1- Introduction:
New agricultural techniques had brought tremendous improvement in food grain production. They had also brought with them an array of problems. The first was continued expenditure on research on seed varieties. Each variety lasted only for a few years. It had to be replaced by new ones as new diseases had developed on it. Moreover, agricultural extension and investment in irrigation had required massive investment.
Also fertilizer production was needed, which had implied additional cost. Increased crop production had required better distribution and marketing infrastructure. Farmers had also required more credit to run their farms. Farmers required a set of incentives enough to stimulate them to produce more, to adopt new technology, and to diversify into other crops, including cash-crops for export.
Poverty and low demand for food had caused nutritional deficiency. Also, fixed dietary habits had contributed to nutritional deficiencies. Increases in food grain production had by no means adequate solution to nutritional problems.
2-Issues:
2.1 Agricultural Issues: One issue is agricultural income tax. The new agricultural technology raises rural income sharply. If large increases in income arise in agriculture, then some of the increase in government revenues or tax must come from agricultural incomes. A similar issue is related to sharing the fruits of increased agricultural productivity. Those who claim these fruits are urban consumers, rural producers, and landowners. Taxation and division of agricultural productivity is a thorny policy issue with political implications. It also affects future agricultural development. Such issues affect the motivation of farmers to adopt new agricultural technologies.
Developing countries, including Ethiopia, faced difficulties in stimulating technological change in the rural areas. They still neglect rural development, though it is the mainstay of their economies. For developing countries it is necessary to achieve technological innovations in food grains and export crops. It is necessary to increase not only agricultural output but also its quality.
Land reform and consolidation of fragmented holdings was important for many developing countries. This helps to accelerate technological change that generates production and rural employment. Studies indicate that land reform is not a neat affair and it is always time consuming. Most developing countries did not have at their disposal the means to minimize disruptions and conflicts arising from a change in land ownership.
2.2 Nutritional Issues: In Ethiopia the most important issue is malnutrition. It is a more serious problem to human beings than hunger. This is caused to a large extent by ignorance and inappropriate food habits. Second, where there is excess supply of food, it does not mean nutritional needs are satisfied. Nutritional deficiencies, particularly protein deficiency, are likely to persist for a long time to come. Third, improved nutrition is particularly essential to child health. Childhood malnutrition retards children both mentally and physically.
Nutrition is indispensable to raise the general standard of health, the productivity of labor, and the general quality of life. Malnutrition is developmental issue which is often incurable. It is not only a matter of humanitarian concern. It is also a matter of importance for the whole process of development. In a matter of only a few decades these children, who suffered from malnutrition, will have replaced their parents as agents of development. What a replacement it is? This is a vicious circle of malnutrition.
Nutrition programs for children and other sections of the population in developing countries have made significant contributions. Emergency feeding programs have been adopted by some developing countries to save the children from malnutrition. However, it is true that nutritional deficiency raises a problem for a large segment of the population. Though efforts are made to supply protein and improve the nutritional quality of foods, there seems to be no fundamental
Change in “dietary habits.” Fish-protein could fortify, for example, a range of foods at low cost. Dairy industries in developing countries have been encouraged to provide cheap surplus milk powder. But, these undertakings require motivation and encouragement of people to change dietary habits. Studies show that advances in nutrition require research and development, which are difficult to cover with resources of the developing countries. It is true that considerable researches in nutrition have been made by the advanced countries. However, the production and marketing of such research outputs is the responsibility of developing countries. It is also their duty to add them to existing dietary habits of the people.
3.Conclusion and Recommendation
3.1 Agriculture During the imperial regime, universities, colleges and institutes of agricultural development had been established in Ethiopia. Thousands of graduates of these institutions had been assigned to agricultural institutions. They had developed research materials on peasant agriculture in the country. They had made recommendations on how to improve rural agriculture mainly for grain production and food self-sufficiency.
A few of these graduates had been engaged in modern private agriculture during the Imperial era. They had been successful exporters of cash-crops such as oil seeds, including sesame and long staple cotton. But, their experience had not been shared by the large majority of peasants. The Ethiopian peasant operated with primitive farm tools that were centuries old.
The peasants worked for absentee landlords, who took the major share of their produce. These landlords had been resistant to new technologies; they had feared the unknown. They had detested any sort of change in peasant farming. They also squeezed every food grain, leaving the peasant a little for his survival and for maintaining his labor for next harvest. Thus, the landlords had hampered the introduction of new agricultural techniques in farming.
Investors in modern agricultural activities had faced several problems. They had to use seed varieties that had lasted only for a few years. These had to be replaced with new varieties. Farmers had been accustomed to using fertilizers. They had needed feeder roads for transporting both inputs and outputs. They had to build stores for harvested grains. Increased production had required better infrastructure for distribution and marketing.
