for woyanees to undermined the ethiopian people here and inside the country and let us be united for one ethiopia,
What a frustrating government.
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