Sun Energy Empowers Ethiopian Village

BBC News -- Two years after the installation of a solar power project funded by international aid groups, villagers in northern Ethiopia say the sun's energy has turned their lives around.

Rema, 150 miles north of the capital Addis Ababa, is home to Ethiopia's largest solar project.

Here, every house in the village has electricity powered by solar lighting systems.

This is unique in Ethiopia - 80% of the population live in rural areas where only 1% of the population have access to electricity.

Lighting up the countryside has long been a challenge for African governments. Unlike houses in urban areas, villages in rural areas are often difficult to connect to the national electricity grid.

Solar power has been touted by some as the long-term solution to Africa's energy needs.

Domestic solar panels can provide cheap, clean and reliable electricity.

Light for homework

The village roofs are dotted with solar panels. One panel gives them about four lamps. The energy can also be used for radios and tape recorders.

Solar power has had a significant impact on the lives of people living here.

Elfenesh Tefera, 40, enjoys solar energy at home with her 50-year-old farmer husband Aseged Hailemariam.

"Our kids can do their homework at night now, because there is light. They are very happy," says Ms Tefera.

"We've had solar energy for over a year now. We're very happy because we're saving money. Altogether we have eight children, and for our kids at school the solar energy is great."

Her husband adds: "We're taking care of the panels so that we don't have to spend money replacing them."

A local bar has increased its turnover because of solar energy. With lamps running on solar energy, people stay in the bar after darkness falls.

Cold beer is in high demand in Rema - the bar's solar-powered fridge has made it available.

Hirut Kebede, a 25-year old bar worker, says solar panels have changed her life.

"I don't have to struggle with smoke [from the gas lamps] any more. Before we used gas lamps, we had to keep bottles cold by putting them in the sand," she said.

"Now we have more customers and compared to before I sell a lot more than I used to."

Newcomers

Samson Tsegaye, the country director of the solar energy foundation in Ethiopia, says there are currently 300 requests for new solar home systems in Rema.

There are currently 2,100 solar home systems in the village.

Because of its solar power, Rema has become attractive to people from other areas. Paraffin for lamps is often hard to find in rural areas. As a result, newcomers are settling in and building new houses in the village.

A solar technician training school has been set up in Rema where students from technical schools are trained to manage solar energy.

There are currently 33 solar energy technicians who have been trained at the school in Rema, all working in different parts of Ethiopia.

"People are sometimes suspicious of energy coming from the sun," says Mr Tsegaye.

"Some say that it is the devil's work. It was difficult for them to understand at the beginning. But when they have light in their homes, they are really happy.

"They are 24-hour light users, and that is better than the big cities in this country."

Tilahun Gessesse 1940-2009

Zenawi Building the Largest Dam in the World in Ethiopia Without a Feasibility Study

BBC NEWS -- Deep in the gorge country that falls off the Ethiopian plateau, workers in boots and hard hats are hammering, drilling, blasting and digging their way into the mountainside for the foundations of the vast wall that will, when finished, create the second largest hydroelectricity dam in sub-Saharan Africa.

Teams of workers are blasting out the "keyhole" - the slot in the side of the valley that will hold the dam wall in place.

Others are finishing the concrete lining to the last of three 1,000m long tunnels that have already begun diverting the Omo River waters around the main construction site.

According to the engineers, they are now about a third of the way through the project, and on schedule to finish the Gilgel Gibe III hydroelectricity project sometime in 2012.

By then, the wall will soar 240 metres high - the tallest of its type anywhere in the world; holding back a reservoir 150 kilometres long.

The dam will provide 1,800 megawatts of electricity. That will more than double the country's current generating capacity in one hit, and according to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, solve a national energy crisis.

"We cannot afford not to have Gilgel Gibe III," he said.

"We need that type of mega-project given the increased domestic demand and the requirements of export.

"And secondly, it enables us to store water and regulate the flooding [downstream in the Omo River]."

He rejects fears that some 500,000 people could see their livelihoods destroyed by the dam.

Tall order

The dam will also produce far more electricity than the country is capable of consuming. The vast bulk of it has been earmarked for export to neighbours like Sudan and Kenya.

"That would provide us with valuable foreign currency that will help with our balance of payments," said the prime minister.

So urgent was the need to get the dam built quickly that the government short-circuited the usual internationally accepted procedures for these kinds of massive infrastructure projects.

