Gamo Highlands Research Articles

Gendered climate change adaptation practices in fragmented farm fields of Gamo Highlands, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to assess the existence of gendered climate change adaptation practices of smallholder farmers in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia. We hypothesized that smallholders’ adaptation practices are gendered because of land fragmentation and gendered division of labour. To explore this, we considered sustainable land management practices as a tool for sustainable adaptation and assessed the effect of land management practices deployed and land fragmentation on intra-household time allocation. The results indicate that although land fragmentation increased hours worked by men and women significantly, fragmentation increased the working hours of men more than women. Application of a larger number of sustainable land management practices increases the mean working hours of women, but leaves unaffected the working hours of men, implying that adaptation practices are gender-biased. Therefore, this study can guide land management decisions by pointing out that fragmentation results in long working hours and adaptation practices may disproportionately affect women.

Correction: Responses of Canopy Growth and Yield of Potato Cultivars to Weather Dynamics in a Complex Topography: Belg Farming Seasons in the Gamo Highlands, Ethiopia: Agronomy 2019, 9, 163

In Minda et al. [1], an error was introduced. We propose the following amendment: Figure 9, inSection 3.2.4 (Days to Maturity and Yield), should be replaced by the following updated figure [...]

Responses of Canopy Growth and Yield of Potato Cultivars to Weather Dynamics in a Complex Topography: Belg Farming Seasons in the Gamo Highlands, Ethiopia

Potato is an increasingly important crop in Ethiopia. The Gamo Highlands are one of the large potential potato producing regions in Ethiopia. The growing conditions are different from those in the temperate regions, where most of the agronomical expertise on potato has been developed. The influence of environmental conditions on the crop in the Gamo Highlands is poorly understood. We conducted field trials with eight potato cultivars in six locations and during two seasons. The canopy cover (CC) and plant height (PH) were measured with high temporal resolution and tuber yields were assessed as well. The experiments were conducted near our newly installed weather stations at different elevations. CC and PH were strongly correlated with temperature sum (Tsum). Tuber yields differed among elevations and cultivars. Nevertheless, these differences were poorly explained by environmental variables. We also found that no single cultivar performed best at all elevations. The number of branches was a predictor of yield, suggesting that radiation interception was limiting tuber growth. Tuber yield was optimal when the number of days to crop maturity was around 100–110 days. We conclude that Tsum is a predictor of crop growth, but environmental variables poorly explain yield variations, which calls for further investigation.

The Transition from Hunting\u2013Gathering to Food Production in the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia

Over three field seasons between 2007 and 2012, we excavated three caves—Mota, Tuwatey, and Gulo—situated at an average elevation of 2,084 m above sea level in the cool and moist Boreda Gamo Highlands of southwestern Ethiopia. Anthropogenic deposits in these caves date from the Middle to Late Holocene (ca. 6000 to 100 BP) and provide excellent preservation of material culture, fauna, flora, and human skeletal remains from which to investigate changes in technologies and habitat use over the last several thousand years. Here, we present results and interpretations, suggesting ways in which Holocene communities of the Boreda Gamo Highlands constructed new landscapes and technologies in their transition from hunting and gathering to an agropastoral way of life.

Land fragmentation, climate change adaptation, and food security in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia

AbstractHousehold food security among smallholder farmers is sensitive to a variable and changing climate, requiring farmers in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia to adopt new land management practices to improve food security. Agricultural land in the Gamo Highlands is highly fragmented. The extent to which land fragmentation (LF) moderates the food security effects of sustainable land management (SLM) practices is unknown. This study used probit and Poisson models to explain this relationship. The study found that food insecurity was severe during the food shortfall season. LF provides more potential opportunities for improving food security than challenges. Furthermore, SLM practices had both positive and negative effects on food security and their effects were conditioned by the magnitude of LF. Reducing severe LF through the assembly of small parcels into larger heterogeneous plot clusters could enhance food security by exploiting synergies between adaptation practices and LF.

Observational Characterization of the Synoptic and Mesoscale Circulations in Relation to Crop Dynamics: Belg 2017 in the Gamo Highlands, Ethiopia

The Gamo Highlands in Ethiopia are characterized by complex topography and lakes. These modulate the mesoscale and synoptic scale weather systems. In this study, we analyzed the temporal and spatial variations in weather as function of topography and season and their impact on potato crop growth. To determine how crop growth varies with elevation, we installed a network of six automatic weather stations along two transects. It covers a 30-km radius and 1800-m elevation difference. We conducted a potato field experiment near the weather stations. We used the weather observations as input for a crop model, GECROS. Data analysis showed large differences between weather in February and May. February is more dominated by mesoscale circulations. The averaged February diurnal patter shows a strong east to southeast lake breezes and, at night, weak localized flows driven by mountain density flows. In contrast, in May, the synoptic flow dominates, interacting with the mesoscale flows. The GECROS model satisfactorily predicted the elevational gradient in crop yield. Model sensitivity experiments showed that belg-averaged precipitation distribution gave the highest yield, followed by exchanging May weather observations with April.

