GA ISIG Study Tour 2013 () 14. Peasant agriculture in Ethiopia

Summary Curriculum Links-A level The impact of development The term ‘peasant’ has been deliberately used for this topic despite its Rural-urban migration negative connotations. It perfectly describes the way of life of most farmers Managing regeneration across Africa and Ethiopia’s rural farm families are no exception. In 2009 Attachment to place Deborah Bryceson described such farmers as living off the land combining Social tensions subsistence and commodity production, socially organised in family units, Cultural diffusion forming a class externally subordinated to state authorities and other Human rights markets and tending to be associated with localized village community life Key Words and traditional conformist attitudes. (Bryceson 2009). The peasant farmer There are nearly 12 million farmers in Ethiopia and they are essentially Depeasantisation subsistence in character and meet Bryceson’s definition in all respects. Modernisation theory of About a quarter earn additional income from non-farm enterprises. Most development peasant farms are one hectare or smaller in size and all land is owned by the state. production dominates and draught animal power is crucial. Market rationality

Teff is a national obsession in Ethiopia. It is the major crop grown by an estimated 6.3 million farmers and fields of the crop cover more than 20% of all land under cultivation. Ground into flour and used to make , the Questions to consider spongy fermented flatbread that is basic to Ethiopian cuisine, the grain is central to many religious and cultural ceremonies. 1. Examine Figure 1 carefully and make a list of the features shown that Land and land tenure is a hotly debated topic in Ethiopia and two key issues suggest that productivity on the farm are usually raised in debates. One relates to farm size and fragmentation will be poor. and the question of what constitutes a ‘viable’ farm unit. Tenure security is 2. Using information in this topic another issue and whether a lack of registration or titles (the state owns all suggest with evidence what the land) undermines investment and thus productivity. second farmer (left of Figure 1) might Most observers agree that the average peasant farm is too small to allow be doing. sustainable intensification. The probability of adopting fertilisers and improved seeds are known to decline with farm size. These small farms 2. Examine the advantages to have all the common characteristics: they are generally poor in cash income, Ethiopia that might result from the have limited access to extension services and credit and have fewer risk lifting of the ban on the export of teff. coping strategies in times of . 3. Examine the four approaches Large farms, averaging over 300 hectares, are either state or privately suggested by Gebreselassie (2006) owned and use more ‘modern’ farm management practices and expensive and decide which you consider would and complex machinery. Such farms tend to concentrate on crops such as be most beneficial for farmers in Ethiopia. sugar cane, , , fruit and . Cotton is grown solely on large farms and small farms continue to produce around 80% of coffee. 4. Log onto Understanding the Ethiopian farmer’s year is not easy. In the main http://www.fews.net/east- agricultural areas, such as the North Central Highlands shown in Figure 1, africa/ethiopia and scroll down until there are two main rainy seasons which strongly influence the farmer’s you get to the cropping patterns year. This is an area known to be highly vulnerable to rain failure. The two graphs. There are four of these for different parts of Ethiopia. Compare rainy seasons are known as belg and kiremt. If either fails, is delayed or is and contrast the four graphs and try unevenly distributed, the result is a shortage in the staple food (, to explain differences between them. , teff, or ) and, as in 2016; food security is threatened for much of the population. (see also the 2015-2016 Famine topic).

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Figure 1. Peasant farmer at work on his fields between Awasa and Adama. As he ploughs the field, his partner is working on an adjacent field. [August 2013] ©Dr Kevin Cook. The fields will be ploughed several times before planting at the start of the rains.

Background information provided by Study Tour participant Kevin Cook

Introduction

The term ‘peasant’ has been deliberately used for this topic despite its negative connotations. It perfectly describes the way of life of most farmers across Africa and Ethiopia’s rural farm families are no exception. In 2009 Deborah Bryceson provided a definition of these families drawing attention to their main characteristics. She said they:

 occupationally live off the land combining subsistence and commodity production;  socially group in family units that form the nucleus for organizing production in addition to consumption, human reproduction, socialization, welfare, and risk-spreading;  they form a class externally subordinated to state authorities as well as regional and international markets; and  they tend to be associated with localised village community life and traditional conformist attitudes. (Bryceson 2009).

