India in Ethiopia A new trend in Global South’s colonization

Research Question Is India grabbing Ethiopian land?

There are four million pastoral farmers in Ethiopia who may be affected by foreign land lease plans

Ancestral Land Ethiopia is targeted by the foreign agricultural investors. The Ethiopian Government stipulates that foreign investors must satisfy domestic food needs before they can export. Ethiopian government is saying its only allocating land that is idle for investment. However, the local protesters insists that all the land is used by the pastoral farmers. There are four million pastoral farmers who cross 100s of miles in search of fresh pastures for their cattle. The current rental charge for this pastoral land is $10-$35 per hector per year.

“They cant sell the land it is not there’s!” That land is ancestral land!

Ethiopian Government Development opportunity All the land in Ethiopia’s Quasi- socialist economy is officially government owned. The government can lease it out as it sees fit. While some local farmers are compensated, the pastoral farmers are not given compensations. The government believes that the massive foreign investment will solve the problem of the country’s rural economy and provide the country with food self-sufficiency.

Ethiopia

Global Civil Society: A Skeptical View Kenneth Anderson and David Rieff gives an opposite view about the advocacy of NGOs and IGOs. According to the authors, civil society does not act as the representative of citizens to a domestic democratic state but are intermediated at the ballot box. NGOs/ IGOs are undemocratic and do not represent the world and cannot substitute democracy. Globalization, is gradually eroding the authority of sovereign states. Multinational companies are becoming major actors in setting global precedence. Companies like Shell oil, ‘brand-visible’ to Western consumers also include the movement of ethnically based Diaspora that moves the capital across borders like Chinese capital in pacific rim markets. These actors are able to take advantage of the increasingly global nature of economic activities, whereas economic regulation remains fundamentally national.

India

Inside India: Land Used as Commodity Dr. Vandana Shiva In India, the land grab is a toxic mixture of the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1984,and the neoliberal policies – with uncontrolled rule of greed and exploitation Handing over fertile land to private corporations cannot be defined as having a public purpose.

India-Ethiopia building relationship India gave $640 M to Ethiopia to build controversial sugar sector in lower Omo. Indian companies are the largest investors that acquired 600,000 hectares of Ethiopian land for agro- industrial projects.

Ethiopia 80% of the population of Ethiopia is engaged in agriculture However, 34 million people are chronically suffering from hunger Millions depend on outside aid

India’s Ploy? Large scale land deals with Indian investors are portrayed as a promising decision Promises: Modernization of agriculture – Bringing new technologies – Creating new employment

Fight against Land- Grabbing A research institution named Oakland Institute disputes claims that India is providing technology to Ethiopia Most of the crop is non-food quality therefore Ethiopian government does not get tax benefits Foreign investors like India, receives tax incentives

Accusations Is It a discourse for global south – south cooperation or a cover up for human rights violation for southern governments and companies? Indigenous communities are marginalized They suffer multilevel- social, economic and environmental devastation

Land Grabbing: a global phenomenon

Land for free? Grab it Ethiopian Government is offering land for free? A bottle of Johny Walker can buy hectors of land mass. A video by Anuradha Mittal from Oakland Institute wDpg

Other side of the coin: the Water Food trade Nexus Handbook of land and water grabs in Africa by John Anthony Alllan World is not land- scarce. It is short of land with water. Africa is an appropriate destination for responsible land grabbing as there are green water resources. Africa is currently producing low crops and livestock yields.

Vinoba Bhave

Gift of land- Bhoodan Definition: (In India) in a socio-agricultural movement, started by Vinoba Bhave in 1951 in which village land owners were persuaded to give land to the landless. History: On April 18th 1951, the historic day of the very genesis of the Bhoodan movement, Vinoba entered Nalgonda district, the centre of Communist activity. The organizers had arranged Vinoba’s stay at Pochampalli, a large village with about 700 families, of whom two- thirds were landless. Pochampalli gave Vinoba a warm welcome. Vinoba went to visit the Harijan (the Untouchables) colony. By early afternoon villagers began to gather around Vinoba at Vinoba’s cottage. The Harijans asked for eighty acres of land, forty wet, forty dry for forty families that would be enough. Then Vinoba asked, ”If it is not possible to get land from the government, is there not something villagers themselves could do?” To everyone’s surprise, Ram Chandra Reddy, the local landlord, got up & said in a rather excited voice: “I will give you 100 acres for these people.” At his evening prayer meeting, Ram Chandra Reddy got up & repeated his promise to offer 100 acres of land to the Harijans. This incident neither planned nor imagined was the very genesis of the Bhoodan movement & it made Vinoba think that therein lay the potentiality of solving the land problem of India. This movement later on developed into a village gift or Gramdan movement. This movement was a part of a comprehensive movement for the establishment of a Sarvodaya Society (The Rise of All socio-economic-political order), both in India & outside India. Excerpt taken from the MK Gandhi.org

Historical India: Gift of Land Movement Bhoodan by Vinoba Bhave 1951 Narrated by: ‪ Riccardo Gramegna ‪ Riccardo Gramegna Gifting of the land to landless: Villages were Donated and cultivated for agriculture and livestock! 5w

What do you think? Should India fall prey to globalization as Anderson and Rief are suggesting and grab land in Ethiopia? Or Donate land back to the pastoral farmers of Ethiopia using the land gifting principle of Vinoba Bhave? Or Train the pastoral farmers with new technology to cultivate the land and share the benefits with pastoral farmers?

Bibliography victims?INTCMP=SRCH victims?INTCMP=SRCH february february Handbook of Land and Water Grabs in Africa Allan, John Anthony Wageningen University, Wageningen Aalto University, Aalto Pages: 513 Publisher: Routledge Location: Florence, KY, USA Date Published: 09/ Change your thinking by Dominic Brown Jayati Ghosh on land grabbing in Africa: mkgandhi.org Anderson and Rieff africa-well-give-you-20bn-this-year-and-we-shant-bully-you.html africa-well-give-you-20bn-this-year-and-we-shant-bully-you.html