The combined effect of elevation and meteorology on potato crop dynamics: a 10-year study in the Gamo Highlands, Ethiopia

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important crop in the Gamo Highlands in Ethiopia. The region is characterised by a complex topography with large inter-annual weather variations, where potatoes grow in a range of altitudes between 1,600 and 3,200 m above sea level (a.s.l.). Traditional large-scale crop modelling studies only crudely represent the effect of complex topography, misrepresenting spatial variability in meteorology and potato growth in the region. Here, we investigate how weather influenced by topography affects crop growth.We used the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to simulate weather in relation to topography in coarse (54 km × 54 km) and fine (2 km × 2 km) resolution domains. The first has a resolution similar to those used by large-scale crop modelling studies that only crudely resolve the horizontal and vertical spatial effects of topography. The second realistically represents the most important topographical variations. The weather variables modelled in both the coarse and fine resolution domains are given as input to the GECROS model (Genotype-by-Environment interaction on CROp growth Simulator) to simulate the potato growth. We modelled potato growth from 2001 to 2010 and studied its inter-annual variability. This enabled us to determine for the first time in Ethiopia how variations in weather are linked to crop dynamics as a function of elevation at a fine resolution.We found that due to its finer representation of topography, weather and crop growth spatio-temporal variations were better represented in the fine than in the coarse resolution domain. The magnitude of crop growth variables such as Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Length of the Growing Season (LGS) obtained with weather from the coarse resolution domain were unrealistically low, hence unacceptable. Nevertheless, the resulting potato yields in the coarse resolution domain were comparable with the yields from the fine resolution domain. We explain this paradoxical finding in terms of a compensating effect, as the opposite effects of temperature and precipitation on yield compensated for each other along the major potato growing transect in the Gamo Highlands. These offsetting effects were also dependent on the correct estimations of the LGS, LAI. We conclude that a well-resolved representation of complex topography is crucial to realistically model meteorology and crop physiology in tropical mountainous areas.

Is Land Fragmentation Facilitating or Obstructing Adoption of Climate Adaptation Measures in Ethiopia?

Land fragmentation is high and increasing in the Gamo Highlands of southwest Ethiopia. We postulate that this substantial land fragmentation is obstructing the adoption of sustainable land management practices as climate adaptation measures. To explore this, a mixed method study was conducted with emphasis on a multivariate probit model. The results indicate that farmers adapt to climate change and variability they perceive. According to the probit model, there is no clear answer to the question whether land fragmentation facilitates or obstructs adoption of sustainable land management practices. Yet, a qualitative analysis found that farmers perceive land fragmentation as an obstacle to land improvement as adaptation strategy. Moreover, farmers invest more in land improvement on plots close to their homestead than in remote plots. However, the higher land fragmentation also promoted crop diversification, manure application and terracing. Although exogenous to farmers, we therefore suggest that land fragmentation can be deployed in climate change adaptation planning. This can be done through voluntary assembling of small neighboring plots in clusters of different microclimates to encourage investment in remote fields and to collectively optimize the benefits of fragmentation to adaptation.

Fermentation of enset (Ensete ventricosum) in the Gamo highlands of Ethiopia: Physicochemical and microbial community dynamics

Enset (Ensete ventricosum) provides staple food for 15 million people in Ethiopia after fermentation into kocho. The fermentation process has hardly been investigated and is prone to optimization. The aim of this study was to investigate the physicochemical and microbial dynamics of fermentation practices in the Gamo highlands. These practices show local variation, but two steps were omnipresent: scraping of the pseudostem and fermenting it in a pit or a bamboo basket. Enset plants were fragmented and fermented for two months in order to investigate the physicochemical (temperature, moisture content, pH and titratable acidity) and microbial dynamics (total viable aerobic counts, counts of Enterobacteriaceae, lactic acid bacteria, yeasts and moulds and Clostridium spores counts, and Illumina Miseq sequencing). Samples were taken on days 1, 7, 15, 17, 31 and 60. The pH decreased, whereas the titratable acidity increased during fermentation. Of all counts those of lactic acid bacteria and Clostridium spores increased during fermentation. Leuconostoc mesenteroides initiated the fermentation. Later on, Prevotella paludivivens, Lactobacillus sp. and Bifidobacterium minimum dominated. These three species are potential candidates for the development of a starter culture.

