Thaindian News

Addis Ababa, Oct 12 (IANS) Bangalore-based Karuturi Global, the world’s largest rose producer, will construct embankments in Ethiopia around 25,000 hectares of farmland, half the size of this capital city, at a cost of $15 million after reports of massive losses due to flooding.

The loss incurred was due to the destruction of maize planted on 12,000 hectares of farmland in Jicao and Pulldong Weredas, 700 km southwest of Addis Ababa, according to a local newspaper in Ethiopia quoting Ramakrishna Karuturi, general manager of the company.

The company announced that fresh floods on the river banks of Alwero and Baro in Western Gambella submerged the farmland, destroying crops that would potentially have produced 60,000 tonnes of maize. The farm, which has a perimeter of 150 km, had dikes on the side that faces the river, according to Karuturi.

“However, the dikes which covered a length of 80 kilometers across the farm and stood at around 1.8-metre tall were not enough to withstand the flooding,” Karuturi said. “We are trying to make the land a polder by building taller dikes surrounding the entire farm, which are four meters tall, nine meters wide at the bottom and three meters wide at the top.”

Polders are low-lying tracts of land enclosed by dikes forming an artificial hydrological entity with no connection to outside water other than via manually-operated devices.

The company hired Water and Power Consultancy Services (Wapcos), an Indian public sector enterprise, to enter joint ventures and subsidiaries, to provide consulting services in flood control and the design of irrigation and drainage systems.

Along with Wapcos, Water Watch, a Dutch advisory firm, has also been retained by Karuturi. The firm provides satellite information on hydrological processes and water management issues.

Karuturi Global already had plans to make the farm a polder before the flooding.

“We had long-term plans to slowly build barriers around the farm; however the recent flooding has necessitated that construction should begin soon, ahead of our plans,” Karuturi added.

The cost of building the dikes is three million dollars per 5,000 hectares of land spanning 30 kilometers, according to Karuturi.

“Plans for the construction of the dikes will be finalized in November and we will start construction then,” Karuturi said. “We plan to cover 5,000 hectares of land per month and finish the project in five months.”

The company still has plans to plant crops in late October or November 2011, which will cover 5,000 to 10,000 hectares of land, and expects to harvest the crops in March 2012, according to Shilpa Roi, executive assistant at Karuturi.

Karuturi agreed to lease 300,000 hectares of land in Gambella region in 2009 for the production of cereals, sugar cane, palm oils and vegetable. For Phase I of the project, Karuturi has been given 100,000 hectares of the agreed upon land.

Karuturi, which is headquartered in Bangalore, also has 100 hectares of land in Holeta, Oromia Regional State, 40 km from Addis Ababa.

(Groum Abate can be contacted at groumabate@gmail.com)