April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

foreign agro-business intrusion in some Latin American and Caribbean
countries is enlightening to say the least. In northeastern Brazil, the region
was extensively farmed by foreign agricultural interests for centuries.
Unfortunately this region has nothing to show for it now. Today the region
is the poorest part of the country with the least food security and one of
the highest malnutrition rates in Latin America. Contrary to the promises
made by companies that farmed Brazil’s fertile soil, the outcome has been
very grim. In his famous book ‘Open Veins of Latin America’, Eduardo
Galliano, commenting on Brazil’s northeast, says, ‘Naturally fitted to
produce food, it became a place of hunger. Where everything had bloomed
exuberantly, the destructive and all dominating plantation left sterile
rock, washed out soil, and eroded lands.’ Are Ethiopia’s own fertile lands
headed for the same fate? What makes the current foreign agricultural
adventure in Ethiopia any different?
In fact, the environmental destruction of the land has already begun in this
initial phase. Around Gambella region, Karuturi, an Indian company, which
owns large swaths of the region, is heavily involved in burning forests and
grasslands to make way for potential farmland. It would be unfair to single
out Karuturi alone. Other foreign companies who have settled in the region
are no more saintly. They are also using slash and burn techniques to clear
land. There is no doubt the flora and fauna will be lost forever as a result.
Pastureland is fast becoming eviscerated, affecting local herders, who
depend on their livestock for survival. This process of pastoral land
elimination could have negative consequences for currently inflated meat
prices in Ethiopia, which will undoubtedly exasperate existent levels of
high malnutrition in the country.
According to the government, these lands given to foreign investors were
idle lands, ready to be gobbled up into the global food system without
much disturbance. However, this view depends on one’s definition of ‘idle
land’. Pastureland may seem idle, but its usefulness is undeniable.
Another key consideration should be about the inevitable damage and cost
to future generations. Given the fact that Ethiopia is very much a country
of the future, demographically speaking, this should concern us. Intensive
farming by foreign agro-business has a history of ravaging the land and
turning fertile soil into depleted soil in a short period of time. Other parts
of the globe where this has been practiced testifies to the inevitability of
environmental destruction. In a land that is potentially the breadbasket of
Ethiopia, if not the whole Horn of Africa, such degradation is a real loss for
future generations and therefore presents a moral challenge for us today.
Employment offered by these farms is purported to be a benefit for local
communities. Never mind that the main reason why locals seek this work is
primarily because the agro-businesses have forced them to abandon their
old pastoralist way of life.
Take away this option of survival and people are left with no other choice
but to accept slave wages working on foreign farms. In a way the agribusiness
creates the labour surplus for itself and manages to keep wages
extremely low. The wage paid to workers, on average about $1.50 (25 Birr)
for a day’s work, is nowhere near enough to survive without additional
food aid. According to a recent documentary, some farm workers in
southern Ethiopia complained they were getting paid seven birr per day,
instead of the 25 birr initially promised. That is about 50 cents a day in
dollar terms. By these estimates the lives of these workers were
considerably better before the introduction of foreign agri-business.
Instead of food security, food insecurity is created, perhaps even serious
malnutrition.