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Growing demand for horticulture investment impeded by unavailability of land
The Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA) called on the government to avail land and ease its bureaucratic hurdles to help local and international horticulture firms looking to invest in Ethiopia.
Speaking to The Reporter this week, Executive Director of EHPEA, Tewodros Zewdie lamented federal and regional authorities’ weaknesses to provide land and their extended bureaucratic systems, amid the enormous request which is coming from international and domestic horticulture firms to invest in different parts of the country.
Kombolcha new dry port coming through
The Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services announced it has finalized preparations to construct a new dry port at Kombolcha with an estimated cost of 1.5 billion Birr.
The Shipping Enterprise has been undertaking a feasibility study to relocate its existing dry port in Kombolcha town, which has been active for over a decade and build a new one that is adjacent Kombolcha Industry Park and the railway line that crosses the town.
Benishangul, Gambela accused of illegal land distribution
The Public Enterprises Holding and Administration Agency (PEHAA) accused the Benishangul-Gumz and Gambela regions of illegal land distribution.
According to the Agency, the land distributed by the regions was the property of the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) which took it from agricultural investors who failed to repay their credit and have since been unaccounted for.
The Agency’s finance director, Sewagegn Chane, told The Reporter that more than 158 rain-fed agriculture projects have been returned to the bank.
CPS & ICRAF support opposition to sand mine
The Catholic Professionals Society PNG in association with the Individual & Community Rights Advocacy Forum support the opposition to the proposed sand mining in Madang and PNG.
This was highlighted in a press conference that was held in Port Moresby today.
A statement from the press conference authorized by the President of the Catholic Professional Society, Paul Harricknen expressed several concerns in support of the opposition to sand mining by the landowners.
Case 2.1 – Special Agricultural Business Lease (SABL)
On July 21, 2011 the then Acting Prime Minister Sam Abal announced the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate 77 land leases which were issued under the Somare government’s Special Agriculture & Business Leases (SABL). The inquiry, which was later extended by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill in October 2011 for a further five months, discovered that over 90 percent of the leases totalling over 5 million hectares were illegally obtained from traditional landowners (Zealand, 2015).
Farming is lucrative for young people
THE attitude towards agriculture in PNG, especially farming is one that it is for the poor and the elderly.
B’ville physical planning board sworn in
Members of the Bougainville Physical Planning (BPP) Board, under the Department for Lands, Physical Planning, Environment and Conservation, were sworn in on Wednesday, January 27th.
The Board consists of nine new members who pledged their oath and are currently undergoing an induction workshop about the roles and responsibilities of board members.
ABG Minister for Lands, Physical Planning, Environment and Conservation, Robert Hamal Sawa, congratulatedthe new members of the BPP Board but also cautioned them to work within the confines of the BPP Act 2013.