PNL y escuela

4.1.Local Economic Development from the Local Peoples’ Perspectives

The various actors in the current LED processes in Ethiopia understand the concept in different ways. Incorporating their perspectives in the LED is crucial for the success of a sustainable

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LED process because this would enhance local community participation in local development projects. This sub-section, therefore, presents the different views of the stakeholders on the conceptualisation of LED in Guto Gida district in Oromia, Ethiopia. It presents data from the perspectives of the local people and local experts by comparing it with the LED policy of the government (discussed previously) to unpack the LED.

4.1.1. Rural Perspectives on Local Economic Development

Rural peoples view LED processes from the perspectives of the reality around their villages. In response to the question how they conceptualise the approach, the farmers compare current practice with that of their grandparents. New developments include small-scale irrigation farms and diversification of products. They used to produce solely cereal crops such as maize and sorghum and oil seeds such as niger seed during the rainy season. But now they managed to diversify their production and even to produce twice a year. An interview of the DA in Negassa FA confirms this as follows:

….I used to produce only cereal crops. As this is not helping me anymore for self- sustenance, I am forced to diversify and produce cash crops to generate money. As you can see I am producing Gesho which has high demand in Nekemte Town as they use it for the production of ‘Bookaa’ (Interview with a farmer in Negassa FA, 2013/14).

The introduction of new products such as vegetables and fruits, oil seeds, and other cash crops such as Khat3 and Gesho4 (Rhamnus prinoides) is a good example in this case. Most of such

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products are perennial crops that do not need cultivating every year and this, in turn, supports environmental sustainability. It also saves money on fertilisers.

Another farmer supplements this argument quoting ‘jiraachuu dandeenyeerra’- meaning we could be able to survive. Further, he explains the history as follows:

In the past, this land was idle. Our fathers and grandfathers did not cultivate it. Now we are cultivating maize and vegetables and selling to the people in Nekemte Town. We are not only saving lives of our families from starvation but also providing food to the Town residents. We are seeing changes…we are not waiting for government support anymore and we are living on our own (Interview with a farmer in Negassa FA, 2013/14).

According to the farmers, there is a change in production since they began the traditional irrigation scheme by diverting the locally available rivers (Figure 3.3) besides the usual rain-fed agriculture. The irrigation farm starts after November which is the dry season in the area. They produce vegetables and maize for local consumers in both the villages and Nekemte Town. Traditional small-scale irrigation is a new development in the area since the early 2000s with the initiation of ADLI as a development policy in Ethiopia (Ohno 2009). However, the farmers do the irrigation through their own initiatives apart from some technical support from the government through DAs.

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Figure 3.3 Vegetable and Maize Production by Traditional Irrigation in Uke Farmers' Association

From the local farmers’ perspectives, LED is about perceived positive changes in production and productivity around their locality. The large-scale farmers can produce a surplus which can be sold to people in the Towns. This indicates a shift from subsistence production to commodity production. Of course, small-scale farmers also produce such cash crop to generate money to support their livelihoods. These surplus production and diversification further require the significance of a strong rural-urban linkages because of the production flows between the urban and rural areas. These linkages show that LED process is not only about development in rural areas but also the subsequent livelihood supports for urban residents as a result of the flows of these products between the two. The reality ‘on the ground’ also supplements these linkages where there are strong market interactions through the flows of people, commodity, and information between the two areas. These justifications necessitate the need to reconceptualise LED processes as inclusive, rather than sectoral in Ethiopia.

A community’s economic, social and physical characteristics guide the design, approach and implementation of an LED process. To build a strong local economy, good practice proves that each community needs to undertake a collaborative process to understand the nature and

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structure of the local economy. Productive public-private partnerships increase wealth in local communities. Municipal and/or district government create a favourable environment for the development to take place. External factors may also contribute to implementing the development project. These partnerships between and among the stakeholders would eventually lead to a sustainable LED process.

There was good progress in such cooperation in Guto Gida district before the government became reluctant to provide some of the agricultural extension packages to the farmers. In the district, the government used to provide the farmers with comprehensive extension packages including improved seeds, fertilisers, and technical support by deploying DAs at each FA. The farmers used to get those inputs, particularly seeds and fertilisers, from the government on a credit basis which they were supposed to repay after each production year. But the government stopped these services claiming the farmers are self-sufficient and they are no longer in need of loans from it. As a result, the farmers are forced to produce by their own effort which ended up in subsistent production. What they sell is not out of the excess production, but to get cash so as to support their other expenses. In a similar conceptualisation of LED in the South, particularly in Africa, as a self-support strategy (Rodríguez-Pose & Tijmstra 2005), these farmers production is a ‘survival’ strategy.

