ABEBE WOLDE GIORGIS
Agricultural modernization took root during the formative years of Emperor Menelik II by the early decade of 20th century. The emperor embarked to establishing new government structure which comprises the Ministry of Agriculture.
He also expanded education and health system, rail way and other infrastructures. The introduction of tree planting by importing seedlings from abroad to overcome shortage of fire wood in the capital indicted his sensitivity for environment.
According to historians, it was Emperor Hailesilasie I who fully engaged in bringing socio economic reform with imported ideas. He was in a better position in organizational, human and other capacities than the earlier leaders.
Getachew Dirriba (PHD) is a researcher in economics as to him, beginning from 1960 some agricultural growth was registered and the establishment of agricultural high schools and colleges with the support of USAID contributed to the gained socioeconomic progress.
In the latter years, through bilateral and multilateral cooperation technical support was obtained for the implementation of agricultural improvement packages. The involvement of foreign investments by private companies through establishing large commercial farming also gave leap forward for raising of productivity and export. But unleashing its full potential was not realized.
It was practiced in small pocket areas of the country and as the tenure system was feudal and the majority of farmers were tenants to the land lords the experiment for transforming the sector remained futile.
According to the senior land researcher Desalegn Rahmato, in the late 1960s the imperial government showed interest for the expansion of large scale farms in the parts of rift valley, in Setit humera, in Wolayta and Arba minch and Arsi Bale massifs.
Local and foreign investors utilized agricultural equipment and invest their capital. In the rift valley areas crops such as sugarcane, cotton which used as input for the emerging industries were cultivated. In addition, fruit and vegetables were produced.
Sesame which mainly produced in the north western part of the country was for export and the practice is still continued to date. Cash crop such as coffee was produced by private firms in the south western part of the country.
But as to Desalegn, the rural capitalism flourished then had its own limitation. It was exercised in a fragmented manner. The companies engaged in the farm were starved of cash and their employing capacity was insignificant. Moreover, the venture causes the eviction of peasants particularly in the Arsi Bale massif.
According to Getachew, the nationalization of the land by the Dergue regime in 1975 completely abolished the feudal land owning system. As socialist oriented, the regime totally abandoned private investment on agriculture farm. The ill-defined property right of land made farmers demotivated to invest for their farm improvement.
Farmers entitled only for use rights in their feud. To speak honestly, nationalization of land changed farmers from being the landlord’s tenant to government’s tenant. Such situation induced massive poverty and hunger throughout the country.
During the initial phase of its power assumption from 1991 to 2010, the EPRDF regime focused on poverty reduction and achieved a significant drop in the rate of poverty. In 2011 the regime announced its first five year Growth and Transformation Plan and following that, established the Agricultural Transformation Agency to support agricultural transformation.
The Agency introduced new techniques in small scale farms such as sawing grain in lining system, clustering small plot lands to enhance productivity by planting similar crops, preparing land before farming and maintaining the seedling and practicing modern way of harvesting and storing.
In addition to these, the utilization of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, pest and herbicides expanded. Creating value chain for supplying products to market on optimum price can be mentioned.
According to the government report of GTPI performance the nation has scored rapid and broad based and inclusive growth which led to substantial reduction of poverty. It further claimed that, the proportion of the population living below the national poverty line fell from 38.7 percent in 2003/4 to 23.4 percent by 2014 and real GDP growth rate averaged 10.1 percent and the share of agriculture and related activities in the overall GDP declined to 39 percent by the end of 2014/15.
Crop and livestock sub sectors accounted for 27.4 and 7.9 percent of GDP respectively. And the government announced that the decline in the share of agriculture is an indication of structural shift from agriculture to industry or service sector.
But many put question on the government claim in achieving structural shift and their main argument is that in fact in the last decade and a half agriculture production is increased but the achievement is gained not by rising land or labor productivity rather it is by expanding of agricultural land at the expense of forest and grazing lands.
Labor and capital productivity is very low and the utilization of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer is below the required level even by sub Saharan African countries and still the sector remains subsistence and rain fed.
There are a significant number of landless farmers in the rural part of the country and had there been structural transformation, the stranded rural labor would have been absorbed by the emerging manufacturing industries flourishing in the urban centers.
Though the contribution of agriculture to the GDP declined still 80 percent of the population earns its living from agriculture.
The rural Ethiopia is still under developed as compared to the urban centers in terms of infrastructure which are indicators of development such as health, education and roads etc. With regard to modern energy utilization, 95 percent of the rural population relies on fire wood and farm residue for cooking, heating and lightening. According to the government report, still 25 percent of the population is under poverty line.
Many suggest as a remedial solution that to achieve rural development and structural change land ownership must be clearly defined in a manner to attract private investment to reinvigorate the transaction value of land.
It should be noticed that bringing agricultural transformation while farmers are still with their subsistence living is unthinkable.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 26 JULY 2022
