CHAPTER SIX

SOILS, NATURAL VEGETATION AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES OF

ETHIOPIA AND THE HORN

1.1. Introduction
The past geological process and varied climatic events ensued Ethiopia to have varied soil and
biological diversity. The formation and spatial variabilities of soils in Ethiopia is largely related
to topographic and climatic factors, parent material (rocks) and land use. Different parts of
Ethiopian regions experiences. Likewise, the distribution of wildlife and natural vegetation in
Ethiopia and the Horn is controlled by many factors important among which are climate, soil
types, drainage, etc. Natural vegetations are vital for human beings in many ways. Plants can
provide shelter, food, source of fuel, pasture and grazing, raw material for industries. Ethiopia
possess unique and characteristic fauna and flora with a high level of endemicity. However,
manmade as well as natural problems are threatening their availability and distribution.

Objectives
At the end of this chapter you will be able to;

 Identify major soil types of Ethiopia

 Understand soil degradation and conservation measures
 Describe the distribution of natural vegetations in Ethiopia
 Explain the significance of wildlife resources of Ethiopia

1.2. Ethiopian Soils: Types, Degradation and Conservation

How does your local community identify and name soils?

How sever is erosion in your locality? Do you know the causes for its degradation?

1.2.1. Introduction

Soil is a delicate but highly varied composition of mineral particles, organic matter and living
organisms in dynamic equilibrium. This variability reflects primarily the parent material from
which the soil was formed over very long periods of time and the environment in which the soil
has developed. It consists of weathered mineral materials (45%), organic matter (5%), air (20-
30%) and water (20-30%).

Soil formation is a long-term process. It could take several thousands of years to form a single
stratum of soil. As it is a complex mixture of several constituents, its formation is also more
complex. The formation of a particular type of soil depends on parent material, climate,
topography, living organism and time.

Weathering disintegrates the inorganic substances (rocks) of soils. It is the breakdown of rocks at
the Earth's surface, by the action of rainwater, extremes of temperature, and biological activity.
There are three types of weathering involving in soil formation. These are:

A. Mechanical (physical) weathering

Physical disintegration causes decrease in size without appreciably altering composition.

Differential stresses due to heating and cooling or expansion of ice break the rock. Abrasion
(erosion by friction) due to water containing sediment or wind carrying debris is another type of
physical weathering.

B. Biological weathering

The process of biological weathering involves the weakening and subsequent disintegration of
rock by plants, animals and microbes. Roots of plant can exert pressure on rock. Although the
process is physical, the pressure is exerted by a biological process (i.e., growing roots).
Microbial activity breaks down rock minerals by altering the rock‟s chemical composition, thus
making it more susceptible to weathering.

C. Chemical weathering

Chemical weathering involves the modification of the chemical and mineralogical composition
of the weathered material. A number of different processes can result in chemical weathering.
The most common chemical weathering processes are hydrolysis, oxidation, reduction,
hydration, carbonation, and solution.
In most cases, the minerals in the parent materials are also found in the soils, which are formed
from the disintegration and decomposition of the rock. However, this is not true of alluvial soils,
which are transported from one place to the other by agents like running water.
Soils have two basic properties:

Physical properties
Soil physical properties are influenced by composition and proportion of major soil components.
Properties such as texture, structure, porosity etc. are categorized under physical soil properties.
These properties affect air and water movement in the soil, and thus the soil‟s ability to function.

Chemical Properties
Soil chemistry is the interaction of various chemical constituents that takes place among soil
particles and in the water retained by soil. Soil properties like availability of minerals, electrical
conductivity, soil pH, etc. Soil chemical properties affect soil biological activity and indirectly
the nutrient dynamics.

1.2.2. Major Soil Types in Ethiopia

Soils of Ethiopia are basically derived from crystalline, volcanic and Mesozoic sedimentary
rocks. One can therefore, say that some of the soil divisions in the country are based on the
geologic structure. However, it should be born in mind that, there are soils formed due to long
waited deposition of sediments.

FAO has identified 18 soil associations in Ethiopia at scale of 1:2,000,000. Out of the major
soils, 11 soil associations cover about 87.4 percent of the land area. The six major groups of soils
in Ethiopia are discussed under the following points:

A. Environmental condition i.e. parent material, climatic conditions, topography, the way
they were formed.
B. Characteristic i.e. significant chemical and physical properties.
C. Agricultural suitability in relation to texture, structure, topography, moisture-storage
capacity, etc.
D. Occurrence: general location of the soil types.
1. Nitosols and Acrisols

Nitosols develop on gently sloping ground. Their parent materials include trap series volcanics,
volcanic ash, and even metamorphic rocks. They are strongly weathered soils but far more
productive than most other tropical soils. They are basically associated with highlands with high
rainfall and they were, probably, formed on forest covered areas originally.

