Famed social scientist finds more glitches in Ethiopia’s large scale ‘land transfers’

By T, Staffer of De Birhan Media

10-10-2011

A recent paper entitled “LAND TO INVESTORS: Large-Scale Land Transfers in Ethiopia” published in August 2011, by Dessalegn Rahmato, one of Ethiopia’s prominent social scientists found out that Ethiopia’s large scale land transfers for foreign investors are filled with glitches and secrecy. The paper by Forum for Social Studies, taking two case study areas in Oromia and Gambella regions, concluded that the negative effects of land transfer are high than the assumed benefits by the Government.

The following were the conclusions of the paper,

•   The new agricultural system will progressively marginalize smallholders. The land deals provide no adequate safeguards and neither do government institutions have the capacity for effective monitoring of the operations of investment projects.
•      Secondly, the state has used its hegemonic authority over the land to dispossess smallholders and their communities without consulting them, without their consent.
•      Thirdly, there are no formal or informal obligations on the part of investment projects to contribute to the food security needs of the country.
• Fourthly, the government’s objectives in promoting large-scale investments have to a large extent not been met, nor are some of them likely to be met in the present circumstances.          
• Finally, the government has not given sufficient consideration to different land-use options but has instead blindly put its faith on large-scale farming. Gambella, for example, could have been used as a large wildlife park.

The Researcher also covered the general lack of political and civil liberties citing the 2007 economic development strategies Plan of the ruling party that played a role in the glitches,

In Ethiopia today, it is argued, all civil society organizations, opposition political parties, individuals and groups in private enterprise, and other groups are described as rent-seeking entities, while in contrast EPRDF, the ruling Party, is claimed to be the only one which has developmental credentials.

He says this trend led to centralisation of power and the centralization has been made even more powerful over the years because

The country’s Parliament continues to be a rubber-stamp institution, the dominant source of public information is the government-controlled media (the independent press has been stifled) and civil society institutions have lost what little voice they had (Rahmato,2011).

According Dessalegn the government has already transferred about 3.5 million hectares of land to investors and is now taking measures to transfer a similar amount in the next five years. However, there still exists huge confusion regarding the sizes of land available for lease within the different government authorities.

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MOARD)’s 2008 report says some 54 m hectare is available for investment projects. The same document at a different page states land said to be available in each of the Regions is estimated to be about 10 million hectares and in an interview, the researcher conducted with an expert at MOARD , in the second half of 2010, land available was 5 million hectares.

The evidence available suggests that by the end of the end of the GTP period in 2015, a total land transferred to investors will measure nearly 7 million hectares, which is equal to about 38 percent of land currently utilized by smallholders (Rahmato,2011).

Out of the total 3,589,678ha land transferred to MOARD’s  Land Bank, Orimia, Gambella and Benishangul regions transferred huge sums of land respectively. Tigray region has not transferred any land to the Bank.

Dessalegn  also found out that group action and demonstrations have occurred in which peasants contested the transfer of land and attempted to drive off the project staff and those who peacefully protested the sale of land for these purposes were detained especially  Godere woreda, Gambella. There were also labourers who have been abused by foreign investors,

Two women labourers told our team that they had suffered physical abuse and sexual harassment at work in Bako Tibee woreda, located in West Shoa Zone of Oromia region (Rahmato, 2011).

On his personal note at the end of the Paper, Dessalegn explained that the research has been difficult and the land transfer is in general filled with secrecy.

It may be worth noting here that there is an air of secrecy among public agencies about the land deals that have been concluded so far, which indicates that there are regulatory and procedural issues that the authorities are not willing to acknowledge, and that land transfers have been undertaken hastily, and without adequate considerations of long-term consequences. The earlier allocations in particular, those that were undertaken largely by the Regions in the period up to the end of 2008, were not based on well-informed decisions but rather rushed through with little or no safeguards and hardly any obligations on the part of the investors for sound land management.

The whole paper can be accessed : HERE