Problems of agricultural development in socialist Ethiopia: An overview and a suggested strategy

Abstract

The article begins with a review of the performance of the agricultural sector, stressing the sluggish growth, the concentration of output in a small number of regions, the fragmentation of the market and the instability of production and the associated risk of famine. After a brief assessment of the potential for increasing output, we focus on alternative systems of agricultural production that could be used to achieve growth with equity, namely, peasant farming, producer cooperatives and state farms. These systems are evaluated in terms of their contribution to allocative efficiency, the potential for rapid capital accumulation and growth and their capacity to provide an adequate marketable surplus to feed the urban population. The article concludes by underlining the possibilities of achieving high levels of investment within a co‐operative framework.