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Busiinge Christopher, Researcher with Kabarole Research and Resource Centre.

The Resilience of Ethiopian Farmers

This article is informed by my recent experiential visit to Ethiopian Farmers and thus does not go into

details of understanding and explaining the agroecological conditions that might be influencing smallholder agricultural performance in most parts of Ethiopia. The intention of the article is to simply give a

snapshot of the situation from an outsiders view visiting Ethiopia for just a few days.

The 1980s were hostile years for the Ethiopian people, they were years characterised by farmine and

faces of starved children dying from Hunger. Critics say, most of it was geopolitically influenced by the

West that did not like President Mengistu at the time. No matter what caused the famine, Ethiopia was

globally reflected as a country that could not feed its people.

Three decades down the road, Ethiopia is managing to go through the odds and today is one of the

firstest growing economies. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute(IFPRI),

Ethiopia has made great progress towards improving her food security situation with a registered

increase in crop yields, availability and increase in per capita in the rural areas. However, this is not

without. Ethiopia is a populous country, with more than 80 million people, there are many mouths to

feed, and indeed food is not yet enough. For example, in 2008, Ethiopia imported over 1 million metric

tones of wheat, but also imported rice,maize and soybeans. IFPRI 2005/07 data indicates that 41% of

the population is undernourished.

In the countryside in Hawaasa and Tulboro, farmers are tilling the land- day-in-day out. Most of the

farmers are growing Tef, onions, chick peas, pepper and barley. Farmers are also raring cows, camels,

donkeys and Horses. In Tibila village, farmers are busy growing passion fruits with the support from

Africa Juice, a Public Private through a joint venture partnership wit the farmers.

Travelling 200kms to the East, and 400 kms to the North, the roads are well paved and one could visibly

see trucks carrying farmers produce to the town centres. In the village of Tibila, small holder farmers

are tapping water from a government irrigation system to irrigate their passion fruit gardens but also

water their animals. Very recently, the Ethiopian government has embarked on an ambitious renaisence

dam project on the Nile, all in the spirit of generating more power to pump water to the furthest rural

areas in Ethiopia.

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Passion fruit growing on an irrigated small holder farmers farm

A Sugarcane farm in Oromia region of Ethiopia under irrigation

The mountaneous villages on the road to Kombolcha, farmers are practicing soil conservation practices,

and every terrance on a plot of land exhibits traditional, technique, skill and knowledge that have been

transferred from one generation to another. A recent research paper by the World agroforestry centre

in Nairobi, has refered to farmers in Bekoji in Oromia region as knowing the value of rotating cereal

crops with legumes to maintain productivity.

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This photo by Kate Langfordshows a traditional water management practice by Ethiopian farmers

On some of the farms, manure from urban waste was being applied although on many farms, trees were

visibly missing despite the good effort to improve soil fertility. Animal traction is very common and many

farmers are using ox-ploughs to plough large chuncks of land.

Farmers in Ethiopia are aware that they can not depend on only a single enterprise, and they have

diversified and integrated animal raring. Animals are not only used to plough the land, but also used to

transport produce from the farm as well as supplement family diet.

Unlike in Uganda where some regions have specialised in animal husbandry for a long time but failed to

manage animal fodder, the Ethiopian farmers have employed their indegnous knowledge to preserve

fodder. At every household, a stack of dried fodder is available to feed the animals during the dry

season.

http://blog.worldagroforestry.org/index.php/author/kate-langford/http://blog.worldagroforestry.org/index.php/author/kate-langford/http://blog.worldagroforestry.org/index.php/author/kate-langford/

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In addition to Animal husbandry, Ethiopian Farmers keep animals to suplement both incomes and dietary needs.

In the Ethiopian tradition, Ethiopians eat a lot of Enjera-a stapple food made out of Tef. Tef is grown by

more than 70% of Ethiopian farmers across the entire country. Ethiopians also grow and eat a lot of

onions too. A meal without Enjera and onions is no good meal. Every household grows Tef, and it is the

zero priority crop and culture is the dictating factor. On the other hand, governments policy not to

export Tef partly explains the all year round availability of Tef. Besides Enjera, Ethiopians grow and drink

a lot of coffee. In other words, unlike in Uganda, Ethiopian farmers grow crops that already have a local

and national demand and market. In Uganda for example, matooke which is the most poupular food

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crop is still not eaten in most of the households but Enjera in Ethiopia is.

Enjera- and beef is always on the menu for the Ethiopians

Conclusively, Ethiopian society is a conservative society and this is also reflected in the protectionist

policy by the Ethiopian government for particular crops like Tef. This could also be partly attributed to

less western influence. Ethiopia was not colonised and this helped to keep some cultural norms intact

and makes the Ethiopians very proud of their culture. Never theless, there is still the Itallian influence of

Noddles but still this has not stopped Ethiopians from eating their Enjera and whence locally promoting

their own crops and keeping farmers in the local market.

In the end, the function of government in putting in place an enabling policy environent and

infrastructure, the traditional and indigenous customs of ethiopias are responsible for increasing the

resilience of ethiopian farmers to vagaries of nature like droughts but also increasing their livelihoods.