Lost opportunities or structural constraints: Ethiopia’s socio-economic history and the problem of food production from 1900 to 2000

Dr. Tekeste Negash works as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Rural Development Studies of Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden, and as an Associate Professor in Modern History at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.

This presentation will deal with the question of why Ethiopia, a large an potentially rich agricultural country, failed to achieve food security during the twentieth century. Why and how did Ethiopia revert from being a food exporting country (in the 1960s) into one with chronic food insecurity in the last few decades? To answer such a question, patterns of transformation and continuity in property tenure regimes must be examined, as well as internal political and structural factors leading to a serious decline in food production. Assessment of the future capacities and constraints of Ethiopia’s food production in the 21st century will be made. To what extent is the political construction of Ethiopia (first as an empire, then as a socialist republic, now as an ethnic federation) an obstacle to food production? What was the role of external factors such as Cold War rivalry and concomitant policies in the Horn of Africa and the plethora of development agencies and NGOs? How might the progressive consolidation of the global network society and its economic culture impinge on Ethiopian food production? The presentation will treat these questions in a preliminary manner and report on an ongoing research project.