Land, Land Policy and Smallholder Agriculture in Ethiopia: Options and Scenarios

Discussion Paper Discussion Land, Land Policy and Smallholder Agriculture in Ethiopia: Options and Scenarios Samuel Gebreselassie March 2006 Discussion Paper 008 www.future-agricultures.org Background (Helland, 1999). Historically, as in contemporary Ethiopia, the issue of rural land is primarily a political or social Land is a public property in Ethiopia. It has been admin- question. The land question of the 1960s or early 1970s istered by the government since the 1975 radical land was primarily a political question aimed at ending the reform. The reform brought to an end the exploitative feudal form of exploitation of peasants by a few landlords, type of relationship that existed between tenants and especially in the southern part of the country. The 1975 landlords. Tenants became own operators with use rights, radical land reform accomplished this objective and was but with no rights to sell, mortgage or exchange of land. applauded at the time as it seemed that the question of The change of government in 1991 has brought not much rural land had got an adequate answer. However, the change in terms of land policy. The EPRDF-led govern- level of poverty and food insecurity has been worsened ment that overthrew the Military government (Derg) in and failed to subside, despite fundamental changes in 1991 has inherited the land policy of its predecessor. the land tenure system. This situation has called for devel- Even though the new government adopted a free market opment experts to revisit the role of the over three economic policy, it has decided to maintain all rural and decades old land policy to foster/hinder rural develop- urban land under public ownership. The December 1994 ment. The fact that farmers have only usufruct rights to Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of land has sparked a debate among Ethiopian and foreign Ethiopia proclaimed that ‘Land is a common property of scholars regarding the effect of the tenure system on the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia and land investment and management, factor mobility and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of transfer’. the development of the non-farm sector (Gebremedhin Since the 1975 land reform, which made all rural land and Nega, 2005). public property, the possession of land plots has been conditional upon residence in a village. The transfer of land through long-term lease or sales has been forbidden1, The Land Issue in Ethiopia and government sponsored periodic redistribution, Rural land is both an economic and a political/social though, discouraged administratively since the early question in the present-day Ethiopia. The insertion of 1990s, has not been outlawed (Mulat, 1999). the issue of land in the Ethiopian constitution in the early Ethiopia is one of the few countries in Africa that has 1990s, however, may indicate that rural land has increas- not made significant changes in its basic land policy for ingly become a political affair. By inserting the land policy over three decades; except for occasional land redistribu- in the constitution, the current government has effec- tions to accommodate the growing population. Land tively eliminated the possibility of flexible application of redistribution was more frequent during the Derg time policy. Even worse, it has eliminated all meaningful and has been discouraged since 1991, though not totally debates about efficient utilization of land (Nega and eliminated. No redistribution has happened for 10 years Degfe, 2000). However, there are growing criticisms of in Amhara Region, 15 years in other regions. In 1996, the existing land policy. The United Nations Economic land was given to landless youth and returnee ex-soldiers Commission for Africa’s (UNECA) 2002 economic report in Amhara Region by reducing the holding of farmers on Africa, for instance, stated that land tenure, along with who were reportedly associated with previous govern- the issue of governance, were “the most pressing areas ments. Even though equity or social justice seems the requiring institutional reforms in Ethiopia.” The report major objective of the redistribution, it also demonstrates suggests that “Land policy has not yielded the expected the loophole in the policy which allows local authorities results. Moreover, it has been heavily criticized for not to use the land policy as a political instrument. In other being participatory. The policy was the result of a central- regions, communal grazing and woodland was allotted ized, top-down approach rather than being developed to new claimants (Mulat, 1999). Increasing population through consultations with all concerned parties in the rural areas was thus absorbed in agriculture (farmers, civil society, businesses). The report suggests through levelling down of holdings, rather than through that, though the land issue is politically difficult, it needs alternative forms of employment. Population growth to be resolved quickly since it impedes the development could have been supported by rural non-farm employ- of several key sectors” (UNECA, 2002).” ment creation, but this hasn’t happened so young adults One of the arguments provided by policy makers to people remain in rural areas either unemployed, as land- keep rural land under public ownership is the assumption less labourers or as sharecroppers on someone else’s land. that rural land plays a social security role (i.e. in terms of This consequence of the land redistributions and the guaranteeing some form of livelihood through granting current land policy does not seem to have been foreseen free access to a piece of land). Ethiopian policy makers by the government of Ethiopia. voted for a constitution (in 1994) that grants free access Access to land is an important issue for the majority to land to every rural residents who wants to farm and of Ethiopian people who, one way or the other, depend earn income from farming Even though this can not be on agricultural production for their income and subsis- an entirely rejected argument, it is not possible that rural tence. Land tenure issues therefore continue to be of land could play a social security role indefinitely, as the central political and economic importance, as they have supply of farm land is physically fixed and subjected to been at several junctures in Ethiopia’s history. The deci- decline because of misuse. The supply of productive land sive significance of the land question was perhaps most in Ethiopian highland areas has diminished as productive explicitly expressed in the course of events leading to lands are decreasing due to land degradation and soil the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974. ‘Land to the Tiller’ was erosion that caused by a combination of different factors the rallying cry of the student and opposition movement, including lack of technical know-how or their afford- which eventually prevailed and toppled the old regime ability, declining labour productivity and high population Discussion Paper 008 2 www.future-agricultures.org pressure, coupled with low migration and lack of non- literature as desirable characteristics of land and land farm employment options2. tenure policy. Recent literatures on the causes of long-term agricultural stagnation in Ethiopia have started to widen the thinking on Ethiopian agriculture. Some argue that rural Desirable Characteristics of residents have increasingly become more-or-less equally Land Tenure reform: issues poor. Authors like Holt and Rahmato (1997) mention that the land tenure system, through its egalitarianism of land from the literature division policy and impeding long-term migration, has Land tenure systems are defined by societies. Within such systems, rights in land are identified that, among others, gradually thinned economic and social differentiation to determine access to specific uses of a certain piece of within rural communities. Critics argue that the extent land and the distribution of the benefits that accrue from of rural homogeneity has gone too far, undermining the these (Groppo, 2003). Although there is wide recognition effort that has been made to bring about rural develop- regarding the importance of land policy in agrarian ment through hindering the process of dynamic development, there is no clear and universally applicable economic change that could happen in an economic blueprint as to what an appropriate land policy should environment that provides reasonable levels of incen- be. This is partly because the efficacy of land policy in tives and allows competition among people. encouraging agricultural development depends on The frequent state-sponsored land distribution and socio-cultural and geographical variables that signifi- redistribution programmes that have been very common cantly differ from country to country and region to region. at least until a decade ago, coupled with intra-household Despite such differences, however, using established land distribution has, many argued, increased rural theories, behavioural assumptions regarding economic poverty and peasants’ vulnerability by compelling them agents and drawing on experience from other countries, to convert their assets to food and overuse their researchers have tried to define certain basic principles contracting land to compensate lost production through and thereby achieve a land policy that will generate a mismanagement that could lead into the gradual conver- higher level of productivity in agriculture, while also sion of productive lands into waste or barren land. This maintaining considerations

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