Usually, a government will first conduct a feasibility study followed by an environmental and social impact assessment to decide whether it really is wise to go ahead with the plan.

Then, it will raise the finance, call for competitive tenders and award the construction contract.

Instead, the government first negotiated the contract directly with Italian civil engineering giant Salini Costruttori.

It then went looking for the finance - a procedure that has left the government with a massive hole in its budget.

The two financial institutions that the government had hoped would back the project - the World Bank and the European Investment Bank - have both refused to get involved because the government broke international and domestic transparency rules by dealing directly with Salini.

"I think quite rightly, we have an obligation not only to do the right thing but to demonstrate very clearly that we are doing the right thing," said Greg Toulmin, the World Bank's country director for Ethiopia.

"In order to do that, we have to go through all these very meticulous processes to check all the aspects of any operation that we provide loan or guarantee to. That's something that takes time."

Standing firm

It's a luxury that Mihert Debeba, head of the Electricity Corporation, said Ethiopia simply can't afford.

He said: "Africa is in the dark. If we have to use very luxurious preconditions we wouldn't develop any hydro-power.

"Give us a choice. Should we stay in darkness? Should we avoid all this development?"

The corporation also short-circuited the environmental and social impact assessment (EIA) process. Instead the study - which gave the project a clean bill of health - was published two years after construction began.

One of the project's staunchest critics, Kenyan ecologist Richard Leakey, suspects the study was produced with one aim in mind.

He said:

"The scientists that I've shown [the EIA] to - some of whom have worked in Ethiopia for years and may have even advised the Ethiopian government at some point - suggest it is fatally flawed in terms of its logic, in terms of its thoroughness, in terms of its conclusions.

"And it looks like an inside job that has come up with the results that they were looking for to get the initial funding for this dam."

More on International Rivers and Friends of Lake Turkana.

Broken Bones and Body Bags: Horrors Facing Ethiopian Domestic Workers

The Daily Star -- At the Ethiopian Consulate in Beirut, a poster declares "Ethiopia: 13 weeks of sunshine" as two officials sit at their desks. The three chairs in the waiting room are usually occupied these days: In just one recent week, the mission heard of one Ethiopian domestic worker who died a suspicious death and another who is in hospital with both legs broken, possibly paralyzed, and can only communicate by blinking her eyes.

The previous week, a woman walked in shaking. When the social officer asked her what was wrong, she replied that her "Madame" - her employer - threatened her with a knife.

It has long been the case that women from impoverished countries like Ethiopia come to Lebanon to work, that many encounter abuse and even violence, and that most find they have nowhere to turn.

Elinore Molla and Victoria Andarge, two Ethiopian women who are involved with the Full Gospel Church in Beirut, have turned an apartment they are renting into a makeshift sanctuary for women who flee their employers after facing some sort of abuse.

"The consulate doesn't have a resting room. Women sleep under the cars [outside the consulate], so many guys come and harass them. They are only 20 years old with a future and destiny. I take the decision in my life to suffer for them," said Molla, 27, who is originally from Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.

Molla first found out about the women sleeping underneath the cars about a year ago.

"When I was walking I saw the girls," she recalls. "I found four girls ... I was shocked. They said, 'help us.'"

She took them into her home, which today houses about two dozen women at any given time. "I'm Christian, I'm a believer," she told The Daily Star. "Everyday I see my people and my nation, with no one to take responsibility. The idea comes from God - helping protect someone who was abused. I ask the girl when I take her to my home: 'What's the problem with your sponsor?' And she says, 'so many things.'"

The head of the social affairs office at the Ethiopian Consulate, who preferred not to be identified by name, confirmed that women continue to sleep under cars near the mission until this day.

There are several problems with the situation of domestic migrant workers in Lebanon, she explained: "It is not only Ethiopian workers facing problems, but because women from other countries stopped signing contracts, the number of Ethiopians increased."

There is currently no reliable data, but the consulate estimates the number of Ethiopian workers in Lebanon to be between 40,000 and 50,000, a substantial increase since the number of women coming from Sri Lanka and the Philippines dropped off following the 2006 war with Israel - and attendant stories of abuse and neglect. The Ethiopian government officially barred its own women from coming to Lebanon earlier this year, but many are now traveling here through third countries.

The head of the consular section, who also did not want to be named, said that problems frequently begin from the day of arrival. Many sponsors do not adhere to the terms of the contracts, he explained, such as duration, remuneration, and hours of work expected.

