unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/16/89)
agricultural policies were not working.
He said agricultural production had declined by an average of
0.4 percent annually. ''It is frightening to see that
agricultural productivity is steadily decreasing in this manner
at a time when the population is increasing at an annual rate of
3 percent,'' he said.
Visits to villagization projects by most foreigners are
circumscribed affairs, conducted in the company of local party
officials who unfailingly show model sites. The first stop on
such a visit is usually to the local ideology boss, like Mr.
Ali, who presides over politics in eastern Harar Province.
Recently Mr. Ali arranged a tour of two villagization projects
with three party officials and an agricultural expert, who
usually deferred to the party officials. The projects, Dire
Tayara and Rare Chillalo, are in the countryside around the town
of Harar.
At the first, it was proudly stated that about half the peasants
belonged to the producers' cooperative. As an inducement to join
the cooperative, priority was given to members for fertilizer
and better seeds, the officials said.
At the second, a ''mobilization campaign'' was in progress. A
long line of peasants, swinging hoes, were digging up old bushes
to plant grain.
''Once every 15 days, everyone does a campaign,'' a party guide
said. ''If necessary, every week.'' A Long Way to Walk A more
revealing explanation of villagization is provided by Ethiopian
agricultural researchers. But they, too, complain that party
officials in the villages are loath to talk frankly about the
problems and create barriers that make it difficult to speak to
the peasants.
One of the new villages that have been studied by the University
of Addis Ababa lies in a fertile valley surrounded by high peaks
50 miles outside the capital.
For the most part, the land in the villagization projects is not
collectivized. Peasants keep their land but have long distances
to walk to their farms from the new villages. As a result,
peasants have told the researchers, they have been unable to
protect their crops from the hyenas, monkeys and porcupines that
pervade the hillsides.
Their new houses were often built with the materials from their
old places - a strategy used by party officials to force the
peasants to move - and were put up so hastily that they were
beginning to crumble and leak, researchers found. Moreover, the
houses were built so close together that peasants had little
room to grow vegetables, which previously provided valuable
income.
''There are some social gains: greater access to schools in some
areas and to water and electricity in some of the villages,'' a
researcher said. ''But they do not outweigh the economic
difficulties. People have been brought closer to the roads but
it's questionable how much the road is being used. If the farmer
doesn't have cash, what does it mean being closer to the asphalt
road for transport?''
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations
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