by Seifu Tsegaye Demmissie
Failing rains and drought are not the primary causes of the chronic food shortage and persistent famine hitting Ethiopia given the immense potential the country has. Ethiopia is endowed with land and water resources and has the capability to achieve surplus food production and avoid the loss of human lives and livestock.
Ethiopia is also known as the water tower of East Africa. It is because of this unexploited or untapped agricultural potential that the country has now become one of the focal spots of the global land grab. Hence the country`s vulnerability to continuous famines is not only the function of nature.
This is not however to deny the existence of drought prone areas and the impact of erratic rains.
The unfavorable domestic land ownership policy of the ethno fascist regime of Meles Zenawi policy has a pivotal role in making the country vulnerable to the devastating famines. It is to be recalled that the west had blamed the ravaging famine of the 80s on the policies of the military regime of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam.
Various sources indicate that the agricultural sector employs 85 % of the country`s labor force but suffers from poor performance linked mainly to lack of modernization.
Modernization entails long term land use planning and investments in maintaining and improving the productivity of cultivable land. Government ownership and political control of farmers have created insecurity and killed the incentives to apply innovative methods and increase productivity. Moreover, the accesses to cultivable land, inputs and humanitarian aid are dependent on the farmers` loyalty to the regime of Meles Zenawi. Dissenting farmers risk not only imprisonment but also losing their livelihoods. The same thing holds for dissenting civil servants.
Thus cultivable land is a resource of critical importance and policies addressing its ownership and use rights must be worked out and implemented in the context of promoting productivity and sustainability. Many experts maintain that government ownership of land and control of farmers hampers modernization and increased productivity in the agricultural sector. Freeing the farmers from the bondage of government control will release the immense potential of the country and leads to increased productivity.
On the other hand, Zenawi has embarked upon the business of leasing/selling fertile and virgin lands to foreign land grabbers and justifying the leases or sales with attracting foreign investment and modernization of the sector. In so doing he is offering the rights he has denied Ethiopians to foreign interest groups. His preferential or selective opening up of this crucial economic sector to the so called foreign investors can not be seen in isolation from his personal economic interests.
It is known that the large scale commercial farming by land grabbers do not alleviate the chronic shortage of food in Ethiopia. The products are exported back to the countries of origin of the grabbers. Besides, large scale commercial farming can not always be environment friendly and promote sustainable use of land and water resources. They involve massive clearing (deforestation) and use of chemical inputs which can result in long term negative impacts on the ecosystem including land and water pollutions. Ecologically fragile parts like those in the western parts including the Gambella region can not withstand much human interference or disturbances and suffer degradation. These dangers are imminent in Ethiopia where efficient and effective environmental monitoring and regulatory mechanisms are absent or weak and official corruption is rampant.
According to the CIA fact book of 2011, Ethiopia`s population is growing at an annual rate of 3.20 % and the country is placed among those experiencing high population growth in the world. At the same time climatic changes and land degradation are contributing to the scarcity of cultivable land and water resources. The combined effect of these factors presents formidable challenges to the country.
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