There are also other factors contributing to the persistence of subsistent production. Population pressure leading to the shortage of farmland coupled with the land tenure system in the country is one of the major reasons. As the land belongs to the state, there has been frequent redistribution of land by the government to accommodate new families. Landless farmers cannot buy land even if they can afford because of the land tenure policy

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of the country. Article 40 (3) of the Ethiopian constitution declares ‘The right to ownership of rural and urban land, as well as of all natural resources, is exclusively vested in the State and in the peoples of Ethiopia. The land is a common property of the nations, nationalities, and peoples of Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of transfer’.

Using this constitutional‘right’, the government confiscated some of the farmers’ land and leased to investors (Figure 3.4) without sufficient compensation. This action disrupted the farmers’ livelihoods and exposed them to poverty, as a farmer from Uke FA explains the situation: ‘I am working on investors’ farmland which used to be my property’. Since they have not enough land to cultivate, the farmers are forced to work in the investors’ farm as daily labourers to support their livelihoods.

Figure 3.4. Farmland Confiscated from Farmers and Leased to Investors in Uke Farmers' Association

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Another problem of the farmers associated with the land tenure is land fragmentation. The farmers share their land with their children as their offspring establish their own families leading to decreased farmland per farm households. As a result, only farmers who inherited from their parents have land to cultivate. An interview with a female household head in Uke FA below illuminates the critical problem she is facing due to lack of farmland. She is a widowed woman, aged 42 with three children. She migrated into this area from another district in the zone after her husband died:

I came from another area to Uke after my husband died. We had land in our original locality, but since I came here, I do not have any. I asked the local leaders to get, but they said there is no farmland unoccupied. I farm on those who have more, do the labour and share the yield with the owner (Interview with a farmer in Uke FA, 2013/14).

Similarly, a farmer from Negassa FA commented on the problem of farmland saying he reported the problem in every meeting he had with the local leaders. However, the local leaders respond that the government cannot provide farmland anymore as there is no unoccupied land. He supports his family by renting from other farmers where he gives the rent in terms of yield that he produces from the land.

…. I do not have farmland at all. I use irboo-meaning renting from other farmers who have more farmland and pay the rent in kind (yield) after harvest (Interview with a farmer in Negassa FA, 2013/14).

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Even the renting is not sustainable as they have to renew the contract annually. Sometimes the former landlords do not want to renew the contract, change their minds to rent to another farmer, or even want to grow grasses for commercial purposes which worsen their problems. In the interview, he highlighted ‘some landlords want to cultivate grasses to sell it to those who need to build hut houses.’ The landlords prefer this latter option as it not only restores the fertility of the soil for the next year’s production but also generates good money from the grass they sale.

Farmers articulate the conceptualisation of LED from the perspective of the rural-urban linkages quite clearly. Their understanding is associated with the significance of the linkages to their livelihoods that is evident from the flows of products between the two. Farmers sell their products to consumers in Nekemte Town and get better income that helps them cover their minimum household expenses mostly obtained from the Town. In his words, a farmer in Uke FA puts this as follows:

…if there is no market opportunity in Nekemte to buy our products, where can I sell?...If I cannot get edible oil, salt, and other things I use in my daily consumption from Nekemte, how can I live here? Isaanis nubarbaadu, nutis isaan barbaadna- meaning we want each other (Interview with a farmer in Negassa FA, 2013/14).

This commodity flow shows the mutual relationships between Nekemte Town and its hinterlands, making clear the inevitable integration of development plan between the two. This synergetic plan, in turn, results in sustainable LED processes and better unpacks the concept of LED in the Ethiopian context.

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LED can also be perceived from the point of view of positive changes at an individual level which can be building a better house, paying school fees for children and other domestic expenses, buying agricultural inputs, and saving cash in banks. A discussion with a divorced female household head on the question how a progress at individual level impacts development of the locality shows that her living standard is changed from ‘nothing’ to‘something’. For a divorced mother of three, life would have been challenging as there is no government support scheme for people in the country. However, she was able to support her children in school and other basic needs from the small scale farm and other non-farm activities. She is also able to change her house from hut to corrugated iron sheet (Figure 3.5) which she says is a change that defines LED:

…I was a daily labourer. But now I managed to change my life. I work non-farm activities besides the farming wherein the farming supports my consumption and the non-farm generates me additional income. By these, I have changed my house from hut to corrugated iron sheet, supported my children in school, and able to lead a better life. There are also other farmers who showed progress like me. The cumulative effect of this progress is changing the economy of the village (Interview with Negassa FA, 2013/14).

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Figure 3.5. Example of Improved Livelihood in Uke Farmers' Association

This evidence shows that LED processes is the cumulative results of the contributions of each individual in a locality. The endeavours the individuals make to feed their families and reduce their own poverty will ultimately result in the general poverty reduction of the locality. This indicates the multifaceted nature of LED process in which all the stakeholders from individual to institution levels need to take part. In the course of these contributions, there are significant linkages and networks between and among the stakeholders which better define LED.

