The Kuraz Sugar Development Project (KSDP) in Ethiopia: between ‘sweet visions’ and mounting challenges

Abstract

Major cutbacks in size and processing capacity cast reasonable doubts on the economic returns of the state-owned Kuraz Sugar Development Project (KSDP) in Ethiopia’s lower Omo Valley. The pressing question, however, is not whether the KSDP will be able to meet the great expectations placed on its contributions to the national economy, but rather how much this unprecedented agri-business venture will fall short of its stated agro-economic and macro-economic objectives. The upstream damming of the Omo River which allows for the development of irrigated sugarcane cultivation has ruled out the continuation of flood-recession agriculture–the central pillar of indigenous livelihoods in the lower Omo Valley. Although clearly unparalleled in terms of its impacts on the local environmental and social landscape, the status of central aspects of the KSDP remain contested. This article summarises recent findings on the planning, status, and outlook of the sugar industry in the lower Omo Valley. It concludes, after illustrating the correlation between agro-economic, macro-economic, and developmental results, that the KSDP has reached a crucial juncture: the reduction in acreage of the project thwarts the reconstruction of local livelihoods, which calls for an adjusted strategy.