The major characteristics, contributions and bottlenecks of the Ethiopian agriculture

Introduction

Agriculture is defined as the purposeful tending of animals and plants.it provides: basic food,
supplies for the populations; raw materials like cotton, sugar cane, oil seeds, etc to industries;
export crops, from those sales industries infrastructure and the like may be established; and
employment for the population. Today, agriculture accounting for more than 15% of the
earth’s cultivable land. Similarly, about 60% of the world’s population gets its livelihood
from agriculture.

Characteristics of Ethiopian agriculture

1. Subsistence orientation
 Peasants in Ethiopia mainly produce for their own household consumption and only
limited proportion is for the market.
 Peasants retain up to 80% of their produce for home consumption and seeds
 Ethiopian peasants usually cultivate different types of corps (10-15) and rear different
types of livestock to meet their various needs.
2. Fragmentation of farm plots and small size of holding
 Ever-increasing population that gave rise to continuous generational division of land
through generations; terrain irregularities and prolonged degradation, holdings are
highly fragmented in Ethiopia
 Average number of plots per household ranges mainly from 3-8
 Majority of the farming households possess less than one hectare of land, with the
average land holding dropping to 0.28 ha/household.
3. Lows use of inputs
 Ethiopian agriculture is identified by low use of natural and chemical fertilizers while
only 10% used organic fertilizers.
4. Susceptibility to disaster
 Ethiopian agriculture is highly vulnerable to natural disasters such as drought which
affects the lives of millions of humans and animals
 limited soil conservation measures, forest destruction and expansion of agriculture
into marginal areas increased the frequency of drought.
 the natural disasters have usually results in famines.
5. Limited practice of irrigation and dependence on rain fed agriculture
 the proportion of cultivated land is so small due to physical(steep slopes and deep
gorges, water logging, salinization and siltation)and human(e.g capital, technology,
skilled man power etc) constraints.
 Over 98% of the Ethiopian farmers rely on rain-fed agriculture.
 the possibilities of expanding agricultural land under rain-fed practices are limited or
are not very high.
Contributions of Ethiopian’s agriculture

Agriculture has been the backbone of the Ethiopian society for centuries, with smallholder
farming being the predominant form of production. Generally, Ethiopian’s agriculture has the
following contributions.

 Agriculture accounts most of 30-42% of the GDP of the country

 Agricultural products account more than 90% of foreign exchange earnings of the
country
 agriculture provides raw material for the processing industries
 Ethiopian population derive its livelihood more than 80% directly from agriculture

The bottlenecks of the Ethiopian agriculture

 the major obstacles to the development of this sector include:

a. Land degradation
 the rugged topography
 the soil in many areas has lost some biological productivity and physical properties
needed for optimal plant growth because of erosion.
b. Variable rainfall
 Heavy dependent upon unreliable rainfall which may produce surplus only in years of
favorable weather.
c. Land fragmentation
 The high land farming area has been the cause for declining percapita landholding.
 The land is too small to produce any marketable surplus under the prevailing conditions;
subsistence and survival are the overriding concern of the farmers. it results in lack of cash for
investment, purchase of commercial inputs and purchase of oxen for land preparation.
d. Land tenure insecurity
 Communalization of land and continuing land redistribution erodes the incentive to invest in
permanent conservation and improvement on individual holdings.
e. Backward technology
 Agricultural produce in transported by primitive means like pack animals and human
percentage.
 Low application of modern inputs fertilizer pesticides, and improved seeds; poor animal
breeds etc also characterize the Ethiopian small holder farming.
f. Poor rural infrastructure
 Agricultural output is usually carried long distance by traditional transport means like
pack animals or by humans, to sale place. The poor infrastructure has severely
hampered socio-economic development particularly in the rural area.
 OROMIA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE
DEPARTMENT OF LAW

Group Assignment for the course Geography of Ethiopia and The Horn
(GeEs 1011)
Assignment Title: The major characteristics, contributions and bottlenecks of
the Ethiopian agriculture

Name ID No.
1. Mamush Kasimo…………………………………Law/w/03034/16
2. Belachew Kasa………………………………...Law/w/03002/16

Academic year: 2016 E.C