Her definition illustrates the economic and social aspects of a way of life that is increasingly being challenged by development. Such change is happening in Ethiopia but not perhaps as fast as in other countries (such as Kenya and Uganda) where the process, known as depeasantisation is becoming much more common. This contested process involves the erosion of peasant practices and the introduction of market rationality in agriculture. It includes a reduction in the amount of labour employed in agriculture, a change in decision-making from male to female and

2 GA ISIG Study Tour 2013 (Ethiopia) the breaking down of social norms at the village level. It is part of the so-called ‘modernisation’ theory of development and inevitablyleads to winners and losers.

In common with many countries in the Global South, the agricultural sector has a considerable influence on Ethiopia’s economic performance even if smallholder household production does not contribute to overall GDP simply because it is so difficult to measure output. Nearly 12 million farmers are essentially subsistence in character and meet Bryceson’s definition in all respects, with about a quarter earning some additional income from non-farm enterprises. Most peasant farms are one hectare or smaller in size and all land is owned by the State. Cereal production dominates and draught animal power is crucial. Whilst cereal production has more than doubled in the past 15 or so years, food security remains a critical issue especially in years when the rains fail (such as in 2016). The use of chemical fertilisers and improved seeds remain very low despite government attempts at encouraging their use. The result is a low productivity system with land degradation, and common additional problems.

Selected issues associated with Ethiopian agriculture

Teff – Ethiopia’s wonder grain

A key feature of the Ethiopian rural scene is the variety of crops grown, with differences reflecting subtle changes in altitude, rainfall and temperature and, of course, water availability. Five major are grown, the most important of which, teff, was until recently hardly known outside the country. Together with wheat, maize, sorghum and barley, they form the core of Ethiopia’s agriculture and food economy, accounting for about three-quarters of total area cultivated. It is likely that the farmer shown working in Figure 1 is preparing his land in July for teff. Visitors to Ethiopia meet it at the meal table as it is used to make injera, Ethiopia’s national dish.

Teff is a national obsession in Ethiopia. It is grown by an estimated 6.3 million farmers, more than half the total, and fields of the crop cover more than 20% of all land under cultivation. Ground into flour and used to make injera, the spongy fermented flatbread that is basic to Ethiopian cuisine, the grain is central to many religious and cultural ceremonies. Across the country, and in neighbouring Eritrea, diners gather around large pieces of injera, which doubles as cutlery, scooping up stews and feeding one another as a sign of loyalty or friendship – a tradition known as gursha.

The word teff in Amharic means ‘lost’ reflecting the minute size of its seed. It is rich in protein and contains, unlike many grains such as maize, all eight amino acids. It is also gluten free. It will grow on all sorts of soils, can survive drought conditions and is relatively free of plant diseases. It is also one of the world oldest grains believed to have been domesticated in the Ethiopian highlands around 4000BC. The absence of the crop elsewhere around the world given its many uses, its wide environmental tolerance and its excellent nutritional qualities, is difficult to explain. In Ethiopia it is very much a low risk crop for farmers, but is labour intensive, hence its high price in the shops. It is also, unfortunately, the lowest yielding of the grains. The average yield per hectare of teff in Ethiopia is 1.4 tonnes, which is less than half the global average of 3.2 tonnes for modern varieties of wheat. With research and improved farming methods, it is believed yields could be increased to 5 tonnes per hectare. There has been a ban on exporting the grain since 2006 either in its raw form or after it has been ground into flour. Entrepreneurial companies, however, manage to get round the ban by exporting injera cakes and biscuits.

The ban on the export of teff was lifted in May 2015 and it is now possible to purchase it in many European cities and it sells in London supermarkets, though only in small quantities. for around £7 per kilo. In the UK, it can now even be bought in some mainstreamCompare this to the £1.30 per kilo for a kilo of organic flour. This price differential reflects the demand for health-foods and gluten-free products plus the limited availability of the product. As western consumers acquire a taste for teff, how to ensure that Ethiopia and its farmers benefit from new global markets is a critical question. Growing demand for so-called ancient grains has not always been a straightforward win for poor communities. In Bolivia and Peru, reports of rising incomes owing to the now-global quinoa trade have come alongside those of malnutrition and conflicts over land as farmers sell their entire crop to meet western demand.

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Ethiopia's growing middle class is also pushing up demand for teff, and rising domestic prices over the past decade have put the grain out of reach of the poorest. Today, most small farmers sell the bulk of what they grow to consumers in the city. This may have helped boost incomes in some rural area,s but it has had nutritional consequences as teff is the most nutritionally valuable grain in the country. Estimates suggest that while those in urban areas eat up to 61kg of teff a year, in rural areas, the figure is 20kg. The type consumed differs too: the wealthy almost exclusively eat the more expensive magna and white teff varieties; less well-off consumers tend to eat less-valuable red and mixed teff, and more than half combine it with cheaper cereals such as sorghum and maize.

