FARMERS’ COLLECTIVE ACTION AND AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN ETHIOPIA by: ETENESH BEKELE ASFAW (55767400) Submitted in Accordance With the Requirements for the Degree of: DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in DEVELOPMENT STUDIES at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA Supervisor: Professor Vusi Gumede November 2018 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND DEDICATION Praise be to God the Almighty who helped me accomplish this piece of work! I wish to express gratitude to the University of South Africa for giving me the opportunity to pursue my dream. My sincere thanks go to my supervisor, Professor Vusi Gumede for his proactive guidance interest and encouragement, that enabled the finalization of this thesis. I have gained a great deal from his comments and inputs in my draft versions. Staff at the UNISA- Ethiopia office deserve appreciations for their support throughout my study period. Mrs. Yemiserach, head of the library, deserves special thanks. My journey would never have been completed without my husband: Teklu’s (Dr.) patience, understanding, constructive comment and constant love. I am indebted to my children Betty and Abenu, from whom I have taken away precious family times. I bless my extended family for their prayers, courage, cooperation, warmth and good heart all through my study period and especially for accompanying me during the field data collection. I appreciate my friends for their moral support, keen interest, concern, and advice throughout my study period. I owe a great deal to my friend Mary for going through my draft works. I acknowledge all the people who participated as source of information in my empirical study, including the key informants and the smallholder farmers who gave me their valuable time and honest opinions. My special dedication goes out to special people in my life who have been my role models in different capacities. I dedicate this work to my adorable parents and son in heaven! Their loving memories and life values made me strong throughout my study period. Etenesh Bekele 2018 i DECLARATION Name: ETENESH BEKELE ASFAW__________________________________ Student number: 55767400____________________________________________________ Degree: DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES_______ Exact wording of the title of the dissertation or thesis as appearing on the copies submitted for examination: FARMERS’ COLLECTIVE ACTION AND AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN ETHIOPIA I declare that this thesis is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. __ November, 2018____ _______________________ SIGNATURE DATE ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND DEDICATION ................................................................................... i DECLARATION .............................................................................................................................. ii LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... vi ACRONYMS AND ABBRIVIATIONS .......................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. iix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1.INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 RESARCH PROBLEM .......................................................................................................... 2 1.3 CONTEXT FOR THE STUDY ............................................................................................. 4 1.3.1 Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia ................................................................................... 4 1.3.2 Agrarian Reform and Transformation in Ethiopia ...................................................... 5 1.3.3 Ethiopia’s Agricultural Transformation Policy ............................................................ 6 1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS ................................................................ 7 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................... 8 1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ........................ 8 1.7 CHAPTER LAYOUT ............................................................................................................. 9 1.8 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW, Conceptual AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS 12 2.1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 12 2.2 THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO COLLECTIVE ACTION ................................... 13 2.2.1 Traditional (Olson’s) Collective Action Theory .......................................................... 13 2.2.2 Resource Mobilization Theory...................................................................................... 15 2.2.3 Social-Psychology Theories ........................................................................................... 17 2.2.4 Why do Individuals Participate in Collective Actions? .............................................. 18 2.2.5 Decision-making in Participation- the ‘Expectancy-Value’ model ........................... 22 2.2.6 Factors for Effective and Sustainable Collective Actions .......................................... 26 2.3 AGRICULTURAL REFORM AND TRANSFORMATION ........................................... 27 2.3.1 Agrarian Reform ............................................................................................................ 27 2.3.2 Agricultural Transformation ........................................................................................ 33 2.3.3 Attributes of Agricultural Transformation ................................................................. 37 2.3.4 Smallholder Farmers in Agricultural Transformation .............................................. 41 2.3.5 The Role of Extension in Agricultural Transformation ............................................. 43 2.3.6 Farmers’ Collective Actions in Agricultural Extension ............................................. 50 2.3.7 Measuring the Outcomes of Agricultural Extension .................................................. 52 2.3.8 Global Experiences of Agricultural Transformation ................................................. 53 2.4 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN ETHIOPIA ............................................. 59 2.4.1 Ethiopia’s Agriculture Sector ....................................................................................... 59 2.4.2 Agricultural Transformation Pre-1991........................................................................ 62 iii 2.4.3 Agricultural Transformation in the FDRE Regime (post- 1991) .............................. 68 2.4.4 Land Tenure Policy post- 1991 ..................................................................................... 76 2.4.5 Agricultural Extension post-1991 ................................................................................. 80 2.5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY..................................................... 83 2.6 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 88 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................................... 90 3.1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 90 3.2 MIXED METHODS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................... 90 3.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA .......................................................................... 95 3.3.1 Rationale and Procedure Used for Choosing the Study Areas .................................. 95 3.3.2 Overview of the Study Areas ........................................................................................ 96 3.4 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS .......................................................................... 99 3.4.1 Secondary Data Collection and Analysis: techniques and procedures ..................... 99 3.4.2 Primary Data Collection and Analysis: techniques and procedures......................... 99 3.5 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY TEST .......................................................................... 112 3.6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 114 CHAPTER 4: EXPLORING FARMERS’ DEVELOPMENT GROUPS: DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION OF STUDY FINDINGS ................................................................................ 116 4.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 116 4.2 DESCRIPTION OF STUDY PARTICIPANTS ............................................................... 117 4.2.1 Description of Key Informants ................................................................................... 117 4.2.2 Description of Focus Group Discussants ................................................................... 118 4.2.3 Descriptions of Individual Farmer