Though it might be difficult to define the delimitation of a local in the context of defining what LED is, a careful scrutiny of the urban sphere of influence can be one indicator for such demarcation. From the discussion with the farmers, the economic, social and political/administrative linkages they have with Nekemte Town are significant to them. Apart from its economic significance, the Town serves as the capital of the zone where all administrative issues of the districts at the zone level are handled. Other social services such as high schools and colleges and hospitals are agglomerated in the Town. More than any other districts in the zone, Guto Gida is the closest to the Town as the Town is located at its centre. However, it should be clear that some businesses transcend this local boundary even to the international level. Maize production, especially by large-scale farmers in Uke FA, can be an indicative example where inputs for the production come from international market to the

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locality and the maize production is mostly sent to regional and national markets. This type of production system has less contribution to the LED, especially if the investors do not invest on projects in the locality.

The provision of these social services at their vicinity also defines LED. Producers, traders and processors require these infrastructures if they are to successfully compete, prosper, and grow. Infrastructure (road and telecommunications) is essential for the production to reach the urban residents from the rural surroundings. Schools and health facilities have a strong impact on the local development. An interview with a farmer illuminated this concept:

…there was no mobile service in our places. There was no electric power provision at rural Towns. There was neither school nor health station in this Ganda. But now we have all these things after short distance travel (Interview with a farmer in Negassa FA, 2013/14).

The services previously not in place include mobile networks, farmers training centres (FTC), primary schools, and veterinary clinics. DAs train farmers in the FTCs through which the farmers get technical support including fertiliser usage, planting, growing, harvesting, and selling their products. The social services also helped the people change their livelihoods in that as they got to school and medication at short distances, for instance, they had better health for themselves and their animals and produced more.

The expansion of mobile networks in the rural areas helped the farmers in their production processes. Farmers even in remote villages can get access to mobile networks. Using this service, particularly the large-scale farmers are able to communicate with traders in Nekemte and elsewhere to get market information. This reduces their transaction costs and abuses from

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the intermediaries in the grain marketing as one farmer puts it ‘…daldaalotni nagowoomsuu hindandeessu...’ - meaning ‘middle person can no more cheat me’. They are able to get information from even the central market by calling their friends or customers. Since September 2014, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Ethio-telecom, introduced new information hotline to help farmers get access to advise on best agronomic practice to revolutionize traditional agricultural practice. A State-owned Agricultural Transformation Agency exposes the services:

A new information hotline (8020) is giving smallholder farmers across Ethiopia access to best practice agronomic advice revolutionizing traditional agricultural extension... Twelve weeks after its launch in the Oromia, Amhara, Tigray and SNNP regions, the hotline has received nearly 1.5 million calls from 300,000 farmers (http://www.ata.gov.et/8028-2/, last accessed 19-09-2014).

While the initiative to modernise agriculture and increase production is encouraging, the capacity of the small-scale farmers to afford the expense of buying the apparatus and recharging their mobile telephone needs further scrutiny.

4.1.2. Urban Perspectives on Local Economic Development

Similarly, urban residents have their own understanding of local development from their local realities. As opposed to the majority of the rural residents, most of the Nekemte Town residents are literate and better aware of the concept of LED. An interview with a resident in the Town of Nekemte points out some of the development areas that define LED even though not all are available in the Town:

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…Availability of “Bulchiinsa gaarii”- good governance, micro and small-scale enterprises (MSEs), basic infrastructure and employment opportunities for our young define development of our Town (Interview with a resident in Nekemte Town, 2013/14).

The interviewee clarified that LED in Nekemte Town is dictated by the presence of governance and service provision in the Town. These include good governance, provision of additional ‘hard’ infrastructure (like housing, roads, water, and sewerage) and ‘soft’ infrastructure (such as socio-cultural facilities, business development, and employment opportunities). Particularly MSEs best strengthen the rural-urban linkages because the rural areas are sources of raw materials for the enterprises (for example, edible oil processors and woodworks) in Nekemte Town. They are also centres for market opportunities for the (semi)processed products resulting in the mutual development of the Town and its hinterlands. An interview with an edible oil processor in Nekemte Town stresses the importance of these rural-urban linkages for his successful processing business:

…I have Maamila (customers) from rural and urban areas. Traders including from other districts Such as Limu, Sasiga, and Diga come and buy edible oil from me to later sell at their local markets. There are also consumers from Nekemte Town and its surroundings who directly buy from my store (Interview with edible oil processor in Nekemte Town, 2013/14).

The processors’ conceptualisation of LED is supplemented by traders who usually commute between Nekemte Town and its surroundings for their grain marketing businesses. Particularly