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The Political Morphology of Drainage—How Gully Formation Links to State Formation in the Choke Mountains of Ethiopia

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  • Smit, Hermen
  • Muche, Rahel
  • Ahlers, Rhodante
  • van der Zaag, Pieter

Abstract

To understand why soil erosion is persistent despite three decades of massive investments in soil conservation, this paper explores how drainage and soil conservation change a hill slope in the Choke Mountains. By paying close attention to the practices that reshape the hill, we account for the active roles of people and material flows in shaping their identities, forms, and power relations. Social relations can be read in the landscape as their material outcomes are literally scoured into the hill slope. Such a material reading of Ethiopia’s “developmental state” reveals three issues: First, drainage and soil conservation practices are configured by particular historical regimes of land distribution and rent appropriation. Second, the power of the Ethiopian government’s model of the developmental state derives from the exploitation of this configuration by a new coalition of landholders and government officials. Government officials mobilize landholders to construct terraces in exchange for government support in conflicts over land and input distribution. When the terraces create obstructions that can trigger flooding, landowners convert them into drains and divert drainage flows to plots sharecropped by landless families. Consequently, the yearly mobilization for terrace construction does not halt soil erosion but further aggravates it. This continues because the performance of this yearly ritual affirms the authority of landholders and government agents. Third, landless families which fail to live up to the model of the “farmer interested in soil conservation” have created a competing “trader model” with its own institutions. The denial of their non-farmer identities by landholders and officials fuels generational conflicts over drainage which deepen the fractures in the hill and pose a challenge to government authority. Land degradation thus embodies both the powers and the limits of the developmental state.

Suggested Citation

  • Smit, Hermen & Muche, Rahel & Ahlers, Rhodante & van der Zaag, Pieter, 2017. "The Political Morphology of Drainage—How Gully Formation Links to State Formation in the Choke Mountains of Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 231-244.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:98:y:2017:i:c:p:231-244
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.04.031
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Shiferaw, Bekele & Holden, Stein, 1999. "Soil Erosion and Smallholders' Conservation Decisions in the Highlands of Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 739-752, April.
    2. Hoben, Allan, 1995. "Paradigms and politics: The cultural construction of environmental policy in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1007-1021, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Claire Kelly & Maarten Wynants & Linus K. Munishi & Mona Nasseri & Aloyce Patrick & Kelvin M. Mtei & Francis Mkilema & Anna Rabinovich & David Gilvear & Geoff Wilson & William Blake & Patrick A. Ndaki, 2020. "‘Mind the Gap’: Reconnecting Local Actions and Multi-Level Policies to Bridge the Governance Gap. An Example of Soil Erosion Action from East Africa," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-19, September.
    2. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus & Monchuk, Daniel, 2020. "Using satellite imagery to assess impacts of soil and water conservation measures: Evidence from Ethiopia’s Tana-Beles watershed," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    3. Nigussie, Zerihun & Tsunekawa, Atsushi & Haregeweyn, Nigussie & Adgo, Enyew & Cochrane, Logan & Floquet, Anne & Abele, Steffen, 2018. "Applying Ostrom’s institutional analysis and development framework to soil and water conservation activities in north-western Ethiopia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 1-10.

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