Due to the high rainfall, there is considerable soil leaching which makes the nitosols to be poor
in soluble minerals like potassium, calcium etc.; and rich in non-soluble minerals like iron and
aluminum. The reddish-brown color of these soils is because of high concentration of iron
(ferric) oxides due to leaching. But they are now widely found on cultivated areas and on
mountain grasslands. Nitosols are dominantly found in western highlands (Wellega),
southwestern highlands (Kaffa, Illuababora), Southern highlands, Central highlands, and Eastern
highlands.

Acrisols are one of the most inherently infertile soils of the tropics, becoming degraded
chemically and organically very quickly when utilized. Acrisols have very low resilience to
degradation and moderate sensitivity to yield decline. In Ethiopia, it has lost most of the base
nutrients and are characterized by low productive capacity. Acrisols are found along with
nitosols mostly in some pockets of southwestern highlands of Ethiopia where there is high
rainfall.

2. Vertisols

Vertisols are heavy clay soils with a high proportion of swelling clays when wet, and cracks
when dry. These soils are extremely difficult to manage (hence easily degraded), but has very
high natural chemical fertility. Vertisols mostly develop on volcanic plateau basalt, trachyte and
pyroclastic materials, sedimentary rocks, colluvial slopes and alluvial plains. The vertisols are
also soils of highlands and moderate climates. In Ethiopia, they are commonly found in parts of
Northwestern, Central and Southeastern highlands (especially in Gojjam, Shewa, Arsi, Bale and
central Hararghe).

3. Lithosols, Cambisols and Regosol

These soils are mostly found in rugged topography and steep slopes. There is little evidence of
pedogenic processes (soil forming processes). As a result, they are young, shallow and coarse
textured and so have low water holding capacity. In addition, they are found in areas of low
rainfall. So, most of the areas covered by these soils have limited agricultural use. They are, in
most cases, left under the natural plant cover and used for grazing.

By and large, these soils are found in different parts of rugged and steep slopes of Central
Highlands, on the Rift Valley Escarpments and highlands in of western Hararghe. Regosol and
Lithosols are also found in the Danakil and eastern Ogaden.

4. Xerosols, Yermosols and Solanchaks

These are soils of desert or dry steppe soils majorly available in arid and semiarid areas. Though
the degree may vary, desert soils are characterized by high salt content and low organic content,
because of the scanty vegetation. Generally speaking, these soils have poor humus content and
nitrogen, but are rich in phosphorus and potash and can be very fertile if irrigated.

Xerosols are soils of the deserts, has low organic content. These soils are extremely subjected to
wind erosion and concentration of soluble salts. Yermosols are even drier and more problematic
than Xerosols. Solanchaks are saline soils which develop in areas of high evaporation and
capillary action. Badly managed irrigation schemes may turn soils into solonchaks.

In Ethiopia, Xerosols are found in Ogaden and northeastern escarpments, whereas the Yermosols
and Solonchaks cover the Ogaden and Afar plains. The Solonchaks are majorly located in salty
plains of Afar.

5. Fluvisols

Fluvisols develop on flat or nearly flat ground, on recent alluvial deposits. These soils are
associated with fluvial (river), marine (sea) and lacustine (lake) deposits.

These are soils formed due to deposition of eroded materials from highlands. The deposition
takes place in depressions, lower valleys and lowlands. Lower regions of rivers like Omo,
Awash, Abay and the plains of Akobo and Baro Rivers are home for fluvivsols. Lakes region
(main Ethiopian rift) is also characterized by fluvisols.

Fluvisols are highly variable, but much prized for intensive agriculture because:

 they develop on flat ground, deposition sites,

  they are associated with rivers and ground water, making them important for large-scale
irrigation and
 they are fertile and their fertility is always renewed as a result of deposition of new soil
materials.
6. Luvisols

Luvisols develop mainly in areas where pronounced wet and dry seasons occur in alternation.
Where leaching is not very high, they are found in association with nitosols. Luvisols have good
chemical nutrients and they are among the best agricultural soils in the tropics. So, they are
intensively cultivated. However, when luvisols are found on steep slopes (stony) and on flat
areas (waterlogged) they are avoided and left for grazing. In Ethiopia, places with luvisols
include Lake Tana area, parts of Northern, Central and Eastern Highlands and Southern
lowlands.