As part of the relaxation of the export ban, Ethiopian teff will be produced commercially for export under tight government control on 48 farms throughout the country. The government plans to prevent any inflation in local prices by not exporting raw grain and ensuring the domestic supply is not affected. It is hoped the increase in domestic prices witnessed with quinoa will not happen in Ethiopia. Exports will, initially, be based on these commercial farms and will later be opened to smallholder farmers.

Land and land tenure issues

Land and land tenure are hotly debated topics in Ethiopia and two key issues are usually raised. One relates to farm size and fragmentation and the question of what constitutes a ‘viable’ farm unit. Tenure security is another issue and whether a lack of registration or titles (the State owns all land) undermines investment and thus productivity.

Ethiopian farms fall neatly into two categories according to the Central Statistical Agency with the dividing line at 25.2 hectares. Below this line are the smallholder peasant farms that make up the majority of Ethiopia’s 2.5 million farms accounting for 96% of grain production. Typically, a peasant farm will be less than two hectares in size (around the size of two football pitches), will be fragmented into several separate fields, will produce for family consumption (subsistence) and will generate only a small marketable surplus. Production will rarely meet family needs and any escape from poverty is a dream for most. Average farm sizes continue to decline and this is leading to a reduction in a shortening of the fallow cycle and rotation and a consequent decline in yields.

Most observers agree that the average peasant farm is too small to allow sustainable intensification and the probability of adopting fertilisers and improved seeds are known to decline with farm size. These small farms have all the common characteristics: they are generally poor in cash income, have less access to extension services and credit, and have fewer risk coping strategies in times of drought.

Large farms, averaging over 300 hectares are either state or privately owned and use more ‘modern’ farm management practices and more expensive and complex machinery. Such farms tend to concentrate on crops such as sugar cane, cotton, coffee, fruit and vegetables. Cotton is grown solely on large farms and small farms continue to produce around 80% of coffee.

Small farmers lack any contractual or lease agreement with the government and there is a general belief that land redistribution could take place at any time. Older farmers will remember the radical redistribution of land that took place following the overthrow in September 1974 of Emperor Haile Selassie. The incoming military dictatorship (known as the ) moved the agricultural landscape from a feudal one to a more socialist approach. The land tenure of the imperial period was replaced by a system where all land is owned by the state and given to farmers on use-right (usufruct) basis. Commercial large-scale modern farms became state farms. Peasant associations (PAs) were set up on approximately 800 hectares to allocate land to farmers living in their jurisdiction according to family size. Such PAs remain in place today and continue to allocate land according to need, in theory if not always in practice. Households can also rent extra land either in the form of fixed rent or sharecropping and they can borrow and get land as gift. Most of the land used by households, however, is allocated by PAs and this should theoretically lead to an equitable distribution of land according to household size. The strict rules relating to land ownership and the methods available for its redistribution are, however, open to corruption, a fact that has been reinforced by the diminishing availability of this resource.

Samuel Gebreselassie (2006) suggests four ways out of this land ownership-fragmentation problem. One is to adopt what has been called the ‘China model’. This views small farms as not necessarily uneconomic as long as land

4 GA ISIG Study Tour 2013 (Ethiopia) productivity can be increased with investments in new technology financed by the State. The current State ownership of land would continue. The second approach would be to privatise land and allow entrepreneurs to consolidate holdings into economically viable units. Farmers on sub-economic plots would move to the cities or would seek work on commercial farming enterprises. This may well be what is already happening, but is a risky approach that could lead to catastrophic results in both humanitarian and political terms. A third approach would be to encourage a rental market in land; something that exists already but needs to be encouraged and regulated. The final idea centres on providing security of tenure for farmers through a registered title deed so that, knowing that they have security, farmers will invest in their holdings. There seems to be plenty of agreement within Ethiopia of the need to increase pro-poor agricultural-led economic growth. The problem remains how to achieve this end.