What is even more problematic, he added, is when agencies do not take responsibility when a woman files a complaint, paving the way for a volatile relationship between the workers and their employers.

"We are facing a lot of problems," he said. "One problem is by the housemaids, second by the sponsors. Since we are foreigners to this country we have a different culture, so from the beginning it is difficult for her to get accustomed.

"But I want to turn to the sponsors' problem," he added. "There are a lot of problems from sponsors, they don't pay salaries on time, they treat them aggressively, they don't get enough food, and they don't provide shelter."

According to the consulate, some 70 percent of employers who employ Ethiopians don't pay their employees on a monthly basis.

"Sometimes they close the balcony and make them sleep on the floor," added the head of the social affairs office, "and they beat her to make her understand. That's why she becomes aggressive toward agencies, the consulate and herself."

Most troubling of all, the mission says it has been sending a record number of corpses back to Ethiopia.

The consulate estimates that 150 women have died in a little more than a year, and there is no accountability.

In one recent case, Mekdes Tesfaye Tefera's corpse was found with a noose around her neck. But the consulate has doubts that this was a self-inflicted death and has filed a police report.

"They always say, 'she killed herself,'" the social affairs officer said.

In the case of Zebiba Kedr, who is currently hospitalized, the consulate is working on having charges laid against the woman for whom she was working. The employers have stated that Kedr fell from the 12th floor of their building, but the head of the consular section said that when he went to see her in the hospital and asked her "Madame" had pushed her, she indicated 'yes' by blinking her eyes.

Stories like these make the unofficial shelter run by Molla and Andarge even more essential. Andarge said the agencies were the main problem, accusing them of "playing a game" with people's lives. The government needs to get involved, she added, and make sure the agencies take responsibility for the women and how they are treated.

The consulate representatives said they had an agreement with all the agencies that said the latter were to be responsible for the women they bring to Lebanon, and that this is why mission does not have a shelter.

The nongovernmental organization Caritas offers a safehouse for workers who are flee their employers' homes, but Molla said that these spaces are usually reserved for those who are very sick or have psychological problems.

Molla is one of the lucky ones. She came to Lebanon when she was 17 years old and says she has always been well treated by her employer.

"She is like my mom, she is Lebanese, and she supports me. I love her," Molla told The Daily Star.

But since she regards her own experience as the exception rather than the rule, she discourages other Ethiopian women from traveling to Lebanon for work - a process which she described as getting easier by the day.

"The Lebanese name is collapsing everywhere," she said, explaining that in Addis Ababa, Lebanon's reputation is causing fewer and fewer would-be migrant workers to sign up.

To compensate, she added, the recruiters have started concentrating on women from remote villages.

Molla said she tells women in Ethiopia "what is going on" in Lebanon, "and that it's better to stay in your country, because you still have hopes there. Here there are no hopes."

Nonetheless, a young woman now staying at the makeshift safehouse said she would like to stay here and support her family back home - if her employers here were to treat her well.

Andarge believes there is hope to change the situation and has already noticed changes in public opinion and awareness. New York-based Human Rights Watch recently conducted a hard-hitting campaign on the plight of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, and last month the American University of Beirut hosted a conference and roundtable discussion on the issue. Some of the students were appalled at what they heard, she said, and their reaction was a pleasant "surprise."

"It will be changed," Andarge said with tears in her eyes. "We just need strong people."

Read more Electronic Lebanon.

Change Is Here

Friends of Ethiopia hopes that the continent of Africa will one day be blessed with change, exemplified in President-elect Barack Obama's message to transform Washington. Furthermore, all Africans should have the option to freely and democratically elect their leaders. Hopefully, they will have many opportunities in the future to elect compassionate, intelligent and thoughtful leaders, who care, inspire and are capable of bringing real change to the masses.

Yes, We Can!

Sowing the Seeds of Corporate Agriculture in Africa

foodandwaterwatch.org -- Not all is well with agriculture in Africa. In addition to the buffeting from intermittent deluge and drought, the continent is facing pressure to replace its traditional small scale farming way of life with factory-style food production that emphasizes growing more of fewer types of crops, such as corn, cotton, and sorghum, for export around the world. Along with that, U.S.-based global agrochemical and grain trading corporations are pushing for greater use of specialty seeds, including genetically engineered varieties, and chemical pesticides and fertilizers to aid the growth of those monoculture export crops. These expensive seeds and other inputs would push many subsistence and small-scale growers of diverse types of food off their land and into already overcrowded cities.

