Pastoral Land Tenure Issues and Development in the Middle Awash Valley: Case Study on Amibara and Gewane Woredas
No Thumbnail Available
Files
Date
2004-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa Univerisity
Abstract
The study focuses on the pastoralist Afar in the Amibara and Gewane districts, in the Middle
Awash Valley, northeastern Ethiopia. The Afar survives for centuries through practicing their
traditional production system and way of life that is friendly to the Socio-economic and ecology
of the area they inhabit. However, since the Imperial regime, the Middle Awash Valley were
incorporated in large scale commercial and state farms which refused to recognize the land
rights of the Afar and have had severe impact on the Afar and their land. After the EPRDF
government took power in 1991, some change has taken place in Awash. As per the strong
quest of the Afar for the return of their land, the transitional government of Ethiopia has
returned about 7000 hectares of irrigated and mechanized lands in the Middle Awash to the
traditional owners i.e., the Afar. However due to lack of attitudinal change among the Afar
pastoralists toward farming practice in general and crop production in particular, shortage of
skilled manpower, inadequate financial capital and weak technical support from the federal
government, both the Afar and the regional government could not maintain the farms.
Consequently, the ANRS re-allocated the land among different clans in the Afar. And hence,
each clan lease-out its territory to private cultivators through net profit sharecropping as well
as fixed-rental price. This study is stimulated by the current controversy that whether or not
the Afars become benefiCiary from the private agricultural investment undertaken on their
land. The findings of this study indicates that the private agricultural investment in the Middle
Awash do not bring any socio-economic benefit to the Afar rather it make the Afarland to be
exploited for "free". The Afars' share from the income and employment opportunities
generated from operation of the private cultivators is insignificant. Besides the regional
government could not generate revenue from tax, as it should have been collected. The
Afarland becomes degraded due to high toxic chemicals used by private cultivators as well as
their refusal to practice fallowing and crop rotation to conserve the productivity of the land for
some years. As a consequence, the Afars become dependent with others and th is time some
clan leaders and influential elders are intensively competing to expand their clan land territory
inorder to lease-out more land to private cultivators and receive fa~ade benefit at the expense
of the majority of Afar pastoralists and their land. The study recommend5 that regional
government should design compatible land use policy with the objectives of attracting private
agricultural investment on the Afar land as well as realizing the transformation of the Afar
pastoralists into agro-pastoralists.
Description
Keywords
Pastoral Land Tenure: Private Ag ricultural Investment: Development: Afar:Amibara: Gewane