>,* -r- FRP TECHNICAL PAMPHLET NO. 21 >: V. A STUDY OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES: THE CASE OF CROP PRODUCTION AMONG THE DA W RO OF SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA BY DATA DEA ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY FARMERS’ RESEARCH PROJECT (FRP) FARM AFRICA P.O.BOX 495 AWASSA ETHIOPIA JULY 1997 r i FRP TECHNICAL PAMPHLET NO. 21 A STUDY OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES: THE CASE OF CROP PRODUCTION AMONG THE DA WRO OF SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA I I! BY DATA DEA ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY FARMERS’ RESEARCH PROJECT (FRP) FARM AFRICA P.O.BOX 495 AWASSA ETHIOPIA JULY 1997 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNWLED GENENT (ii) GLOSARY OF LOCAL TERMS (iii) ACRONYMS (iv) PREFACE (v) 1. INRODUCTION i l 1.1 Objective ! 1 1.2 Methodology I 1 1.2.1 Site Selection !1 1.3 Contextual Definition of Knowledge ; 2 2. THE DAWRO PEOPLE: A BRIEF ACCOUNT • 5 2.1 General 5 2.2 Koysh PA: The Specific Study Site 6 2.3 The Social System 6 2.4 Overview of Economic Activities 8 3. INDEGINIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF CROP PRODUCTION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS 10 3.1 Introduction 10 3.2 Case Studies of Production Practices of Major Crops 11 3.2.1 The Case of Maize Production 11 3.2.2 The Case of Sorghum Producton 18 3.2.3 The Case of Teff Production 21 3.2.4 The Case of Ensete Production 22 3.3 Compartive Analysis of Agricultural knowledge and Farming Practices Accross Social Groups 25 3.4 Some Processes in the generation and Transmission of Local Knowledge 27 4. CONCLUSION 29 REFERENES 32 APPENDICES 34 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my special gratitude to my advisor Dr. Alula Pankhurst whose contributions were essential for the success of this work. I am also grateful to Dr. Ian Scoones, of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex (U.K) whose rich experience highly enriched my understanding of local/indigenous knowledge. I am very grateful to the Farmers’ Research Project of FARM Africa for its financial support for undertaking the fieldwork for this study particularly during the first two phases of fieldwork. My special thanks are, thus, due to all the FRP staff, for their unreserved support for the success of my work. I would also like to extend my thanks to all the staff of Action Aid Ethiopia, Koysha Rural Development Area, who offered me sincere cooperation during my fieldwork. I am also indebted to the people of Dawro in general whose friendliness and hospitality made me feel at home during my fieldwork; and to my informants in particular who let me leam about their lives. I would also like to thank my assistants Ato Wondimu Lemma and Ato Bekele Bakalo, who exploited their rich knowledge of the Dawro culture to assist me during my fieldwork, j i Data Dea j July 1997 j GLOSSARY OF LOCAL TERMS Aylia hoe Babaka practice of weeding by oxen plough Dadda backyard, garden area that is organically fertilised Dago large work party called for large-scale agricultural operation Dashua midland or mid altitude Dawrotsua the Dawro dialect of Omotic language Degella tanner Derg military government that ruled Ethiopia from 1974-1991 Diyiaa granary made from bamboo trees Doria indigenous granary where a storage bed is constructed on a living tree Enjera Ethiopian traditional bread made from teff flour Ensete root crop widely grown in southwestern Ethiopia GadJia lowland Gatua teaming up oxen to make a pair for plough Gezia highland Ginda plough Idirea voluntary burial and housing association Jalla bond relationship through circumcision rites (eye-parent or children are referred as Jalla) Kati Dawro king Komua clan Kotsa share-production partnership Mana potter Neftegna man with a gun; in southern Ethiopia, a common name for the descendants of people who went to Dawro as participants of the “Ethiopian feudal system” Otsa uncultivated area Shoika out field Teff small seeded grain, endemic to Ethiopia from which injera is made • Ulia a method of storage whereby a harvested crop is piled on the ground and covered by grass or ensete leaves Wogache smith Woreda a formal administrative unit hierarchically above the Peasant Association Zewe a reciprocal work group composed of 3-10 persons ACRONYMS AAE Action Aid Ethiopia CSO Central Statistics Office EPRDF Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front l HH Household 1i MOA Ministry of Agriculture 1I PA Peasants’ Association SNNPR Southern Nations’ Nationalities and Peoples Region Preface I FARM Africa is a registered charity in the United Kingdom and working in various projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and the Republic of South Africa. One of the major projects FARM undertakes in Ethiopia is the Farmer's Research Project (FRP) which is carried out in the North Omo Zone, Konso, and Derashe, Special Woredas of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region. So far the project has