Evaluation of rural development experiences in Africa: the case of Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia's rural development is basically equivalent to national development. It is predominantly based on the performance of the agricultural sector, and Ethiopian agriculture has been in crisis due to natural resource depletion, lack of technical innovations, population migration, etc. for most of this century. This came to be felt officially in the 1950s when the country turned from being a net exporter of grain to a net importer. Commercialization of agriculture intensified the already pent-up social contradictions and "land-to-the-tiller" became a battle cry throughout the 1960s. The old ruling class, however, failed to introduce timely changes.