This transformation is being marketed under the guise of helping African farmers produce more food to deal with hunger. Leading the way are the Gates and Rockefeller foundations, which are investing $150 million into their Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa project, which they regard as essential for food security and enhanced economic development on the continent.1

On its website, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, also known as AGRA or the Alliance, describes itself as an organization led by Africans and as a “dynamic partnership working across the continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. Alliance programmes develop practical solutions to dramatically boost farm productivity and incomes while safeguarding the environment and biodiversity. To achieve this goal, Alli-ance partnerships focus on key aspects of African agriculture: from seeds, soil health and water to markets, agricultural education and policy.” 2

The AGRA project leaders have so far played down the promotion and use of genetically modified seeds in their agenda. But an increasing number of critics fear this will change down the road after hundreds of African students are trained in biotechnology in the next two years. In July 2007, the Alliance stated that it was not against the use of genetically modified crops, but was, for the time being, “focusing on conventional methods because it could generate quick successes and fits within the regulatory framework of African countries.” 3

Josphat Ngonyo, who works with the Africa Network for Animal Welfare in Nairobi, Kenya, does not buy that line. Based on what he views as similarities between the workings of the Alliance and Monsanto, the world’s leading producer and purveyor of genetically modified seeds, Ngonyo foresees the effort pushing a combination of sophisticated and expensive hybrid and genetically modified seeds: “The way that the Gates and Rockefeller foundations have set up AGRA resembles a well known Monsanto format. AGRA purports to, among other things, finance and train small and medium sized agro-chemical dealerships, up to the village level, to make sure ‘improved seeds’ (read GMOs) have a smooth channel to flow to all farmers across the continent. But Monsanto must police its technology contracts, so its transfer from Monsanto’s labs to farmers is best controlled if the financier has a hand on the seed supply chain in Africa.” In short, this leads to corporate control of the seed supply, regardless of whether it is genetically engineered.4

The chances are good that this effort will sow as much environmental, economic, and social damage as the original Green Revolution that began in 1943 with the Rockefeller Foundation sending scientists to Mexico to develop higher-yielding varieties of wheat, maize, and other crops. It “…essentially dispersed cutting-edge U.S. agricultural technology – ‘dwarf” grain varieties, petrochemical fertilizers, and large-scale irrigation systems –– through much of Latin America and South-east Asia…Where the program took hold, grain yields surged, the prices farmers fetched for them on global markets plunged –– and small-scale farmers lost out…Unable to compete with larger operations –– which had the cash to buy the Green Revolution ‘package’ of hybrid seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides and could access lavishly funded irrigation projects –– smallholders began a mass migration to the cities in the 1960s and ‘70s. In Southeast Asia, long held up as one of the Green Revolution’s success stories, the urban population swung from 20 percent in 1975 to 35 percent in 2000.” 5

Poverty increased in Latin America and in Asia as a result of thousands of people being pushed off their land by those changes in agriculture and into cities unable to house or employ them.

GMO protesters in Africa
The same scenario could be in store for Africa as industrial agriculture takes hold: “In most large cities of Africa, the population is increasingly moving to unplanned settlements on the periphery where land is cheapest. In contrast to Latin America, however, this horizontal expansion does not involve job relocation, and it reduces the efficacy of major urban infrastructure such as piped water, electricity, sewerage, and roads. The projected average annual growth rate of the urban population in Africa during 2000 through 2020, 3.9 percent, portends that settlements will only deteriorate, particularly in the absence of sustained economic growth. Of equal concern to some commentators is the proliferation of ‘urban villages’ of 200,000 to 400,000 residents, large towns and small cities that typically lack the most basic amenities for a decent standard of living. The UN anticipates that in 2020 60 percent of urbanites in Africa will reside in cities with fewer than 500,000 residents, making urban development planning for small locales a continued priority.” 6

The risks to Africa of fully adopting industrial agriculture in general and GM seeds in particular include:

* transferring its food and farming decisions –– its food sovereignty –– to global corporations,
* losing ecological and agricultural diversity as genetically modified crop varieties spread through pollen contamination, and
* driving small- and medium-scale family farmers off their land because they cannot afford the expensive inputs, including genetically modified seeds, that industrial agriculture demands.

