According to the evaluation that the ministry did in the past few weeks, some of the large-scale land acquisitions in Ethiopia are not performing as expected in implementing their projects.
La Risposta della Ashton
The U.S. should reassess its support for the government of Ethiopia, amid concern that more than half a million people are being evicted to make land available for foreign investment in agriculture, advocacy groups say.
Ethiopia's State Minister of Industry, Tadesse Hailem, says the investors have expressed interest to invest in the agriculture sector in Ethiopia and export it to their country.
On the ground reports have exposed a secret operation by Ethiopian forces to force the Suri, Bodi and Mursi tribes out of their ancestral land to pave way for sugarcane plantations of Malaysian investors.
Saudi Arabia is encouraging companies to invest in farms in Africa as the kingdom seeks to secure supplies of food imports to replace local production, said Agriculture Minister Fahd Balghunaim.
En el informe se asegura que, desde el año 2000, casi un 5% de las tierras agrícolas del África fueron compradas o arrendadas por distintos inversionistas.
Ethiopia has made more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of “fertile and unutilized” land available for agriculture companies that meet government requirements, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.
Le premier ministre éthiopien, Meles Zenawi, a démenti mercredi que l'allocation de terres cultivables à des projets d'investissements privés se traduisait, dans son pays, par des évictions forcées d'agriculteurs.
The attack on the Saudi Star Company has served as a pretext for a hunting down of innocent civilians and a campaign of murder, torture, harassment and intimidation in the remote corners of the country, warns Anywaa Survival.
Sixty years on, controversial agricultural projects are back in fashion in Africa and other parts of the developing world as investors - from foreign governments to wealthy individuals - hunt for land to grow food.
Indigenous people fear collective retaliation by government security forces.
