The effects of land grabs on peasant households: The case of the floriculture sector in Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates how appropriation of land for flower farm developments in Walmara district and Holeta town in Ethiopia’s Oromia region affected smallholders’ livelihoods. Between 1996 and 2018, the state expropriated 1487 hectares from Oromo farming communities for the flower industry with little or no compensation through the ‘eminent domain’ principle. This article demonstrates the effects of these actions on the rural poor in Oromia including threats to common property resources and farming plots, which constitute their basic livelihood units and intergenerational assets. By focusing on cases of land expropriation in the central highlands of Ethiopia, it challenges a common misconception that land grabs are occurring only on the periphery of the state. In this case, the entanglements of the export-oriented flower industry in global capitalism and the centralized state administration have led to destitution for most smallholders within 100 kilometres of the capital city. The study shows how policies associated with the Ethiopian developmental state accord priority to investors and state interests over local concerns, reinforcing wider concerns with dominant models of development.