To head off such an outcome, first in Kenya and then across Africa, the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition of farmer, faith-based, consumer and other organizations, including Ngonyo’s Africa Network for Animal Welfare, is looking to strengthen the badly crafted and weak biosafety bill: “…the current bill is not comprehensive and inclusive i.e. the bill purports to ad-dress Biosafety issues whereas it actually focuses on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) to which, according to a re-cent media poll, 81 percent of Kenyans are opposed to. It excludes more pertinent Biosafety issues such as edible vaccines from crops and animals…” 7

The coalition argues that the proposed legislation fails to adopt the precautionary principle –– the concept that proponents of a potentially harmful technology must show that it will not cause harm before society allows for it to be introduced –– or to consider how genetically modified seeds and crops could harm human health, the environment, the indigenous seed supply, and food security.8

SIGN the petition to help Kenyans safeguard against GMOs!

READ what Friends of AGRA are up to in Ethiopia.

Remembering Abebe Bikila

In 1960, Abebe Bikila stunned the world by winning the Rome Olympics running bare foot, to win Ethiopia and Africa its first Olympic gold medal. Abebe also set world and Olympic marathon records. Four years later (1968), the Ethiopian returned for the Tokyo Olympics, this time wearing track shoes. He won the race with relative ease and again set a new world and Olympic marathon record.

More on Bikila.

Sadly, there is no memorial in Ethiopia for Abebe Bikila.

Ruling Party's Business Conglomerate Grosses 4 Million USD

Capital -- Guna Trading House Plc, one of the companies operating under EFFORT (Endowment Fund for Rehabilitation of Tigray), the ruling party’s (EPRDF) business conglomerate, has registered a gross profit of 4 million USD, during the 2006/07 annual operations.

According to a report released on Sunday, July 27, 2008, Guna’s gross profit has increased from 1.22 million USD in 2002/3 to 4 million USD during the aforementioned year, recording a considerable increase of 227 percent.

“Export sales have gone up to 11 million USD during 2006/07 from 3.5 million USD during 2002/03, registering a boost of 214 percent,” the report stated. The endowment company imports and exports industrial and agricultural products respectively. Its’ main exports include sesame seeds, natural gum, coffee, pulses and spices. Products the company imports comprise construction materials, industrial and agricultural inputs as well as distributing local products.

Moreover, the company’s total sales have grown by more than 200 percent as compared to 2002/03 operations, mounting from 14 million to 43 million USD.

In a meeting the management held with staff members last week Sunday, at the Axum hotel, success was attributed to the high commitment shown by the management and staff in delivering product and services; satisfying customers and other stake holders.

Recently the management unveiled plans to raise the amount of hard currency Ethiopia earns by increasing the company’s sesame export to a record 38 million USD, this year, targeting to export 20,000 tons worth 38 million USD, which is more than that of the last five years combined (33.6 million USD). The price of sesame, which was below 900 USD per ton about two years ago on average, has now jumped to 2000 USD.

Guna is a trading company established in 1992, with a paid up capital of 10 million USD and annual turn over of 50 million USD. It administers more than 200 employees, with its head office in Addis Ababa and branches in Mekelle, Shire, Humera, Dessie and Gonder towns. Currently it is finalizing construction of its’ headquarters at a cost of more than 15 million birr.

Sister companies of Guna under EFFORT include Messebo Building Materials Production, Mesfin Industrial Engineering, Ezana Mining Development, Addis Pharmaceutical Factory, Hiwot Agricultural Mechanization, Sheba Tannery, Express Transit Service, Trans Ethiopia, Saba Dimensional Stones, Almeda Textile Factory and Sur Construction.

EFFORT is centrally managed by the Chief Executive Office, former Minister of Revenue, Getachew Belay.

The Bin Laden Bridge of the Horns Connection

Capital -- A project for a multi- billion dollar bridge that would span the Red Sea at an 18-mile-wide strait, connecting the southern tip of Yemen with Djibouti, was launched on Monday, July 28, in Djibouti with the initial stage of the project scheduled to start next October.

The venture is part of a 200 billion dollar, Al Noor Cities Project, to be developed by Al Noor Holding Investment Co. (Al Noor), a United Arab Emirates based company owned by Sheik Tarek M. bin Laden and his two sons, Bandar and Amr, the former being the brother of Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda.

