INTENSIFICATION OF AGRICULTURE AND THE BATTLE FOR LAND IN THE ANGAR-DIDESSA VALLEY, WESTERN ETHIOPIA, 1991-2010.

Abstract

Following the disintegration of state farms in the early 1990s, the Angar-Didessa Valley became the center of the contest for arable land. This article tries to examine the dispute over arable land in the valley from 1991-2010. The study employed a historical research method in which evidence on access to land, land use, farmers' relations, investment, etc. have been employed. The study argues that ill land acquisition, land use, and ill land governance have contributed to conflict among local society, subsistence, and large-scale farmers, which seriously affected the environment, social security as well as development in the region. It reveals that instead of being a productive source of food as well as cash crops, the valley turned into a conflict area in which the local societies, commercial and subsistence farmers were the major actors as well as victims. Because the conflict was ethnically framed, it affected productivity, production relations, the environment as well as development endeavors in western Ethiopia. In particular, while the conflict denied the right of the local society to access the valley resources, it created insecurity for small and large-scale farmers to cultivate which in turn negatively affected the economy and social relations.