The recent impact of globalisation on a rural community in Southern Region:

Aze Debo, Kembatta Zone

Ethiopia WIDE: Shiferaw Fujie and Agata Frankowska

Paper presented at a panel on Globalisation & Rural Ethiopia 20th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Mekelle, 1-5 October 2018

Introduction: outline of the paper

• Section 1: Aze Debo in 2011

• Section 2: Agricultural modernisation in Aze Debo – A mix of global & local factors and actors

• Section 3: Other globalisation-linked modernisation processes with potential consequences for Aze Debo’s trajectory into the future

• Section 4: Conclusions

Section 1

The economy of Aze Debo, Kedida Gamela wereda, Kambata in 2011

Aze Debo

• Kebele flattish with part climbing to higher ground; very densely populated and many landless; 750 households, almost all Kambata and Protestant

• Kebele centre alongside the road 4 kms from Durame, zone and wereda town, contained public buildings and a few modern houses

• Traditionally livelihoods involved enset-based mixed farming, including coffee, small-scale livestock rearing with trade and outmigration; PSNP started in 2005/6 and one-third of households were on it in 2011

• By 2011 cash crop production of coffee and eucalyptus had increased

• 11 farmers had started irrigating fruit and vegetables by hand

• Trade of farm products ranged from small- to fairly large-scale activities mainly involving coffee

• Outmigration still important:

‒ reduced male seasonal agricultural migration

‒ new growing female migration to cities and flower farms

‒ fast-rising mainly illegal male migration to South Africa

‒ recently female migration to Gulf countries.

Section 2

Agricultural modernisation in Aze Debo 2011-2018

Agricultural modernization Modernization since 2011/12

Coffee Still important, but affected by disease - result of a mix of factors

Crops and vegetables/fruits

• Improved seeds: teff, maize, wheat, beans + new techniques (row planting, irrigation)

• New vegetables&fruits: cabbages, tomato,potatos, carrots, avocado, mango, apple

• Input value chains: improved seeds and fertilizer, pesticides&weedkiller

Livestock

• Cattle : Hybrid cows, dairy products (local value chains) • Bull fattening (less significant than dairy) • Poultry • Beekeeping + new services: veterinarian, new drugs, fodder at FTC, dairy cooperatives

Agricultural modernization (2) • In the remaining of this presentation we will show how for each

of these ‘cases’, agricultural modernisation has resulted from a mix of global and local factors and actors

• It is noteworthy that there has been no modernisation with regard to enset…

• We focus on

• Coffee which remains the only (cash) crop linked to a global output value chain

• Grain crops and vegetables which offer an interesting contrast with coffee and also between the two (grain crops and vegs)

• Cattle – dairy and fattening, which at the moment are more important in Aze Debo’s economy than poultry and beekeeping.

Export of coffee Input value chain: mix of global-local: Jimma and Yirgachefe varieties - Ethiopian sources:

Research Centers and local farmers Pesticides to treat the diseases - external • Shift from coffee to other cash crops (eucalyptus,

irrigated vegs, chat) Output value chain: global (invisible) and local (visible) • Kembatta coffee – part of recognised Sidama coffee

sold on ECX • Coffee can be sold in wereda without license • Capital needed to get a license= 1mln birr; allows to

sell coffee outside the wereda „where there is better market/value”

• Cash crops: coffee, eucalyptus, teff, chat

Grain crops – less developed output value chains, produced mainly for household consumption

Irrigated vegs (tomatoes, to a lesser extent: carrot, cabbages, beetroot) – more developed local value chains, produced for market in Durame

• Rising economic importance of irrigated crops because of urbanization

Crops and vegetables

• Local farming practices:

Irrigation practices using ponds, hand dug well are becoming new initiatives

Ploughing right after harvesting to use the moisture in the soil and planting vegetables

Intercropping has been long standing practice but expanding these days

Local vs external actors:

Limited attention paid to irrigation by the government, individual/NGO-led initiative

