Browsing by Author "Yohannes, Zerihun"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Production Practices among the Alaba of South Ethiopia
    (AAU, 2005-06) Yohannes, Zerihun; Getu, Melese (PhD)
    This thesis is an effort to describe agricultu ral production practices of Ala a socie in he South E hlopla rom local perspective and comprehend the overall changes ha the subsis ence econom un e en 0 er Ime Since land is a principal fac tor of production among Al aba, major land en re systems.' ere escn e om diachronic perspective and an attempt was made to expl icate the ch anges ha have een expenence under different political contexts starting from pre-incorporation period up to the c rren rends 0 er land ten ure issues. Simultaneously, the gradual shift of production system from agro-pas oral 0 mixed ag riculture was explained as resul ted from the inter-play of social, economiC, na ural, polilcal an demographic factors which are attributed to be both internal and external 0 the study group. In his hesis i is argued that local land acquisition practices change wi th increasing popula ion gro h and the s seq en land scarcity as the response of households to the prevai ling land shortage problem . An a . empt was made to elucidate the responsiveness of land acquisition practices to population growth. As discussed in this thesis, labor is crucial production factor among Alaba. Hence, bo h house old and inter-household labor organizations are described. Here the way a house hoi orga nizes i s la or ihroug age and gender based division of tasks in production process is discussed. Though househol s aC as independent production units, thel'e al'e different in ter-household labor exchan e prac Ices use as a coping strategy to ease land, labor and farm ox scarcity by households in sho( of these produc ion actors. Thus, divel'se inter-household exchange practices were presented ill line with changes experienced as a resu lt of various socioeconomic reasons. Seasonal crop production activities and aspects of livestock rearing are discussed ith he ie 0 assessing the way fa rmers organize factors of production and undertake agricultural acti i ies to secure their subsistence . A socioeconomic importance of crop and livestock production is also elucid ated 0 igh light th eir diverse role in the livelihood of the study people. Besides, major ro uction cons train ts rela ed with demog raphic, ecological, socio-cultural and economic factors and aspects 0 ' local copin stra egies to these problems were treated as way of analyzing the changing trends in the produc ion system. As argue in th is thesis though the people adopted different coping stra egies 0 0 ercome pro uc Ion cons rain s e subsistence economy is increasingly becoming susceptible 0 stress hich calls or external 111 er en Ion