Ethiopia is inviting investors to lease three million hectares of agricultural land to increase food productivity and earn foreign exchange.

The agriculture ministry put an advertisement in its website for 180,625 hectares along the Omo River in southern Ethiopia.

Agricultural investment coordinator Eyesus Kebede said in this report that the government is also offering incentives such as grace periods on payments to woo investors.

Ethiopia has already leased land in some parts of the country to investors including Indian food processor Karuturi Global Ltd, and to Saudi Arabia billionaire Sheikh Mohammed al-Amoudi.

There are also plans to develop biofuel crops on more than half a million hectares of arid land. The ministry of mines and energy which coordinates biofuels development said production is already underway in the western region of the country.