Land activists around the world celebrated the news of the collapse of one of the world’s biggest land grabs: the Indian company Karuturi Global Ltd’s 300,000 hectare farmland deal in Ethiopia. CEO Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi claimed he would bring food security to the horn of Africa while boasting he would soon join the ranks of the world’s biggest food producers.
Karuturi’s failed investment was emblematic of a new wave of companies taking land from African farmers in the wake of the global 2007-2008 food and financial crisis. Instead of food security or investment, these land grabbers have produced misery and conflict. The only solution is to stop these deals and give the land back to the people.
Karuturi is still trying to hold onto his contested 200 hectare flower farm in Naivasha, Kenya, where workers and families have been driven to hunger strikes over unpaid wages. This must be resolved next — and with urgency.
— source grain.org 2017-09-24