Crops and vegetables

• Globalized input value chain – gov-led initiative

Fertilizer: Strong pressure to use fertilizer (DAP and urea): main sources include kebele and private market, PSNP beneficiaries are forced to buy

Weedkiller and pesticides; the latter an issue for bee-keepers/ modern beehives provieded by World Vision

Improved seeds for teff, maize, beans, richer can afford buying

Local vs external actors:

gov - the most important for fertlizer, and the least – for seeds

Crops and vegetables

Modern vs traditional beehives

Cattle

• 35% hh in 2011, but in 2018, 80% of households in Azedebo’a have hybrid cows, the poor buy calves or herd rich people’s cows for share benefit of milk and calves.

• The rich farmers, civil servants, people having children in South Africa have a chance to own more than two hybrid cows.

• Global aspect: introduction by Missionaires, but mediated by local farmers...with some resistance:

this looks like a horse, and how can humans drink milk from a horse?

24

Cattle - Dairy

• Two types of hybrid cows are common:

Jersey - resistant to diseases, less milk, more butter,

Holstein - huge, susceptible to diseases, double milk than Jersey cows, but less butter production (better market value)

• Dairy >>>> Bull fattening = both local value chains

• Gendered dimension: dairy as women’s domain vs fattening as men’s domain

• Economic importance: better income, improved houses, funding migration to SA, transfer to non-farming sector.

Global and local actors:

• Change Agents: Missionaries, World Vision, and partly Woreda Agriculture Office

• Early adopters rich farmers (dead or very old today)

Holstein

Jersey

Cattle - Bull Fattening

• Practiced since a long time, but increased households involvement recently.

• 1-2 oxen a time and mostly during summer to sell fattened bulls for Meskel festival when high value is expected; only few households keep on fattening in other seasons

• Obstacles for expansion: 1) shortage of animal feed and space(conflicting interest to feed cows vs bulls between spauses) 2) lack of capital

Cattle Recent modernization aspects

• Dairy cooperatives (for value chain): supported by NGO

• Fodder seedlings and seeds available at FTC:

new adoptive way of livestock feeding

• Veterinarian service: much appreciated by farmers because of easy access, but complains on quality of service due to poor drugs supplied

Chiller in Milk Processing plant

Veterinarian service

Section 3

Globalisation processes which have contributed to Aze Debo’s agricultural modernisation

• Globalisation, modernisation and urbanisation processes go hand-in-hand

• Urbanisation processes affecting rural communities in Ethiopia: inside rurbanisation, increasing rural-urban links, urban creep, and urban grab

• Rurbanisation in Aze Debo: by 2018 more houses and some business had been opened near the kebele centre and alongside the main road into Durame

• Increasing rural-urban linkages: Since 2011 marketing of Aze Debo;s produce in Durame has increased as have purchases of household and consumption goods; richer Aze Debo residents have increasingly bought houses and set up businesses in the town

• Urban creep: in 2017 the borders of Durame (zone centre) had been expanded to include 26 households from Aze Debo although 21 of the households continued to farm and pay land tax to Aze Debo

• Urban grab: rumour that the town boundaries were to be expanded up to the kebele office; some thought the whole kebele would be included in the town within the next five years; an area opposite the kebele office had been surveyed by higher officials as a potential new industrial area

• New technologies => greater connectivity thanks to mobile phones => facilitates market links

• International migration to South Africa => changing aspirations of young people, but also capital for farming investments from diaspora

Section 4

Conclusions

So What?...We suggest that

• Government and development actors should consider initiating and supporting modernization for intensive farming practices in a land scarce, densely populated food insecure areas

• Excessive supply of fertilizer and even pushing PSNP beneficiaries to borrow fertilizer is imprudent approach of increasing productivity, rather resources should be pulled to assist farmers in their effort, which brings real change in their farming practices (dairy, irrigation, fattening….)

• Support for value-chain, market linkages and other technical support should be in place…(global knowledge to be linked)