Introduction: The Sahel region of Africa, sandwiched between the Sahara and the Savannah, is a vast, semi-arid region that forms a transitional zone stretching approximately 5,000 kilometres from Senegal on the Atlantic coast to Eritrea on the Red Sea coast. This expansive area encompasses diverse geographic and agroecological systems, spanning 14 countries and providing a home for roughly 400 million people.
More than a decade after the opening of India, the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) probably has become the most controversial economic reform announced recently. While some consider it India’s supersonic engine of growth, others severely criticize it as the latest land grab instrument in the hands of the industrialists. Serious discourses on development models, displacement and rehabilitation, employment generation, foreign investment, and the primacy of industry over agriculture are being raised in justification and against the whole concept of SEZ.