The political economy of poverty in Ethiopia: drivers and challenges

ABSTRACTFor more than four decades, researchers have analysed the poverty dynamics in Ethiopia from an economic point of view. This study adopted a political economy approach to analyse the poverty dynamics in the post-1991 period. It aims to provide insight into the root causes and dynamics of poverty from a political economy perspective. The empirical data were collected from eight rural localities in Debere Brehan, the Gamo highlands and Jimma. Research methods included interviews, surveys and focus group discussions. The findings reveal that the powerlessness of peasants vis-à-vis the state and the failure of agrarian transformation are aggravating the extent of rural poverty.

Techniques of happiness

This article seeks to tease apart some of the different factors and cultural practices that lead toward and away from happiness in particular social and cultural contexts. It considers happiness as experienced in the community of Masho in the Gamo Highlands of southwest Ethiopia at two different points in time. It starts by exploring the traditional Gamo concept of happiness and the way that happiness was experienced in the mid-1990s mainly as peaceful sociality and nonreflexive present-time consciousness. It then charts the move toward a more market-based socio-economic reality that has taken place over the last twenty years and shows how the concomitant decrease in peaceful sociality and increase in inequality has led to a decrease in happiness of most people. However, it then considers the way that conversion to Pentecostal Christianity has created new avenues of happiness by bringing about a radical transformation of the self and by deeply reconfiguring emotional lives. In charting the way that happiness shifts from being imbued in the social fabric to being more about deep interior spaces, this article argues that happiness is configured differently in different social and cultural contexts and that different experiences of happiness are fundamentally linked to different experiences of the self.

Socio-cultural and Policy Related Constraints to Women’s Land Right: A Case Study from Gamo Highland, SW Ethiopia

Women are the most marginalized and disadvantaged group of society in relation to accessing and controlling land in rural Ethiopia. The study critically reviews and analyzes the status of rural women in access to and control over land in three purposefully selected rural kebeles of Gamo highlands, SNNPR on smallholder farmers. In the study mixed research approaches including qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect and analyze data. Survey of 164 households mainly females were conducted administrating questionnaires in the quantitative methods. The qualitative method applied was group discussion and interviews and personal observation. In the study descriptive statistics and regression analysis were utilized. The findings clearly depicted that in the study area female headed households owned 0.52 ha farmland compared to 0.86 ha of their male counterpart, where the average holding at the national level and Gamo highland is0.96 and 0.92 ha respectively. Though, Ethiopia’s legal framework is progressive in its support to women’s land rights, due to harmful customary practices, patriarchal orientation and traditional social norms towards female in Gamo highland female do not own and control rural land, and even inherit land from their family and death of husband. The study further noted that among socio-cultural and institutional factors discriminatory cultural practices (60%), low awareness of women on their land right (19.4%), challenge of law enforcement (10.3%) and women’s position in the society (4.7%) are the most dominant constraints that impedes women’s land right in the study area. Moreover, in the study area women’s are less represented in leadership positions and rural land administration council. Of the independent socioeconomic variables sex, educational status and family size are appeared to be statistically significant association with land ownership. Finally it is suggested that awareness creation campaign and proportional representation of women in decision making process and local land administration councils needs urgent response.

Impacts of land-use change on sacred forests at the landscape scale

Sacred forests often exist as isolated patches of natural forest even after conversion of the surrounding matrix to different forms of land-use. This study set out to: (1) evaluate land-cover changes and patch fragmentation in a landscape containing sacred and non-sacred forest patches over 15 years and (2) compare the effects at an individual patch level between sacred and non-sacred forests. Past changes in area and patch fragmentation of land cover classes and individual forest patches in the Gamo Highlands, Ethiopia, were assessed using maximum-likelihood classification of LANDSAT images. Large changes in land-cover occurred during 1995–2010, with 109.4% increase in area of farm and settlement and 36.6% decrease of forest area, with a decrease in number of forest patches by 16.1%, mean size by 26.8%, edge density by 29.1% and shape index by 13.3%. While all four individually studied non-sacred forests decreased in size over this period only four of the six individual sacred forests patches showed reduction in area. Forest patches with sacred status had greater protection by local communities than non-sacred forests in the Gamo Highlands. However, their small size and increasing edge density indicate high vulnerability, especially if an erosion of traditional cultural values reduces their protection.

