In 2015, less than a fifth of the total land leased in Ethiopia by local and international companies was being farmed
was to transform farming in southern Ethiopia. Twelve years ago Fri-El, an Italian conglomerate, signed a lease with the state government for 30,000 hectares of farmland in South Omo to make palm oil. But the palms needed more water than the copper-coloured Omo river could supply and production was so disappointing that in 2011 its lease was cut by a third in size. Even a switch to cotton production did not help. Many bolls are left unpicked owing to labour shortages.
Instead South Omo has become a cautionary tale. No cotton farm in the local area is operating anywhere near capacity, reckons Benedikt Kamski, who studies such matters for the Arnold-Bergstraesser Institute, a German think-tank. In 2018 less than 3% of the 90,000 hectares leased to investors in three of South Omo’s districts was being farmed, he found.
Some investors were incompetent. “We didn’t know what to do, we’re not farmers,” admits an estate manager in South Omo. Others were crooked. In the region of Gambella 335 out of 420 land deals were signed in just three years after 2008, according to a paper from 2016 by Fana Gebresenbet, an Ethiopian academic. Most involved individuals linked to the ruling party. Many such ventures may be what Mr Kamski calls “dummy farms”: idle assets acquired to get generous government loans.
South Omo has also been deprived of resources it needs for development, which makes farming even more difficult. The valley did not contain a sizeable bridge until 2010. Shoddy construction meant it collapsed before it was finished the following year. Scant infrastructure is a headache for companies such as Fri-El. The lack of local petrol stations means it must transport the tens of thousands of litres of diesel it needs each month more than 350km to its farm.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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