Land Reform: A new initiative is required

By Daniel Tamene

After reading Ato Belay Gessese’s article, “Land Reform- Privatization” (<http://www.tigrai.org/News/Articles2003/BelayOnLand.html>) and the response from Ayele Mekuria, “Land reform -"Privatization" seen from another angle” (<http://www.geocities.com/hmbashaa/Land_Reform.htm>), I thought I might as well add my two cents opinion on the subject.

From the outset, I would like to inform readers that I am neither an expert on agriculture nor am I an economist. I am an ordinary Ethiopian who is concerned about the land ownership issue and the effect it might have on the prevailing drought and the long term development of our country.

Ethiopia was under feudal system of government for a very long time. In those days, land was mainly the property of the feudal lords and the church. The vast majority of the Ethiopian population was subject of these landowners. They were land tillers who till the land and give much of the produce to the feudals some of whom live distance away from the farmland. The absentee landlord phenomenon was particularly prevalent in the south. The locals were first dispossessed of their land, and then were forced to work on the land and hand over the harvest to the feudal from the north. This was the type of land ownership we had prior to the land nationalization under the dergue. Hence, during severe drought, the land tillers had no choice but abandon the land and flock to urban area in search of better life.

Under the dergue, the land became the property of the government. Peasants were rationed land where they could farm and keep the produce for themselves. Since the land was small, they could only irk a subsistence living. Even if they produce surplus they are allowed to sell it only to the government and at a discount, giving them no incentive to be productive. Again just as was the case in the feudal system of Haile Sellassie and before that, during the dergue, in times of severe drought or famine, after exhausting all that they own, the peasant population was forced to flee to the city overburdening the social system there.

The current EPRDF government has kept dergue’s land program with some modification to it. This time farmers are allowed to sell their grain to any buyer they want. However, since the land is small, the modification has not benefited them as much. Moreover, the cost of farming (fertilizer) has put them in severe debt. It is thus apparent a new initiative is needed.

Ato Belay Gessese has suggested total private ownership of land. In his zeal to promote privatization though, Ato Belay has made a fallacious argument. He claimed that dergue's villagization scheme failed because Ethiopians have great attachment to their ancestral land and therefore were unwilling to relocate. And if they refused to relocate back then they will refuse to sell their land come what may is his argument. Many factors contributed to the demise of villagization, least of which is Ethiopians' affinity to their ancestral land.

To begin with these people never owned the land. Villagization failed because it was done forcibly and with no insight. In many instances families were separated. People were scooped up from their villages and market place and sent off to remote areas in the south. And when they got to their destination, what awaited them was just the jungle. The government did nothing to prepare them for their new lives in the form of housing and other accommodations. They were left to fend off for themselves. There were reports of people getting devoured by beasts. They were also encountering hostility from the locals. So, many of them chose to trek back to the land of their ancestors. Some were also suggesting there was a sinister motive behind the villagization scheme.

Mengistu Hailemariam is purported to have said "to kill the fish you need to dry the sea". It was an effort by the regime to deny TPLF support from Tigreans. Otherwise villagization done properly has significant benefits. That is why TPLF is currently implementing it with the FULL CONSENT of the people involved (<http://www.waltainfo.com/AmNews/1995/Tir/27Tir95/Tir27a2.htm>).

Nevertheless, private ownership of land should be a major consideration in the future. There is a new proposal out that offers a compromise between no private and all private ownership. The proposal recommends land remains the property of the government in densely populated areas of northern and central Ethiopia. While in the sparsely populated areas of the south and east, private ownership should be accepted.

It is a feasible proposal that will allay the fear of those who believe private ownership will open the gate of migration to urban areas, while at the same time giving investors the confidence to invest in vast areas of the country. It will do wonders to the agro-industrialization the EPRDF government is so enthusiastically advocating.

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