Land of promise (Ethiopia)

In this episode, Loïc and Geoffroy have to show great endurance in order to continue their journey by sidecar, far from the beaten track, where few drivers will adventure, and where every metre can turn into a nightmare. It is also a time for some extraordinary meetings in a country that is sadly renowned for its constant famines. Loïc and Geoffroy want to see how the people are fighting to survive with tools inherited from the past and how they have picked themselves up from these years of suffering. It was under the canopy of these mountainous regions richly endowed with water and sunshine that coffee (Coffea Arabica) was born. This export crop is one of the pillars of growth of the Ethiopian economy. But Ethiopia is facing the evil that characterises countries in economic transition: deforestation. In order to provide for its growing needs for energy and the necessity of constantly putting ever more land under the plough, the Ethiopians, whose population is growing relentlessly, are cutting down their forest. They are forgetting that the vegetation cover is the basis of their development. Further to the North, not far from the sources of the Blue Nile, Geoffroy and Loïc are invited to spend Christmas with a family of farmers. In Ethiopia the fertility rate is still 6.17 children per woman. The demographic increase in a rural agricultural environment is forcing families to divide up their agricultural heritage. Women explain that the answer lies in the equality of rights between the sexes and in education. This revolution in thinking will reduce the strain on the countryside for the benefit of the cities where, when educated, new generations will find employment.