Farmers had required credit and incentive for expanding their farm outputs. Tax incentives were given to investors in modern agriculture. They were exempted from import duties on agricultural machineries and tools. They used duty free oil and gas for the tractors they used on their farms. They were encouraged to adopt new agricultural technologies. But, such encouragement given to modern farmers was not given equally to the rural poor peasants.
Ethiopian peasants were not in a position to adopt technological change in their farms. First, they lacked the means, including land and credit, required for such changes. Peasants were not entitled to own the land they farmed nor were they allowed to have access to bank credits. Second, peasants were treated only as tools of farming. Third, they suffered from eviction from the land they thrived on. Fourth, they were employed by the modern commercial farmers on the very land they were evicted from.
The eviction of peasants indicated the neglect of rural development. A large majority of the rural peasants either worked for the commercial farmers or migrated to the next urban town in search of work. Though modern farmers succeeded in generating surplus food grain and other produce for export, they did it at the expense of evicted peasants. So, Ethiopia was benefitting from surplus production for domestic and external market, but it also failed in creating rural employment for peasants. That was what happened during the imperial period.
The Socialist Military regime known as Derg seemed to have solved all problems related to the peasantry in Ethiopia. It nationalized all rural land and brought it under the ownership of the state. There was no incentive for private rural farmers to produce crops demanded by the market. There was a mismatch between demand for and supply of food grain and other produce. Collective ownership of 5 land replaced private ownership of land. Rural private entrepreneurship was neglected or even condemned as capitalist crime. I cannot complete the horrors the socialist order imposed on rural peasants. These horrors were multiplied during the regime of EPRDF. Both regimes showered the rural peasants with pebbles of poverty.
It is, therefore, recommended that ownership of land by the state be relinquished to the rightful operator of rural land. Private owners of rural land have created miracles in other developed countries, including African countries such as Rwanda. Ethiopia should be morally strong enough to learn from other countries that succeeded in rural development and food self-sufficiency.
- Nutrition
We have to face the fact that malnutrition is a more serious problem than hunger. It is caused by inappropriate food habits. Most people refuse, for example, to eat fish varieties, shrimp, pig, rhino, camel, etc. which are rich sources of protein. Food grain consumption only does not guarantee protein supply. Ethiopian children who suffer from malnutrition are bound to be mentally and physically retarded. This is very true in those parts of the country where civil disorder is rampant. Even those adults who suffer from malnutrition could turn out to be retarded and unproductive due to hunger. Such social calamity is a harbinger of poor quality of life as it affects the productivity of labor of the affected people. Both parents and children are affected by hunger.
One cannot deny efforts made by the government, UNICEF and NGO’s to support children with feeding programs. In the 1950’s students, including myself, used to be provided with powdered milk. They saved most children from malnutrition. However, there was no enough effort on the part of the community to change dietary habits.
Most people depend on food grain to the neglect of protein fortified foods. This was due to cultural and religious reasons. Most religious people avoid eating pork, for example. These days most people do not eat fish during Lent for religious reasons. Dairy industries do not produce enough milk due to shortage of space for cattle raising and feeding. Also, cattle feeds are becoming costly.
It is highly recommended that the Ethiopian people be encouraged through the mass media to change their feeding habits. They should be encouraged to consume pork, fish and other sources of nutritious food. Institutions responsible for child feeding should adopt latest research outputs on nutrition.
3.4 Urban Hunger: This is the most invisible component of urban malnutrition. The urban hungry, particularly, those who earn a pittance in the form of wages and pension suffer from lack of nutrition. They fear to beg in the open as former civil servants or disbanded military personnel. They stand on the pavements right in the center of urban towns, with hands to receive any kind of alms. To our surprise, they wear very old neck ties, shoes, and fatigues to display who they had been.
I think the community should respect these dejected Ethiopians, who had contributed their best to the survival of the country. We have the responsibility to help these proud but poverty-ridden citizens.
3.5 Land Use Plan: Ethiopians suffer from shortage of marketable crops due to lack of realistic land use plan. Land that had been under crop cultivation is now being encroached by urbanization. Worse is the invasion of land by investors in floral undertakings. Export of flower is a major earner of foreign exchange. It is encouraged at the expense of food grain production.
I suggest that land use plan should be undertaken by the responsible government agency. Land should be used on the basis of priorities of rural development. It should be allocated for food grain production for the local market. Land should also be earmark for production of cash crops for export. Setting priorities is of the essence. Scarcity of resource forces us to plan according to priorities based on the prior economic needs of the people. Thank You.
The Ethiopian Herald, June 2/2019
BY GETACHEW MINAS
