Field study of post-revolutionary agrarian reform and social change in rural area Ethiopia - looks at the agrarian structure and social classes prior to 1975; comments on land reform legislation adopted up to 1982, land nationalization and land allotment, impact on use of agricultural technology, agricultural price, agricultural taxation, and emerging trends in agricultural development: discusses role, structure and leadership of farmers associations, etc. Bibliography and statistical tables.

In October 2016, the Ethiopian administration declared a State of Emergency in response to anti-Government demonstrations and mass riots. Officially said to result from subversive activities channelled from Eritrea, Egypt and diasporic populations in the West, the evidence in fact suggests that the riots stemmed from widespread internal dissatisfaction. Large-scale land dispossessions following bilateral deals with transnational agribusiness, damming of major rivers, construction of sugar estates and industry parks as well as urban sprawl have put pressure on agricultural and rural areas. Today, displacement, drought and widening inequalities surround fears of severe food shortages and political instability. Drawing on informant testimonies, court archives, field reports and other sources, the author examines these developments in Ethiopia's lake region. He shows how transformations over time in spatial politics, state-society relations and the organization of production and exchange have influenced the situation today, and reveals the impact of these changes on a population of smallholder farmers for which agriculture is not only the mainstay of the national economy but a way of life. Getnet Bekele is Associate Professor of History at Oakland University, MI, where he teaches African History and the Environmental and Economic History of Africa and the Global South.

Research report on the relationship between revolutionary changes and rural development (particularly land reform) in Ethiopia - describes background to the establishment of socialism and generation of mass rural mobilization; comments on the 1975 land reform legislation, its effects on land tenure systems and the creation of farmers associations; discusses local government reform, agricultural production and agricultural marketing, price policy, agricultural extension, agricultural credit, rural welfare priorities, development aid, etc.

This open access book offers unique in-depth, comprehensive, and comparative analyses of the motivations, context, and outcomes of recent land reforms in Africa. Whereas a considerable number of land reforms have been carried out by African governments since the 1990s, no systematic analysis on their meaning has so far been conducted. In the age of land reform, Africa has seen drastic rural changes. Analysing the relationship between those reforms and change, the chapters in this book reveal not only their socio-economic outcomes, such as accelerated marketisation of land, but also their political outcomes, which have often been contrasting. Countries such as Rwanda and Mozambique have utilised land reform to strengthen state control over land, but other countries, such as Ghana and Zambia, have seen the rise in power of traditional chiefs in managing the land. The comparative perspective of this book clarifies new features of African social changes, which are carefully investigated by area experts. Providing new perspectives on recent land reform, this book will have a considerable impact on scholars as well as policymakers.

This book is a comprehensive account of the Ethiopian revolution, dealing with the entire span of the revolutionary government's life. Particular emphasis is placed on effectively isolating and articulating the causes and outcomes of the revolution. The author traces the revolution's roots in the weaknesses of the autocratic regime of Haile Selassie, examines the formative years of the revolution in the mid-seventies, when the ideology of scientific socialism was espoused by the ruling military council, and finally charts the consolidation of Mengistu Haile Miriam's power from 1977 to the adoption of a new constitution in 1987. In examining these events, Dr Tiruneh makes extensive use of primary sources written in the national official language. He was also the first Ethiopian nation to write a book on this subject. This book is thus a unique account of a fascinating period, capturing the mood of the revolution as never before, yet firmly grounded in scholarship.

Attempts to answer why a major conservation program introduced and implemented during the twenty years of the Derg regime failed to induce changes in land use and management practices as planned, and why it was not sustained by indigenous farmers.