UPPSATSER FRÅN KULTURGEOGRAFISKA INSTITUTIONEN October 2012 Local dynamics and external drivers of agro-ecological change in Southwestern Ethiopia Julia Hedtjärn Swaling Master's Thesis in Geography, 30 credits Supervisors: Lowe Börjeson and Peter Kinlund Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University www.humangeo.su.se Hedtjärn Swaling, Julia (2012) Local dynamics and external drivers of agro-ecological change in Southwestern Ethiopia Human Geography, advanced level, Master thesis for master exam in Geography, 30 ETCS credits. Supervisors: Börjeson, Lowe and Kinlund, Peter Language: English Abstract While previous research on African smallholder agriculture has been criticized of focusing on the sole factor of population pressure as driver of agricultural degradation or intensification, the present study tries to nuance this debate by providing empirically grounded research, exploring the dynamics behind local agro-ecological change. The thesis specifically studies the dynamics behind small-scale farmers’ crop choices in relation to their management of trees in cropland in Gera District, Ethiopia. Drawing on situated landscape interviews and focus group discussions with farmers combined with observations and interviews with agriculture officials, a contextual understanding of local agro-ecological processes emerged. While political ecology was used as an overarching framework, the concept of landesque capital served as an analytical tool to explore how external and local forces interact at the point of the land management decision. It was found that external factors sometimes have a reinforcing effect at the local scale, but when top-down interventions are incoherent with bottom-up priorities, a conflict occurs. In this way, local dynamics and external drivers constitute an interacting dialectic, with a set of unintentional synergies and trade-offs eventually forming agro-ecological landscape change. Key words: Ethiopia, agricultural change, agroecology, top-down, bottom-up, political ecology, landesque capital, participatory rural appraisal. 1 Acknowledgements First of all I want to thank the farmers in Gera, who dedicated much of their valuable time to participate in interviews and group discussions, for their grand contribution to this thesis. By sharing their experiences, thoughts, knowledge and warm hospitality they made my fieldwork an unforgettable and thrilling learning-experience. Isin hin irraanfadhu! I am also grateful to the development agents and agriculture officials in Gera District who participated in interviews, provided information and facilitated the course of the fieldwork in many ways. Asfaw Bariso Tolera, my interpreter and friend, was indispensible for this thesis; without his assistance and our fruitful discussions in the field, the progress of the data collection and analysis would certainly not have advanced as smoothly. Additionally, I want to thank my supervisors for offering me their support, ideas and encouragement, Lowe Börjeson for his inspiring enthusiasm and Peter Kinlund for his sound and constructive advice. This study was carried out as a part of the project Examining mismatches between management and the supply of ecosystem services in Ethiopian agroecosystems across scales in space and time, conducted by the Department of Human Geography and the Department of Botany at Stockholm University together with Addis Ababa University. I want to thank all of those involved in the project in Sweden and Ethiopia, for your continuous support and feedback during and after the fieldwork, especially to Kristoffer Hylander for coordinating it all. I also want to give a special thanks to Tola Gemechu Ango, for offering such good support and inspiration in the field. The fieldwork was made possible by a Minor Field Study grant, funded by the Swedish international development cooperation agency (Sida) and distributed by the Department of Human Geography at Stockholm University. Closer to home, I want to thank my fellow student Manuel Fischer for his company those endless days of writing, making it enjoyable even in times of stress. Jakob Lundberg, for his good advice and encouragement, and for offering me to write in his office for some weeks. Last but not least, I want to thank my parents, always supportive and truly interested in what I do. Julia Hedtjärn Swaling, Sjöhaga - Dalarna, Sweden, September 2012 2 Table of Contents 1 Introduction........................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Background...................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Purpose and research questions ....................................................................................... 6 1.3 Scope of the study ........................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Outline of the paper ......................................................................................................... 8 1.5 Geographical background to the study area: Gera District.............................................. 8 1.6 Methods and methodology ............................................................................................ 10 2 Theoretical background ..................................................................................................... 17 2.1 A political ecology framework...................................................................................... 17 2.2 Literature review ........................................................................................................... 22 3 Crop-choices in Gera .......................................................................................................... 27 3.1 Cereal crops ................................................................................................................... 27 3.2 Coffee ............................................................................................................................ 38 3.3 Khat ............................................................................................................................... 46 3.4 Avocado......................................................................................................................... 51 3.5 Eucalyptus ..................................................................................................................... 54 4 Tree management in the agricultural landscape ............................................................. 58 4.1 Landesque capital as an analytical tool ......................................................................... 58 4.2 Trees in the local agro-ecological landscape................................................................. 58 4.3 Defining green landesque capital – the importance of labor......................................... 59 4.4 Open cereal fields .......................................................................................................... 60 4.5 Khat fences .................................................................................................................... 62 4.6 Shade coffee - Agroforestry .......................................................................................... 63 4.7 Commercial trees as landesque capital.......................................................................... 65 4.8 Top-down creation of landesque capital........................................................................ 66 5 Concluding discussion ........................................................................................................ 69 Appendix I: List of empirical sources................................................................................... 1 Appendix II: Crop prices .................................................................................................... 1 Appendix III: Focus group crop ranking matrices ............................................................ 1 3 List of figures Figure 1: Map of Gera’s location in Ethiopia .............................................................................. 9 Figure 2: Crop ranking matrix used in a focus group ................................................................ 13 Figure 3: People on the way to and from the market in Dusta................................................... 14 Figure 4: Conceptual framework of landesque capital set in relation to other capitals............ 19 Figure 5: Teff is particularly labor-intensive ............................................................................. 30 Figure 6: Incremental expansion of coffee ................................................................................. 45 Figure 7: The agro-ecological matrix; a mosaic of different field types.................................... 59 Figure 8: Trees are kept on boundaries in cereal fields for different reasons ........................... 61 Figure 9: Khat planted in home garden within a tree fence ....................................................... 62 Figure 10: Shade-coffee as an agroforestry practice. ................................................................ 64 Figure 11: Ditches in preparation in slopes in cereal fields in Dusta........................................ 67 If not stated otherwise, photos are taken by the author. List of tables Table 1: List of crops by quantity produced in Wanja Karsa kebele.........................................