English

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) has great adaptability to a wide range of environments. To determine genetic diversity in barley landraces, a total of 43 landrace populations were randomly sampled from the farmers’ field on plant basis and characterized for eight qualitative traits; namely, kernel row number, spike density, lemma awn barb, glume color, lemma type, length of rachila hair, kernel covering and lemma/kernel color. Morphological diversity was determined by the Shannon-Weaver index (H’). Overall barley landrace populations showed an average diversity index of 0.59, implying large diversity for the populations. Selection for adaptation to different altitude classes appears to be the main factor that has determined the observed variation, along with population-size effects. The result showed that barley landraces from Gamo highlands, Ethiopia are constituted by highly variable landraces that have large within-population diversity. These landraces are also shown to be locally adapted, with the major driving force that has shaped their population structure being consistent with selection for adaptation along an altitudinal gradient. Overall, this study highlights the potential of such landraces as a source of useful genes that can be exploited in crop improvement programmes. Key words: Barley, characters, landraces/farmer varieties, morphological diversity, altitudinal gradient.

Human and Environmental Factors Affect Patterns of Crop Diversity in an Ethiopian Highland Agroecosystem*

The Ethiopian highlands are a center of diversity for numerous globally important crops. Heterogeneous landscapes, traditional agricultural practices, and inaccessibility have created and maintained diverse subsistence agroecosystems. We surveyed sixty-three farms in twelve communities of the Gamo highlands and found high levels of on-farm diversity of crop species and varieties. The extent and nature of this diversity are related to both ecological factors, namely elevation, and anthropogenic factors such as land-use history, accessibility to markets and extension, and strength and scale of farmer exchange networks. These human landscape features have the potential to both enhance and mediate effects of elevation and other environmental factors on crop diversity. The interaction of environmental and anthropogenic forces on the diversity of crops grown by farmers affects the strategies farmers employ to adapt their farming to changing conditions.

Initiating Change in Highland Ethiopia: Causes and Consequences of Cultural Transformation

Initiating Change in Highland Ethiopia: Causes and Consequences of Cultural Transformation. By Dena Freeman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. x, 180; 3 maps, 6 figures, 10 b/w photographs. $55.00. In this rich historical/ethnographic account of life in the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia-an area on which little anthropological work has been done-Dena Freeman poses the following ethnographic puzzle: In a society that practices both sacrificial and initiatory rituals, the former have remained relatively stable over the last hundred years, while the latter have undergone radical transformation (p. 1). The author seeks to explain why the two systems have evolved in such different ways. In so doing, she considers how the effect of political and economic integration of people in the newer parts of the Ethiopian state has sparked systemic and individualistic actions that have worked together to generate variation and change in politico-ritual forms. Gamo make animal and other food sacrifices to spirits who are believed to protect and guarantee the of the earth and its inhabitants. Failure to feed spirits can result in crop failure, sickness and conflicts (p. 66). Sacrifices are made by senior members of the community on behalf of their juniors. Thus, senior members are seen to be caretakers of the entire community, for it is only through their actions that the wellbeing of the community is ensured. Seniors accede to their roles through primogeniture as they assume the roles of household, segment, lineage, or clan head. In the initiatory system, individuals become halak'as for a given period of time, and in that role are said to herd the entire community (p. 84). Unlike the sacrificial system, men originally obtained their position as halak'as by sponsoring huge feasts for the community. Whereas in the nineteenth century (before the area was incorporated into the Ethiopian state), halak'as had more political power and actually passed laws, dealt with litigation, and made decisions about whether or not to go to war (p. 86), in more recent times their functions have shifted so that they are less involved in direct political leadership. However, their role in protecting the welfare of the community is maintained by observing prohibitions on their personal behavior; these prohibitions vary one community to another, but are generally associated with distancing the individual (and thus the community) from death and weakness and to associate him with success and fertility (p. 85). During the Derg regime (1974-1991), initiation of halak'as was prohibited as a potential threat to government control. However, Freeman finds that while one of her study sites, Doko Gembela, obeyed the edict and virtually stopped initiating halak'as, another site, Doko Masho continued its initiation practices. Freeman explains the different fate of initiation in the two communities by tracing the political and economic developments over the last two hundred years that have resulted in the splitting of what was a single Doko community into two separate communities with different dynamics. As they integrated with the Ethiopian state and with market forces, more men became traders and weavers in both communities, although at different rates. …

From Warrior to Wife: Cultural Transformation in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia

This article focuses on cultural transformation in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia and seeks to explain the way in which certain initiation rituals have transformed over time. The article begins by considering two structural variants of the initiation ritual that exist in two neighbouring communities, Doko Gembela and Doko Masho, and argues that one is an historical transformation of the other. After comparing the contemporary form of these two variants, the article then moves to consider the macro‐level forces of change that have impinged on the two communities over the past two hundred years or so. It then seeks to bring ethnography and history together by considering how the macro‐level changes might have been experienced in the interpersonal relations of individuals. It explores the new types of situations that would have arisen and discusses how these new situations would have put strains on particular interpersonal relations, leading in many cases to conflict and dispute. After describing the local methods of conflict resolution, it is shown that on some occasions solutions are found which involve communal decisions to make a small change in cultural practice. In some cases these small changes have a knock‐on effect leading to overall structural change. The article ends with a hypothetical reconstruction of the way in which the Doko Masho initiation rituals might have transformed.

