Karuturi Global Ltd

One of the problems with so-called ‘land grabs’ is secrecy. Most of the contracts that seal such deals are hidden from public scrutiny, which makes it very hard to establish what is really going on.

Karuturi's 15 John Deere tractors plough 500 hectares a day on its 300,000 land concession in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. This is land clearance on a gigantic scale.

Documentaire sur l'accacparement de terres en Ethiopie

Ethiopia has offered 1.8 million hectares of its farmland to Indian investors that equals nearly 40 percent of the total area of the principal grain-growing state of Punjab.

Indian businessman also has major stakes in farmland investors Ruchi Soya, KS Oils and Equitorial Palm Oil.

Bloqué par des difficultés d’acquisition de terres en Inde, le groupe Karuturi s’est tourné vers l’Afrique et a acheté ses premières parcelles en Éthiopie en 2004. Depuis, ses revenus ont été multipliés par onze, pour atteindre plus de 110 millions de dollars.

Karuturi has an agreement to provide 40,000 tons of rice to neighboring Djibouti.

If what is going on in Gambella was happening in New Delhi, India; in Oxford, England; in Bismarck, North Dakota; in Saskatoon, Canada; this would be unthinkable.

Karuturi is perhaps the poster child for the big land grabs that have characterized large scale agricultural investment in Ethiopia

50yr lease agreement between Ethiopian government and India's Karuturi covering an initial 100,000 ha in Gambela. Contract enables Karuturi to extend concession by another 200,000 ha.

“I got in on the ground floor, others got in on the second floor, but there’s a lot of floors left to go in Africa’s economic cycle,” says farmland investor Sai Karuturi.

Ramesh Krishnaswamy of Karuturi Global in an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18