The Subsistence Crisis in Ethiopia
Abstract
Kiros, F. G. [Fassil G. Kiros].
The subsistence crisis in Africa: The case of Ethiopia.
OSSREA, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). 1993. xiii + 224p. Nairobi (Kenya): ICIPE
Science Press.
Describes
and analyses the historical processes; nature of national policies that have
been adopted; the underlying economic, social and political processes that have
been at work and that have led to the adoption of these policies, as well as the
effects of these policies and processes on the rural society as causes of the
subsistence crisis in Ethiopia whereby an increasing number of rural producers
have found it more and more difficult to meet their minimum subsistence
requirements. These are the food shortage, health hazard and other facets of
rural poverty in the country; physical and biotic constraints, subsistence
survival strategy, burden of tributes and taxation, and military campaigns in
the scramble for state power that have caused the erosion of rural production
systems and continue to do so; the increased
dependence on the external economy,
the deepening exploitation of rural producers and the negative consequences of
urbanization which resulted from the initial modernization efforts; the Chilalo
and other agricultural development projects and the national scheme of
agricultural modernization adopt~ from 1967 to 1975; the land reform
proclamation, creation of rural mass organizations, establishment of state farms
and the agricultural production strategy that was operational in the period of
revolutionary transformation after 1975 along with consequences of this agrarian
policy with regard to peasant life, state farms, agricultural marketing
corporations, taxation and other levies, population resettlement and
villagisation; and demographic and ecological undercurrents such as population
pressure, land degradation, and recurrent drought and famine. Concludes by
highlighting several challenges that need to be addressed urgently, viz.,
resolution of the dilemma of poverty amidst potential plenty, scope of and
leading issues of rural development such as food supply and empowerments of the
rural people, devising strategies appropriate for the diverse production systems
found in different agro economic zones, efficient utilization of human and
physical resources, and research and development of appropriate technologies.