completed its two phases and has started its phase three program. Phase one of the project covered the three years between 1991 and 1993 while phase two covered the second three years of 1993 to 1995. FRP has as its main objective, alleviating the agricultural problems of resource-poor farmers whose livelihoods and farming systems are characterized by relative complexity, diversity and risk-proneness. By involving them directly in all stages of agricultural research processes, FRP seeks to harness the huge potential of traditional; knowledge farmers have accumulated in their centuries long struggle to obtain their livelihoods. Emphasis is thus given by FPR to the indigenous knowledge of resource-pOor farmers based on the fact that their proven survival capacity contains many lessons that scientists can learn from rather than the other way round. "Study" is one major component in the project and a series of studies, namely, diagnostic, topical and special studies, are conducted by FRP to achieve its objectives. Published as Technical Pamphlets (TP), studies are important sources of basic information on the agricultural practices, social , as well as economic aspects of various groups of people and their environment. This technical pamphlet, which is the 21st in the series of TPs produced for FRP, is also prepared with a view to assisting in the above endeavor. It is concerned with examining the relationship between the local agriculturalj (technical) knowledge and the social system among the Dawro of Southwestern Ethiopia, j i The study begins by presenting a detailed account of the topographic, socioeconomic as well as environmental conditions of the Dawro people. It then dwells upon a comparative analysis of the agricultural knowledge, skills and farming practices of two farming groups in Dawro, the Malla and the Manja. The resulting revelation is a striking account of differences in agricultural practices and knowledge between these two groups who share similar environment. As well as providing technical guidelines on the objectives and methodology used in conducting the study, the author provides a brief contextual definition of local knowledge. It also considers the socioeconomic systems and overview of economic activities of the Dawro people. It later goes on to explore the indigenous technical knowledge of the two farming groups by taking in to account the case of maize, sorghum teff and ensete production as practiced by the two groups. The justification for this is that these crops are relatively more important to the two groups of people in terms of use for food, cash value, and area of land they require for cultivation. The main fieldwork for this study took place in 1997 when the author, Ato Data Dea spent time researching material for his M.A. thesis. However, the author, after finishing his M.A was involved in other activities followed by a Ph.D study and the document was thus not finalized. It took longer time than expected to complete it and some of the comments forwarded by other persons ( which need the attention of the author) have not also been incorporated. We are obliged to publish this document with the feeling that the findings are valuable even without incorporating the comments. We would also like to apologize for the relative delay in the publication of this study due to the problems indicated above. The significance of this study to FRP cannot be exaggerated and FARM hopes to translate its contents to productive purposes. Other interested parties and professionals wishing to engage in studies of this type are highly encouraged and FRP promises its fullest cooperation should they need it. Ejigu Jonfa Coordinator, FRP 1. INTRODUCTION This report examines the relationship between local agricultural (technical) knowledge and the social system among the Dawro of South-western Ethiopia. It was part of a bigger research project undertaken for an MA thesis in Social Anthropology that looked at social stratification and rural livelihoods in Dawro. The report has four parts. The introductory section presents the research objectives, methodology and conceptual framework. Chapter two briefly describes the Dawro people, the area and Koysha PA - the specific study site. Chapter three describes local knowledge and practices of crop production in Dawro. The last chapter summarizes findings of the study. 1.1 Objective The main objective of this study is to record and comparatively analyze components of local (indigenous) agricultural knowledge, skills, and farming practices of two farming groups in Dawro. This study is part of a bigger study in Dawro comparing the livelihood strategies of two farmer groups, the Malla and the Manja, who share more or less similar natural environment, but differ in their structural position. Assuming that local knowledge and practices are an important asset for the success of rural livelihoods, this study looks at the extent to which the social background of farming groups influence and is influenced by local knowledge of agriculture.