The farmer’s year

Understanding the Ethiopian farmer’s year is not easy. In the main agricultural areas, the North Central Highlands, there are two main rainy seasons which strongly influence the farmer’s year. This is an area known to be highly vulnerable to rain failure. The two rainy seasons are known as belg and kiremt. If either fails, is delayed or is unevenly distributed, the result is a shortage in the staple food (sorghum, maize, teff, barley or wheat) and, as in 2016; food security is threatened for much of the population. (see the topic on the 2015-2016 famine). A close look at Figure 2, the farmer’s year, will help to explain some of the main features and show how closely livelihoods and food security are linked to the two rainy seasons. Belg is the short rainy season and usually begins in February and ends in late May. Farmers usually sow barley with the first rain and harvest in June/July. If a belg crop cannot be planted before mid-March, there will not be time for the crop to ripen and frosts and other unfavourable conditions, such as the onset of the kiremt rains, will destroy the crop. Usually the belg season produces up to 15% of the annual harvest and, whilst this may seem low, it is crucial to food security especially where kiremt rains are also unreliable. Meher is the main growing seasons linked to the Kiremt, the second rainy season lasting from mid- June until the end of August. Harvesting the meher crop starts in October and lasts through until the end of January. Usually around 85% of annual crop productions results from the meher harvest. Figure 2 represents a typical year with average rains during the two seasons. There is a period, however, common to all peasant cultivators, when food stocks run low and food security is challenged. For families living in the North Central Highlands this period starts at the end of March and continues until the end of May. The people of the northern central highlands have had to fight drought, seasonal rain failures and crop losses for centuries. They have developed a wide range of strategies (‘coping mechanisms’) in order to survive. Although such coping strategies are very effective, prolonged periods of drought can severely limit the range of economic opportunities available and/or reduce their overall effectiveness, leading to increased vulnerability. These strategies include labour migration to the coffee producing areas further south; cutting timber to turn into charcoal, sales of assets and , consumption of wild foods, removing children from school to reduce costs and eventually, in times of severe drought, stress migration.

A more detailed look at the food situation following the 2015-16 drought can be found in topic sheet 15.

Figure 2. The Seasonal Calendar of a typical Ethiopian Farm. Source: Famine Early Warning System. For examples of other seasonal calendars for other parts of Ethiopia see the FEWs Report.

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References

Bryceson, D. F (2009) Sub-Saharan Africa’s Vanishing Peasantries and the Spectre of a Global Food Crisis. Monthly Review Vol 61.3. http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9Uk8Ug2pYiRUAq.Z3Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTByZWJ1c203BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMgRj b2xvA2lyMgR2dGlkAw-- /RV=2/RE=1483404181/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.hlrn.org%2fimg%2fdocuments%2fBryceson%25202009.pdf /RK=0/RS=rE92BCp7JwF4dlT6Ba9inZpghw0-

Ethiopia’s Agricultural Sector Policy and Investment Framework 2010-2020. (2010) http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9UkzPc2pY_GEAMX13Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTByaGwzcXNvBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDOA Rjb2xvA2lyMgR2dGlkAw-- /RV=2/RE=1483400271/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.gafspfund.org%2fsites%2fgafspfund.org%2ffiles%2fDocum ents%2fEthiopia_5_of_6_CAADP_Post_compact_Investment_Plan_%28PIF%29_0.pdf/RK=0/RS=mwH_6lN65bxhttZD 4vhcz4AsnkU-

Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS) (2016). http://www.fews.net/east-africa/ethiopia

Healthy Supplies. (2015) Ethiopia lifts ban of teff exports with tight controls. http://afkinsider.com/95724/ethiopia- lifts-ban-on-teff-flour-exports/

Gebreselassie, S. (2006) Land, Land Policy and Smallholder Agriculture in Ethiopia. Futures Agriculture. Policy Brief 001. http://www.future-agricultures.org/74-publications/policy-briefs/83-land-land-policy-and-smallholder- agriculture-in-ethiopia

Relief Web. (2013) Ethiopia Food Security Outlook. January to June 2013. Famine Early Warning Systems Network. http://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/ethiopia-food-security-outlook-update-june-2013

Taffesse, A, S; Dorosh, P, and Asrat, S. (2011) International Food Policy Research Institute. Crop Production in Ethiopia: Regional Patterns and Trends. Ethiopia Strategy Support Program II (ESSP II) Working Paper No 16 http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9UnU3xmtYdFkASJZ3Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTBydWpobjZlBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRj b2xvA2lyMgR2dGlkAw-- /RV=2/RE=1483486904/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fdspace.africaportal.org%2fjspui%2fbitstream%2f123456789%2f 31779%2f1%2fESSP%2520II%2520Working%2520Paper%252016.pdf/RK=0/RS=gxqDmJ_a0rkgCfqiE1Z_X_ekmGY-

You Tube (2014). Ethiopia’s ban on teff exports means profit for Southern Europe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rufLz9GVhUE

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