Figure 6.1. Soil types of Ethiopia

6.2.2. Soil Degradation

Soil degradation is defined as a change in any or all of soil status resulting in a diminished
capacity of the ecosystem to provide goods and services. It could also be the deterioration of the
physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. It is a critical and growing global problem. It is a
major concern for at least two reasons. First, soil degradation undermines the productive capacity
of an ecosystem. Second, it affects global climate through alterations in water and energy
balances and disruptions in cycles of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and other elements.

There are three major types of soil degradation. These are:

i. Physical Degradation: refers to the deterioration of the physical properties of soil. This
includes:
A. Compaction: densification of soil is caused by the elimination or reduction of structural
pores. Soils prone to compaction are susceptible to accelerated runoff and erosion.
B. Soil erosion: is a three-phase process consisting of the detachment of individual soil
particles, transportation and deposition. The continuous strike of soil surface by rain
droplets considerably weakness the soil and makes susceptible to erosion. When
sufficient amount of water accumulates, the soil will begin to move towards lower slope
until the erosive agent loses its energy. Erosion of topsoil by wind and water exceeds soil
formation at an alarming rate. Obviously for countries like Ethiopia where agriculture
plays the dominant role in the economy and livelihood of the people, the causes,
consequences and possible ways of minimizing soil erosion require serious consideration.
In Ethiopia, an estimated average of 42 tons per hectare of soils is eroded annually.

ii. Biological Degradation

Reduction in soil organic matter content, decline in biomass carbon, and decrease in activity and
diversity of soil fauna are ramifications of biological degradation. Because of prevailing high soil
and air temperatures, biological degradation of soil is more severe in the tropics than in the
temperate zone. It can also be caused by indiscriminate and excessive use of chemicals and soil
pollutants.
 iii. Chemical Degradation

Nutrient depletion is a major cause of chemical degradation. In addition, excessive leaching of

cat-ions in soils with low-activity clays causes a decline in soil pH and a reduction in base
saturation. Chemical degradation is also caused by the buildup of some toxic chemicals and an
elemental imbalance that is injurious to plant growth.

Causes of soil degradation

Soil degradation may result from natural and human-induced causes. Topographic and climatic
factors such as steep slopes, frequent floods and tornadoes, storms and high-velocity wind, high-
intensity rains and drought in dry regions are among the natural causes. Deforestation and
overexploitation of vegetation, overgrazing, indiscriminate use of agrochemicals and lack of soil
conservation practices, and over extraction of ground water are some anthropogenic causes of
soil degradation.

6.2.3. Soil Erosion Control Measures

The aim of soil conservation is to reduce erosion to a level at which the maximum sustainable
level of agricultural production, grazing or recreational activity can be obtained from an area of
land without unacceptable environmental damage. Since erosion is a natural process, it cannot be
prevented. But it can be reduced to a maximum acceptable level or soil loss tolerance.

We have two major soil erosion control mechanisms. These are:

A. Biological Control measures

These types of soil erosion control mechanisms include vegetative strips, plantation, and
reforestation. Biological controls can prevent splash erosion, reduces the velocity of surface
runoff, increases surface roughness which reduces runoff and increases infiltration, and etc.

B. Physical control measures

Physical measures are used to control the movement of water and wind over the soil surface. The
major types of physical erosion control measures commonly applied in Ethiopia includes
terracing, check dams, gabion, trenches, contour ploughing, soil bunds etc.
1.3. Natural Vegetation of Ethiopia
1.3.1. Introduction

Natural vegetation refers to a plant cover that develops with little or no human interference. It
can also be seen as any original plant cover grown in an area. Its distribution on the surface of
the earth is uneven majorly controlled by factors such as climate, soil types, drainage, etc.
However, to a large extent, temperature and precipitation affect the spatial distribution and the
original plant cover of a region. That is why, more than any other single element, the natural
vegetation of an area becomes a very good indicator of the climatic conditions.

Natural vegetations are vital for human beings in many ways. Plants can provide shelter, food,
source of fuel, pasture and grazing, raw material for industries, source of timber and non-timber
products. The other uses include moderating effect on local climate, as home of wild life,
medicinal values, minimizing soil erosion etc.