The Generation of Difference: Initiations in Gamo, Sidamo, and Borana (Oromo)

Introduction The people of the Gamo highlands are unusual in that they are the only Ometo-speaking people that carry out initiations. Moreover, initiatory systems are not found as part of the cultural fabric of any other highland Omotic-speaking people at all.1 Where we do find initiatory systems, however, is amongst the Cushitic-speaking pastoralists who live in the lowland areas throughout much of south and southwest Ethiopia. How, then, can we explain the presence of initiatory systems among the farmers of the Gamo highlands? At first sight the Gamo initiations look very different from the initiations of the Cushitic-speakers, and one might be tempted to argue that they are something quite different altogether. Indeed, previous scholars have treated them as entirely unrelated phenomena, writing about the Gamo "halak'as" on the one hand, and the lowland Cushitic "Gaada system" on the other. In this paper I argue that if we broaden our analytic gaze to consider the region in general, instead of focusing on individual groups, then we can clearly see that these cultural phenomena are variations of the same thing. There is considerable variation in the form of the initiations throughout the Gamo highlands, and there is also considerable variation in the form of the initiations amongst the Cushitic-speakers. By analyzing the [End Page 35] patterns in these variations, it is possible to see that the Gamo initiations fit neatly at one end of the spectrum of larger-scale variation across the whole region. Furthermore, it is my contention that this variation is the result of a historical transformation brought about by the events and movements of people in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This paper thus highlights the interconnections between different peoples in southern Ethiopia and might call us to question the depth and importance of the current political focus on separate "ethnicities." I will begin by briefly describing the form of the Gamo initiations. Since there is a great deal of variation between the form of the initiations in different parts of the highlands, I will give two specific examples from the northern part of the highlands where I carried out my fieldwork. Having outlined these versions of the Gamo initiations, I will then present a quick sketch of the Boran initiations, drawing on the detailed ethnography of Asmarom Legesse (1973). These initiations are right at the other end of the spectrum, but although there are significant differences it should be possible to see some continuities. These continuities, however, will become clearer when we add the case of the Sidamo, a Cushitic-speaking group who live between lowland and highland, and who practice both agriculture and pastoralism to significant degrees. Using the ethnographies of John Hamer (1970) and Jan Brøgger (1986), I will show that the form of their initiations will be seen to be mid-way between that of the Borana and that of the Gamo. Furthermore, if we add some more ethnography from other communities in the northern parts of the Gamo highlands, we can begin to fill out the picture even further, so that the pattern of variations from Borana to Sidamo to Gamo comes into relief. Having presented and analyzed all this ethnography, the paper will conclude with a short discussion of the historical events that most likely brought about this state of affairs. Gamo Initiations Throughout the Gamo highlands people live in scattered settlements and are organized into many different communities, known as dere.Each community has its own sacrificers (ek'k'a), its own initiates (halak'a), and its own assemblies and assembly places (dubusha), where disputes are solved and communal decisions are made. Halak'as are said [End Page 36] to "herd" the community (dere hemo). A halak'a who does this well is thought to cause the community (both the people and the land) to be fertile. If he has "good shoulders," the crops will grow, cows will...

The Management of Ensete ventricosum in the Gamo Highlands of Southwest Ethiopia

The Management of Ensete ventricosum in the Gamo Highlands of Southwest Ethiopia

Adoption of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries: A Survey

This paper reviews various studies which have provided a description and possible explanation to patterns of innovation adoption in the agricultural sector. The survey points out that the tendency of many studies to consider innovation adoption in dichotomous terms (adoption/nonadoption) may not be appropriate in many cases where the actual decisions are defined over a more continuous range. More attention needs to be given to the socio-cultural and institutional environment in area studies so that their interrelation with economic factors affecting adoption can be inferred. The presence of several interrelated innovations is another aspect that needs to be considered more carefully in future research, since a number of simultaneous decisions may be involved. Furthermore, the possibility of regular sequential patterns in adopting components of a new technological package should be specifically addressed in future studies. Finally, the impact of differential adoption rates on land holding distribution merits attention in future research.