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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Capturing the Peasants through Cooperatives: The Case of Ethiopia
Author:Stahl, MichaelISNI
Year:1989
Periodical:Review of African Political Economy
Volume:16
Issue:44
Pages:27-46
Language:English
Geographic term:Ethiopia
Subjects:agricultural cooperatives
agricultural policy
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
Politics and Government
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056248908703808
Abstract:Drawing on material collected in 1984-1987 primarily from Arsi, Shoa and Gojjam regions, the author looks at the motives for and character of State intervention in peasant agriculture in Ethiopia. Ostensibly set up in order to increase peasant production and transform it along socialist lines, the author found that the attraction of producers' cooperatives (PCs) is the promise of State subsidies rather than a conviction that the PC is an instrument for increased, sustainable productivity. Crop and animal husbandry standards among PCs are not superior to those prevailing among household producers. No innovative technology development programme has been designed for PC needs and preconditions. Official support emphasizes ideology and organization, while government handouts to PCs and the power of PCs to exploit the neighbouring household cultivators create a false impression of economic viability. Service cooperatives are being promoted as partners of the Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC) in the implementation of a system of compulsory grain delivery at low prices. The Ethiopian State has demonstrated its organizational capacity in capturing the peasantry and extracting tributes from it, but its interventionist agricultural policies often have a demoralizing effect on the producers and are failures in terms of growth of productivity. Bibliogr.
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