Focus on land reform

In Ethiopia, almost 90 percent of the population lives by cultivating the land, and more than 50 percent of export earnings derive from the sale of farm produce. The government is seeking to relieve the people from their desperate and deeply entrenched poverty by way of an agriculture-based industrialisation development plan. However, the economic think-tank Ethiopian Economic Association (EEA) warns that without radical land reform, the battle to bring about major development is doomed to failure. "The future condition of the rural population of the country does not bear much hope unless bold measures are urgently taken to change the gloomy path of Ethiopian farmers," the EEA said in a far-reaching report, published on Tuesday. LOW FOOD PRODUCTION Although Ethiopia's territory extends over about a million square kilometres, almost half the 65-million population does not have enough land for minimum food production. In harsh climates like Tigray, three out of four farmers do not have enough land to feed themselves. Plots are tiny, the national average being one hectare, and this undermines agricultural intensification, according to the EEA. The report, entitled "Land Reform and Agricultural Development in Ethiopia", said food output had not been keeping pace with population increases over the last two decades. "This has a serious and adverse consequence for the survival of the majority of the rural population, whose livelihood is almost totally dependent on land," the EEA said in the 157-page study, which covered every region in the country except Gambela Regional State in the west. The report asserted that efforts to increase productivity had largely failed. Small gains in some regions had not been replicated across the country. Income and productivity increases accruing from the widespread use of costly improved seeds and fertiliser were insignificant, it added, saying plot size was far more important for reaping benefits than agricultural inputs. "In the meantime, the number of farmers suffering from food insecurity keeps rising, increasing the country’s dependence on food imports to sustain the livelihood of its population. Furthermore, the number of people suffering from chronic poverty is also rising," the EEA said. CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE Land reform is a highly controversial issue in Ethiopia. Under the current land tenure system, farmers cultivate government-owned land, nationalised under the former Marxist Derg government in 1975 to replace the feudal system, cited as one of the main causes for the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie. After the Derg was overthrown in 1991, plans were put in place for a national referendum, which was never held. Three years later the transitional government re-established state ownership of the land. "In doing so, the government effectively eliminated land policy as a variable instrument that could address changing circumstances that affect the rural economy," the EEA said. It noted that one of the serious implications of state ownership was the insecurity arising out of the absence of private ownership. Some three-quarters of farmers interviewed were uncertain as to whether they would still have tenure of their land in five years' time. Inevitably, said the EEA, this led to an unwillingness to invest. Among keen proponents of land privatisation is the UN's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), whose leading economists argue that land-ownership should form the cornerstone of any agriculture-based development plan. "Land tenure and governance are among the most pressing areas requiring institutional reforms in Ethiopia," it says. "Although the land issue is politically difficult, it needs to be resolved quickly since it impedes the development of several key sectors. In particular the success of the government's main development strategy - agriculture-led industrialisation - may largely depend on addressing rural land-tenure insecurity." The EEA, however, said there might be another way. In its report, it advocated a mixture of state, private and communal holdings, as well as "viable farm sizes" so as to maximise and intensify harvests. "Given the frightening rate of increase in rural population and the already small size of holdings, poverty reduction needs an effort beyond reliance on the farming sector," the EEA said. "There is a clear need to devise a coherent and urgent strategy that would enable the rapid growth in non-agricultural economic sectors. Sensitive as land-policy issues are, the country cannot afford to ignore the problem and hope that the problem will go away," it concluded.