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Abstract
This article discusses contemporary agrarian transformation in southern Ethiopia from the perspective of how policies of agricultural commercialisation engender new patterns of rural social differentiation and politicisation of the land issue in the rural setting. By presenting a case of biofuels production through contract farming in Wolaita, the paper sheds light on the historical trajectory of agrarian transformation to elucidate the tensions of the current project of commercialisation. The article concludes that commercialisation of smallholder agriculture is a crucial feature of the country's strategy for socio-economic and political transformation and constitutes one of the main defining aspects of the self-declared ‘developmental state’ in Ethiopia. The current trajectory in Wolaita sees tangible rural social differentiation for the first time since the 1975 land reform. Beyond the success or failure of individual cases, commercialisation reflects two main layers of tension, present also elsewhere in Ethiopia's rural areas. The first has to do with the relationship between bureaucratic centralism and economic liberalisation; the second emerges from the implications of rural social stratification to the redefinition of the ruling elite's political consensus.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Interview with a farmer, Wolaita, 12 April 2012.
2. Planel, “A View of a Bureaucratic,” 432.
3. Cotula et al., Land Grab or Development Opportunity? 56.
4. Müller et al., “Some Insight in the Effect,” 84.
5. See Oya, “Contract Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa,” 5.
6. Deininger and Byerlee, Rising Global Interest in Farmland, 34.
7. World Bank, Agriculture for Development, 237.
8. Rahmato, Land to Investors, 27.
9. See FDRE, Growth and Transformation Plan.
10. See Deininger and Byerlee, Rising Global Interest in Farmland; Cotula et al., Land Grab or Development Opportunity.
11. See Abbink, “Land to the Foreigners.”
12. Rahmato, Land to Investors, 29.
13. Makki, “Power and Property”; Lavers, Patterns of Agrarian Transformation.
14. van der Mheen-Sluijer, “Ethiopian Commodity Exchange”; Melese, Contract Farming in Ethiopia.
15. Negash and Swinnen, “Biofuels and Food Security.”
16. The current Ethiopian federal structures provides for several administrative levels. Each region is divided in administrative zones. Below the zone is the wereda (district) and kebele (village) administrations.
17. Aalen, The Politics of Ethnicity, 60.
18. Aalen, The Politics of Ethnicity, 65.
19. Abbink, “Agricultural ‘Involution,’” 88; see Chiatti, The Politics of Divine.
20. Planel, La Chute, 123–124.
21. Aalen, The Politics of Ethnicity, 72–73.
22. Aalen, The Politics of Ethnicity, 73.
23. Planel, La Chute, 149. Gult was a right over land granted by the Emperor to imperial officials as a form of compensation for administrative duties.
24. Aalen, The Politics of Ethnicity, 79.
25. Abbink, “Agricultural ‘Involution,’” 89.
26. Lefort, Free Market Economy, 682.
27. See Aalen, The Politics of Ethnicity, 82–84.
28. Cohen, Integrated Rural Development, 84.
29. Rahmato, Development Interventions in Wollaita, 17.
30. Cohen, Integrated Rural Development, 83–85.
31. Vaughan and Tronvoll, The Culture of Power, 12.
32. FDRE, An Economic Development Strategy.
33. Abbink, “Agricultural ‘Involution,’” 90.
34. Vaughan and Tronvoll, The Culture of Power, 118.
35. Rahmato, The Peasant and the State, 347; see Crewett and Korf, Ethiopia: Reforming Land Tenure.
36. Lefort, Free Market Economy, 682.
37. FDRE, An Economic Development Strategy.
38. Bevan and Pankhurst, “Ethiopian Village Studies,” 12.
39. Data collected at the Wolaita zone Finance and Economic Office.
40. Abbink, “Agricultural ‘Involution,’” 87.
41. Rahmato, Development Interventions in Wollaitta, 37.
42. Interview at the Wolaita Zone Agriculture and Rural Development Office (ARDO), 9 April 2012.
43. Quoted in De Waal, The Theory and Practice, 154.
44. See Zenawi, “States and Markets.”
45. See Lefort, “Powers – Mengist”; Aalen and Tronvoll, The End of Democracy.
46. FDRE, Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), 8.
47. FDRE, Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), 8.
48. Makki, “Power and Property,” 97.
49. FDRE, Agricultural Cooperatives, 9.
50. See Spielman et al., Seed, Fertilizer, and Agricultural Extensions.
51. See Ageba and Amha, “Micro and Small Enterprises.”
52. Castor oil plant is an indigenous crop in Ethiopia and grows in different localities, including Wolaita. Its seed is the castor bean that is very rich of oil, but not edible. Seeds are then pressed and processed through a relatively simple chemical procedure to become biodiesel. According to some informants, traditionally castor trees served as household fences.
53. See . The other two wereda GEE planned to work on are Deguna Fanigo and Humbo.
54. According to the Wolaita Zone Trade and Industry Development Department, state land was allocated as follows: 736 ha by 2008; 1462.3 ha by 2009; 2193.55 ha by 2010; 2925 ha by 2011. Internal correspondence, May 2010.
55. Interview with a former GEE extension worker, Wolaita, 10 April 2012.
56. Interview with a former GEE extension worker, Wolaita, 13 April 2012.
57. See Moges, “Smallholder Farmer and Biofuels.”
58. Interview with a former GEE extension worker, Wolaita, 13 April 2012.
59. Interview with a former GEE extension worker, Wolaita, 10 April 2012.
60. Group interview with five farmers in Wolaita, 18 April 2012.
61. Interview with a former GEE extension worker, Wolaita, 13 April 2012.
62. Interview with a local official of the zone ARDO, 20 April 2012.
63. See Scott, Seeing Like a State.
64. Lefort, Free Market Economy, 696; see also Berhanu and Poulton, “The Political Economy of Agricultural Extension.”
65. Interview with a former GEE extension worker, Wolaita, 10 April 2012.
66. Internal communication report between GEE and zone office, June 2009.
67. Interview with a former GEE extension worker, Wolaita, 10 April 2012.
68. Interview with a MF in Wolaita, 23 April 2012.
69. Interview with a former GEE extension worker, Wolaita, 18 April 2012.
70. Interview with a MF in Wolaita, 24 April 2012.
71. MME, The Biofuel Development. For a broader discussion of the Ethiopian biofuel strategy, see Anderson and Belay, Rapid Assessment of Biofuels.
72. Interview with a farmer in Wolaita, 23 April 2012.
73. Interview with a MF in Wolaita, 17 April 2012.
74. Interview with a local official of the zone ARDO, 20 April 2012.
75. Interview with six farmers in Wolaita, 25 April 2012.
76. Interview with a NGO worker, Wolaita, 7 April 2012.
77. Vaughan and Tronvoll, The Culture of Power, 117.
78. Rahmato, The Peasant and the State, 347.