The characteristics of Ethiopia's natural vegetation are to a large extent determined by elevation
(and temperature) and rainfall. In Ethiopia, since temperature is mostly controlled by elevation,
the spatial distribution of natural vegetation in the country is strongly correlated to it. Lowlands
due to their low rainfall and high temperature have harsh environment and are characterized by
xeromorphic plants (plants which are adapted to drought and high temperatures). Highlands (up
to about 3000 m) are cooler than the lowlands and where there is adequate moisture a variety of
forests can be seen. Plants whose growth is limited by the low temperature characterize high
altitude areas (mostly above 3000 m). Ethiopia possesses an estimated number of 6000 species of
higher plants of which 10% are endemic.

1.3.2. Major Natural Vegetation Types of Ethiopia

Taking altitude into consideration it is possible to broadly classify the vegetation belts of
Ethiopia into the following five groups.

1. Afro-alpine and sub-afro alpine Region

2. Forest Region
3. Woodland Savannah Region
4. Steppe Region
5. Semi-desert Region
1. Afro-alpine and Sub-afro alpine Region

Ethiopia has the largest extent of Afro-alpine and sub afro-alpine habitats in Africa. This
vegetation type, also known as high mountain vegetation is similar to the Alpine vegetation in
temperate regions. These ecosystems are found on mountains having an elevation ranging
between 3,200 and 4,620 meters above sea level. The Afro-alpine habitat covers nearly 1.3% of
the total landmass of Ethiopia.

The Afro-alpine region is found at very high altitudes (4,000 – 4,620 m). Like any other
landform in Ethiopian, the climate of Afro-alpine ecosystems is controlled by latitude and
altitude. The annul precipitation which ranges between 800 and 1,500 mm, is mostly in the form
of sleet or snow. Temperature records of 0oC and below are widely experienced in these
ecosystems. Soils in this ecosystem are mostly shallow and eroded. The Bale and Semein
mountains are typical examples of afro-alpine vegetations.

Compared to the Afro-alpine, the Sub-afro-alpine region is found at a lower elevation, roughly
between 3,300 and 4,000 meters. As a result, the plants in this region are adapted to somewhat
less extreme environment than the Afro-alpine.

Vegetation in the Afro-alpine region consists of tussock grasslands, scrub, scattered mosses and
lichens while the Sub-afro alpine region is dominated by woodland, often degraded to scrub
stages and also wet grasslands. Lobelia rhynchopetalum (giberra) and Erica arborea (Asta) are
some of the dominant species in the Afro-alpine and Sub-afro alpine regions respectively.

2. Forest Region

Forest is a complex ecosystem consisting predominantly of trees that shield earth and support
numerous life forms. Not all forests are similar in terms of species composition, structure and
physiognomy. In any geographical region, environmental factors such as climate, soil types,
topography and elevation determine the types of forests.

In Ethiopia, forests are found at different elevations, 450 to 3,500m in humid parts and 2,300 to
3,300 m in most arid parts. Moreover, forests are characterized by variation in mean annual
rainfall that range between 200 and 2,200mm. These wide variations in rainfall and altitude
result in two broad classification of forests: Highlands and Lowland forests. Highland forests
include Hagenia Abyssinia (Kosso), Juniper procera (tid), Arundinaria Alpina(kerkha),
Podocarpus falcatus (zigba), Aningeria adolfi-friedericii (keraro) and Olea africana (Weyra)
forests; while Baphia are classified as lowland forests. Moreover, there are also Gallery
(Riverine) Forests. These are forests that stretch along the banks of the lower courses of rivers.
Riverine forests are classified as lowland forests and are found in some places such as the banks
of Awash, Wabishebelle, Ghenale etc. Dominant species include Ficus sur (sholla) and different
kinds of acacia trees.

3. Woodland Savannah Region

Like the forests, the woodland savannahs are also found in areas of wide altitudinal ranges (250
to 2,300 m). Although the mean annual rainfall ranges between 200 and 1,400 mm, the large part
of this region is found at a lower elevation and in a drier environment. The plants in the
woodland savannah are known for their xeromorphic characteristics like shading of leaves
during the dry season. Vegetation types with intermediate characteristics between savannahs and
woodlands are shrublands and bushlands. Woodland savannah region can be broadly classified
into three divisions:
 Juniper procera (tid) is dominant species for both the Junipers Forests and Junipers
Woodlands. The difference is in height: 3 - 45 meters tall in the forests and 10 -15
meters in the woodlands.
 Acacia woodlands are dominated by both trees and shrubs, which belong to the same
genus 'Acacia'. E.g. Acacia etbaica(grar),Acacia mellifera (Konter).
 Mixed deciduous woodlands: As the name implies, most of the trees in mixed
deciduous woodlands shed their leaves during the dry season.

