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The magnifiant Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, almost completed–May 2025
Energy, Agriculture and Manufacturing: Essential for Ethiopia’s Economic Future
11 August 2025
Lawrence Freeman visiting Friendship Park in Addis Ababa on his first day in Ethiopia.
HORN REVIEW: IDEAS CONNECTIONS SYNERGY SIXTEENTH EDITION: Grand Narratives as Foundational Constructs of Ethiopia’s Foreign Policy
Lawrence Freeman is a distinguished researcher and analyst with over 30 years of experience specializing in the social, political, and economic dynamics of the African continent. Freeman has dedicated significant attention to Ethiopia, producing a wealth of insightful commentaries on the country’s evolving challenges and opportunities. Interview by Horn Review, was conducted during Mr. Freeman’s visit to Ethiopia (May 12-25, 2025)
“GERD, Agricultural Reforms and the Future of Regional Integration in the Horn of Africa”
Horn Review: Professor Freeman, welcome to our podcast. Great to have you here. Lawrence Freeman: Thank you very much.
Horn Review: From your perspective, how would you assess the trajectory of Ethiopia’s current agricultural reform agenda? Are the recent state-led initiatives showing signs of structural change? Lawrence Freeman: Yes, I would say that the progress being made by Ethiopia in agriculture is very significant. The government thinks they have already reached self-sufficiency on wheat in 2022/23, and they’re projecting they may be able to produce 30 million tons of wheat in 2025. Several things have taken place that have made it effective. One is they’re increasing the use of irrigation, which is necessary for modern farming. This has increased the number of hectares where they can grow crops. Second, Ethiopian farming was based on subsistence farming of one to two hectares, but now the concept is cluster farming, where groups of farmers come together, prepare the land, plant, plow, and use advanced machinery collectively. This collective strength has led to a huge increase in productivity and income per hectare, according to the agricultural department. These are some of the things Ethiopia is doing, and pretty much Ethiopia should no longer be importing any food from this point on. This is very important because Africa, for no good reason, was importing tens of billions of dollars of food across the continent, even though the land was perfectly capable and was self-sufficient in the 60s and 70s. Due to neoliberal economic policies, development stopped. Ethiopia is playing a very good role in promoting this kind of development. This has been one of the driving points of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. They have reduced levies on buying tractors and equipment and reduced taxes. The whole orientation of promoting agriculture is substantial and hopefully will continue.
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Energy, Agriculture and Manufacturing: Essential for Ethiopia’s Economic Future