MeretMeshetu-Qetluwalaug2009.pdf (application/pdf Object)
The traitorous regime of Meles Zenawi has ceded Ethiopian land to the Sudan and it is now giving more than 1.6 million hectares of fertile land to foreigners coming from the Middle East and East Asia. The effect of this appropriation of land by foreigners is negative and not to be underestimated. Presently, 10 million Ethiopians need food aid and lack of food has been a recurrent and persistent problem. Dictatorial rule and bankrupt economic policies have ruined Ethiopian agriculture and reduced the peasantry to starvation and benumbing poverty.
The ruling EPRDF is interested only in selling Ethiopian land and gaining financial and political benefits. As Ethiopians starve, foreign investors become owners of the fertile land and Saudi Arabia has already exported wheat produced in Ethiopia. A total number pf 8,420 mostly foreign investors (Indian, Saudi, Chinese, etc) have received licenses for commercial farms. It is not by accident that the land set aside for foreigners is mainly in regions outside of Tigrai, the land of the ruling clique. The land set aside is in Benishangul - Gumuz and Gambella in western Ethiopia, in the Southern region and Afar. A further 800,000 hectares in Oromia region and 300,000 in theAmhara region were also in the process of being parcelled out for commercial farming.
The ceding of fertile land to rich foreign investors augurs more problems for countries like Ethiopia that suffer from drought and famine and debilitated agricultural production. The poor farmers will inevitably be reduced to poor agricultural workers and will never be able to stand on their own feet. Chinese, Indian and Saudi or Arab investors have proved to be merciless exploiters with no restraint and concern for the local people. This is why the EPRP is fiercely opposed to this ceding of land to so called foreign investors.
The traitorous regime of Meles Zenawi has ceded Ethiopian land to the Sudan and it is now giving more than 1.6 million hectares of fertile land to foreigners coming from the Middle East and East Asia. The effect of this appropriation of land by foreigners is negative and not to be underestimated. Presently, 10 million Ethiopians need food aid and lack of food has been a recurrent and persistent problem. Dictatorial rule and bankrupt economic policies have ruined Ethiopian agriculture and reduced the peasantry to starvation and benumbing poverty.
The ruling EPRDF is interested only in selling Ethiopian land and gaining financial and political benefits. As Ethiopians starve, foreign investors become owners of the fertile land and Saudi Arabia has already exported wheat produced in Ethiopia. A total number pf 8,420 mostly foreign investors (Indian, Saudi, Chinese, etc) have received licenses for commercial farms. It is not by accident that the land set aside for foreigners is mainly in regions outside of Tigrai, the land of the ruling clique. The land set aside is in Benishangul - Gumuz and Gambella in western Ethiopia, in the Southern region and Afar. A further 800,000 hectares in Oromia region and 300,000 in theAmhara region were also in the process of being parcelled out for commercial farming.
The ceding of fertile land to rich foreign investors augurs more problems for countries like Ethiopia that suffer from drought and famine and debilitated agricultural production. The poor farmers will inevitably be reduced to poor agricultural workers and will never be able to stand on their own feet. Chinese, Indian and Saudi or Arab investors have proved to be merciless exploiters with no restraint and concern for the local people. This is why the EPRP is fiercely opposed to this ceding of land to so called foreign investors.
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