The ‘Bridge of the Horns’ will have a six-lane highway with four light rail lines as well as water and oil pipelines. Connecting East Africa and the Middle East, the project involves the development of two new cities that would eventually be connected by a 28.5 km road and rail bridge between Yemen and Djibouti. It will also comprise suspension bridge structures, with the suspension portion to become the longest in the world. Moreover, to allow large vessels to pass underneath, the bridge would have two main suspension spans, each about 2.7kilometers long.

Speaking at the launching, CEO of Al Noor Mohammed Ahmed Al Ahmed said, “It is a new city and it is happening. Africa is the center of the world with a population of close to 1 billion, while the Middle East North Africa region has a population of 400 million. We have all the ingredients to make this project a reality.”

More than 50 top companies in the world, many of them from the US, are closely associated with the project, which has an estimated price tag ranging from 10 to 20 billion USD and was conceptualized by Sheikh Tarek bin Laden. bin Laden’s company, Al Noor Holding Investment, will be responsible for the projects execution in phases to be spread out across 12 to 15 years.

Mesfin Asfaw, representative of Middle East Development LLC Tarek and Elias Taha, Coordinating Committee of the project both based in Ethiopia, jointly told Capital that Al Noor Alliance, which has already been formed as a group of 50 world class companies, will be responsible for the management of the project.

“The Alliance Program Management Office has been established by the alliance and will staff, develop and manage this program through its entire life cycle,” Mesfin said, “There will be no constraint of funding”.

Present at the launch announcement were Prime Minister of Djibouti, Mohammed Dileita, Shiek Tarik bin Laden and his two sons, Bandar and Amr, several Djiboutian officials and some 200 journalists from nearly 80 countries.

Tarek bin Laden is an elder brother of the world’s most famous terrorist.
The bin Laden family, from Saudi Arabia, has operated a construction empire for decades. In the mid-1990s, the clan cut its financial ties with Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda, around the time he declared war on the United States and called for the overthrow of the Saudi ruling family.

Since then, the rest of the bin Ladens -- Osama has 24 half brothers and 29 half sisters -- have quietly gone on with their business. The bridge would be their most ambitious project to date, overshadowing their renovations of Islamic holy sites in the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina.

The Green Hunger

LA Times -- They call it the green hunger.

Four-foot cornstalks sprout from rain-soaked earth, and wind billows fields of teff, the staple Ethiopian grain. Goats and cattle are getting fat on lush grasses -- but the children are still dying.

"It's strange to see hunger when everything is so green," said Wariso Shete, 26, a southern Ethiopia farmer who recently buried his 3-year-old son. "But there is no food. The boy just starved."

Once again, images of emaciated children are emerging from this Horn of Africa nation, rekindling memories of the 1984 famine that killed nearly 1 million people. This time Ethiopia has been grappling with a double whammy: drought in its traditional breadbasket and a global food crisis that has pushed prices sky high.

Although recent rains and an influx of humanitarian aid have experts cautiously predicting the crisis might be stabilizing in parts of the country, nearly 10 million people will need emergency aid to survive until the harvest in September.

Green hungers are just one oddity of Ethiopia's long struggle to feed itself. The country, considered the water tower of East Africa because its highlands are the primary source of the Nile, suffers chronic drought. It is Africa's second-largest corn producer, but requires hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid every year.

An exploding population is one cause. Others point to a socialist-leaning government that's been slow to embrace market-based policies. And everyone agrees that international donors spend too little -- less than 5% of all aid -- on long-term development, such as irrigation.

In an interview, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi emphasized that the current crisis masks dramatic progress.

"This emergency is occurring in an environment of spectacular success in agriculture," he said. "The vast majority of farmers have never had it so good."

Agriculture production is growing by 10% a year, he said, and as recently as 2006, Ethiopia grew so much corn that it exported surplus to Sudan.

National pride might explain why the government initially seemed to downplay the drought, accusing the United Nations of exaggerating the number of malnourished children. Meles' exasperation with those who portray Ethiopia as desperate and needy was evident.

"I'm telling those people to go to hell," he said. "Ethiopians are not hapless. They are not helpless. We are making a real dent in poverty."

One of the biggest problems is population growth. Ethiopia, with an estimated 80 million people, has doubled in size since the mid-1980s.

Simply put, the nation, in which 85% of people toil as small farmers, has reached a point where it can't easily grow enough food to meet its needs. Although agricultural production has increased overall, it has declined per capita, according to the World Bank.