Table 6.1: Woodland Savanna Region

Woodland savanna Altitude(m) MeanAnnual RF (mm) Growing Dominant species

type season(No. of

months)

Junipers woodland 1,350-2,200 500-900 4-8 Junipers procera

Acacia woodland 250-2,300 200-1,000 1-9 Acaci aetabica(Grar)
Mixed deciduous 300-1,300 800-1.400 5-12 Mixed trees
woodland
4. Steppe and Semi Desert Regions
These are regions in the arid and semiarid parts of the country where the temperature is very high
and the rainfall very low. Both are found at low elevations, the steppe at elevations of 100 to
1,400 m above sea level and the semi-deserts at 130 meters below sea level to 600 meters above
sea level.

The steppe gets a mean annual rainfall of 100 to 550 mm as compared to 50 to 300 mm for the
semi desert areas. Growing period lasts up to 2 months for the steppe and a maximum of one
month for the semi-deserts. Even though there is a variation in the degree of alkalinity and
salinity; soils in both regions are generally alkaline and saline.

In these regions xerophytic (i.e. drought-resisting plants) are the dominant vegetations.
Xerophytic plants such as short shrubs, scattered tufts of grass species and a variety of acacias
are some of the examples. Where there are moist soils, rich vegetation of acacia and palm trees
may be observed. Trees are normally restricted to fringes along watercourses.

1.3.3. Natural vegetation Degradation

Over the past century, a rapid growth of the already dense Ethiopian population has led to
overexploitation of the land. In areas with settled agriculture, new land has been cleared at the
expense of forests. Ethiopia's forest resources have been disappearing at an alarming rate. A
century ago, forests covered about 40 percent of the total land area. For the last few decades,
forests have been cleared for different reasons. Major causes for the gradual disappearance of the
natural vegetation in Ethiopia are:

 Clearing of forests for cultivation

 Timber exploitation practices
 Charcoal burning and cutting for fuel
 Extensions of coffee and tea production areas
 Overgrazing
 Expansion of settlements both rural and urban, and clearing for construction.

6.3.2. Natural Vegetation Conservation

Conservation of biodiversity is protection and management of biodiversity so as to maintain at

least its current status and derive sustainable benefits for the present and future generation. There
is an urgent need of conservation of the ever-degrading biodiversity. There are three main
approaches of biodiversity conservation:

 Protection: through designation and management of some form of protected area.

Protected areas include sanctuaries, national parks, and community conservation areas.
 Sustainable forest management: involving sustainable harvesting of forest products to
provide a source of financial income
 Restoration or rehabilitation: is the process of assisting the recovery of a forest
ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. This may involve the re-
establishment of the characteristics of a forest ecosystem, such as composition, structure,
and function, which were prevalent before its degradation.

1.4. Wild Life/wild animals in Ethiopia

1.4.1. Introduction

Ethiopia is one of the few countries in the world, which possess unique and characteristic fauna
with a high level of endemicity. Existence of wide range of ecosystems endowed Ethiopia with
great varieties of habitats contributing for the occurrence of high faunal diversity. However, data
on faunal resource of the country is as a whole is limited to mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians
and a few groups of arthropods.

Ethiopia has about 860 avian species (16 endemic species and two endemic genera), 279 species
of mammals (31 endemic species and six endemic genera), 201 species of reptiles (14 endemic
species), 23 species of amphibians (23 endemic species), and 150 freshwater fish (6 endemic
species).

A total of 279 mammalian species of which 31 are endemic are known to occur in Ethiopia
including those that require urgent conservation action i.e. Walia Ibex (Capra walie), Gelada
Baboon (Theropithecus gelada), Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni), Ethiopian Wolf (Canis
simensis), Starck‟s Hare (Lepus starcki).

