Land- use Among the Gurage and Jille Farmers of Dugda District , South Shewa
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Date
1991-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Dugda district is found in South Shewa Administra ti ve
Region, in the northern part of Adamitulu A,,,raja. The district
is lying within the floor of the South Central Rift Valley
system and 1.S a typical example of the lowland zone of
Ethiopia. The ethnic structure of the rural population of the
Dugda is dominated by two ethnic groups: the Gurage and Jille
aroma. According to 1 oca 1 legend, each group has its own
centre of origion, culture and way of life which are partly
ref 1 ected 1.n thei~' present settl ement. Today the Gurage of
Dugda live mainly on the undulating plains and uplands of the
woinadeqa agro-eco1ogica1 zone of the nothwestern and western
parts of the district. On the other hand, the Jillc are
inhabiting the extensive moist Kalla agro-eco1ogical zone that
constitutes the North - South stretches of the eastern side of
Dugda district. Therefore, the main objectives of this study
have been to assess the land use pattern of the Gurage and
Jill e farmers of Dugda and their atti tude towards differnet
land uses (e.g. cultivation and animal husband~'Y)'
The necessary data for these objectives were collected
mainly through field survey of 90 Gurage and 110 Ji1le
farmers . These have involved a two level of sampling
techniques. For a detail study of land use history and field
visits a total of 41 farmers (19 from the Gurage and 22 from
the Ji 11 e), or 3% of the members of the se1 ected PAS of each
social group were visited by the writer. Beside this, a tota I
of 161 farmers 189 from the Jille and 72 from the Gurage) , or
.12 ~; of the farmers of the selected PAS 'verI" surveyed by the
r-numerator.c;. In order to analyse Ihe data percentages ,coefficient of variation, C/u square, standard devi a ti on,
Simple correlation and regress~on, and analysis of var~ance
techniques have been employed.
The research revealed that the Gurage farmers have a
larger hol dings than the Jill e farmers, the average ho1 ding
per farmer for each group being 2.86 ha and 2.26 ha,
respectively, The finding also indicated greater disparities
~n farm size among the Jille than the Gurage farmers. The
study revealed that fragmentation is greater among the Gurag('
than among the Jil1e farmers, the average number of fields per
farmer being 4.51 and 3.08, respecti vely. The land-use survey
of the Gurage and Ji11e farmers indicated thr> existence of
distinct pattern of crop zonation around the homesteads of the
farmers. In the writer's v~e'" it ~s the type and spatial
distribution of soils, whatever their distance from the
home stead, thaI" determines the zonation of crops around the
settlement of the Gurage and the Jille farmers of Dudga. This
finding vindicated Ruthenberg's finding of land usc z onation
~n tropical Africa. The assessement of the atti tudes of the
Gurage and Ji1le farmers revealed that both farmers of the
groups seem to support the policy that emphasizes more animal
husbandry than crop cultivation, because of the risk involved
in crop damage due to climate. The study recommended that the
future land-use policy of the MOA in Dugda should take into
account the experiences and desires of the farmers as well as
the prevailing environmental constraints in the district.
Description
Keywords
Land- use