Even in a year without drought or crisis, one in 10 people rely on international food aid to survive. More than 400 children die every day from malnutrition. Ethiopia is one of the few African nations with its own factory for Plumpy'nut, a peanut-based paste used to remedy acute malnutrition.

"We have not moved far enough away from the poverty line for us to have enough cushion," Meles said. "One unexpected weather event can push us over the precipice."

Some praise Ethiopia's government for its anti-poverty campaigns, which have reduced child mortality by 40%. New roads have fostered nationwide trade, helping stabilize agricultural markets. The government allocates about 17% of its budget to agricultural development, nearly three times as much as its neighbors.

But Ethiopia's state-dominated economy is also blamed for the persistent food shortages. The government controls all major industries, and there is no private ownership of land.

Under pressure from Western donors, Meles, a onetime Marxist who preaches the free market, has opened the window to private enterprise, notably allowing private flower farms to export to Europe.

"They talk about free market, but you don't see it," said economist Befekadu Degefe, a government critic. "They see the private sector as a threat, as competition, so they try to eliminate it."

In the agricultural sector, the government controls the distribution of fertilizer and, to a lesser extent, seeds; it sometimes restricts sales, as with a current export ban on cereals; and though farmers are free to grow what they want, 20,000 agricultural advisors keep close tabs, also functioning as tax collectors. "The government hand is still a little too heavy," said Glenn Anders, USAID's mission director in Ethiopia.

One of the government's successes is the Safety Net, a welfare-for-work program in which more than 7 million chronically needy farmers receive cash or food in exchange for labor on new roads, mountain terraces or other public infrastructure. The proactive approach is cheaper than emergency aid, donors say.

"If the Safety Net were not there, this current crisis would have been much worse than it is," said Viviane Van Steirteghem of UNICEF.

Ethiopia's emergency food reserve was once seen as a model for the region. With a capacity of 400,000 metric tons of grains, the reserve could have handled the drought. But stocks dwindled over the last two years as the government released grains to ease inflation, now 40% annually.

Ethiopia's mix of socialism and capitalism doesn't always work, experts say.

In the 1990s, the government gave fertilizer and seeds to southern farmers, yielding a regional bumper crop. But without functioning, free markets, farmers couldn't sell their surplus, so prices collapsed by 50% in the area.

"You can't rely on the government," said Telenti Kwati, 60, a farmer south of the capital, Addis Ababa. "Sometimes they give you something, then the next year they don't."

But farmer Mohammed Kedir, 23, dreams of the day when he can own a plot of land. Though the law allows farmers to pass the land they work to their children, Kedir said local officials nearly seized his family plot after his father's death.

If he owned the land, he said, he might experiment with more-profitable crops.

"But if the government can take my land at any time," he said, "what's the point of trying so hard?"

"It's strange to see hunger when everything is so green"
-Wariso Shete, 26, a southern Ethiopia farmer

Ethiopian Officials Give Djibouti Land to Grow Wheat

Reuters.com -- Land-locked Ethiopia has given Djiboutian President Omar Ismail Guelleh large tracts of land for wheat farming and a lakeside holiday home, officials said on Tuesday.

The Red Sea state has been Ethiopia's major outlet to the sea since Addis Ababa lost the ports of Assab and Massawa when Eritrea won independence in 1991.

Ethiopia gave Guelleh 7,000 hectares of land some 400 km (250 miles) south of Addis Ababa, where government officials say he will grow wheat.

"A team of experts has already started preliminary work to set up a modern and mechanized farm," said the officials, who spoke on the condition on anonymity.

Guelleh, who was in Ethiopia last week with his wife and a ministerial delegation, was also given 10,000 square metres of lakeside land some 45 km (30 miles) east of the capital on which to build a holiday home, the officials said.

Guelleh already owns a $5 million presidential residence in Ethiopia's eastern town of Dire Dawa, they said.

Djibouti's port earns about $300 million a year from handling some 4.6 million tonnes of Ethiopian goods, and recently said it would raise its tariffs on port services, prompting Ethiopia to send its trade minister to Djibouti.

Last month Djibouti accused Eritrea, which is also at loggerheads with Ethiopia, of starting clashes on their border in which 12 Djiboutian soldiers were killed and 55 wounded.

Eritrea denied its troops had crossed the border and rejected Western criticism that it had started the fighting.