Focusing on the Ethiopia-Sudan borderlands, this article aims at unpacking the dynamics underlying agricultural commodity production in the area. One of the main findings is the reliance on migrant labour and cycle of exploitation, enabled by a number of dynamics: land grabs, landlessness, conflict, climate change, etc. These cycles of exploitation are not only found in migrant or seasonal migrant workers, with families and local communities also subject to it. As this article uncovers the…