Generally speaking, the main wild life concentrations in the country occur in the southern and
western parts. The wild animals in Ethiopia can be classified into five major groups:

1. Common wild animals (those animals that are found in many parts of the country (e.g.
hyenas, jackals)
 2. Game (lowland) animal, (which include many herbivores like giraffes, wild asses, zebras
etc. and carnivores like lions, leopards, and cheetahs)
3. Tree animals or arboreals (which include monkeys, baboons)
4. A variety of birds in the Rift Valley lakes
5. Rare animals (gelada baboon and Semien fox) scattered in highlands; walia- ibex in the
Semien Massifs, Nyala in the Arsi Bale massifs).

1.4.2. Wildlife Conservation

What are the challenges of wildlife conservation in Ethiopia?

Wildlife plays an important role in several ways. The importance of wildlife can be categorized
as ecological importance, economic importance, investigatory importance, conservation of
biological diversities etc. Wild animals can be used for:

 scientific and educational researches (valuable information for medical purposes and
environmental studies)
 physical and mental recreation (aesthetic value)
 promotion of tourism (economic value)
 its potential for domestication
 maintaining ecological balance
To prevent the destruction of wildlife a total area of nearly 100,000 square kilometers of national
parks, sanctuaries, community conservation areas, botanical gardens, wildlife reserves etc. have
been established in different part of the country. Hence in Ethiopia there are:

 21 major national parks (see Table 6.2),

 2 major wildlife sanctuaries,
 3 wildlife reserves,
 6 community conservation areas,
 2 wildlife rescue centres,
 22 controlled hunting areas,
 2 botanical gardens, and 3 biosphere reserves
Figure 6.2. Spatial distribution of National Parks (four national parks are not mentioned)
Source: CSA Shapefile, 2012
Even though the number and the predominant animals may vary, many of the national parks in
Ethiopia have different turnovers of animals. These include buffaloes, zebras, lions, elephants,
ostriches, giraffes, oryx, African wild asses, etc.
Table 6.2: National Parks of Ethiopia

S.no Name Region Year est. Area in sq.km

1 Kafeta Shiraro Tigray 1999 5000
2 Semien Mountains Amhara 1959 412
3 Alatish Amhara
4 Bahir Dar Blue Nile River Millennium Amhara 2008 4729
5 Borena Saynt Amhara 2008 4325
6 Yangudi-Rassa Afar 1969 4731
7 Awash Oromiya and Afar 1958 756
8 Dati Wolel Oromiya 2010 1031
9 Bale Mountains Oromiya 1962 2200
10 Yabello Oromiya 1978 1500
11 Abijata Shala Oromiya 1963 887
12 Arsi Mountains Oromiya 2012
13 Geralle Somali 1998 3558
14 Gambella Gambella 1966 4650
15 Nechsar SNNPR 1966 514
16 Omo SNNPR 1959 3566
17 Mago SNNPR 1974 1947
18 Maze SNNPR 1997 202
19 Gibe Sheleko SNNPR 2001 248
20 Loka Abaya SNNPR 2001 500
21 Chabra Churchura SNNPR 1997 1190
Source: Young, 2012

Some of the national parks are unique in their wild animals they have. E.g.
1. Abiyatta-Shalla lakes National Park is predominantly bird sanctuary. Important bird
species include the flamingos and pelicans.
2. Omo, Mago, and Gambela National Parks have hippopotamus and crocodiles in rivers
and lakes.
3. Semien and Bale Mountains National Parks have rare animals like Walia ibex, Semien
fox, gelada baboon and Nyala.
 1.4.3. Challenges of wildlife conservation in Ethiopia

Do you know that if you leave nature to its own system, it has notable system of taking care of
itself!

Conservation of Ethiopia‟s biodiversity and ecosystems is vital to ensure sustainable

development, to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change and to prevent the collapse of
life-supporting ecosystem services. Protected areas were created to protect the major
biodiversity. However, it is a sad fact that these ecologically fundamental resources are usually
undervalued and are under threat from various dimensions. Here are some of the major
challenges that Ethiopian protected areas are facing;

 Limited awareness on the importance of  Illegal wildlife trade

wild life
 Excessive hunting
 Expansion of human settlement in
protected areas.  Tourism and recreational pressure
 Conflict over resource  Mining and construction material extraction
 Overgrazing (fodder and wood)  Forest fire

Check!

1. Discuss the major soil types of Ethiopia.

2. What are the three types of soil degradation?
3. What are the mechanisms of controlling soil erosion?
4. Discuss the five groups of natural vegetations in Ethiopia?
5. Discuss the vegetation and wildlife degradation?
6. What are protected areas? Identify the major protected areas in Ethiopia.
 CHAPTER SEVEN
POPULATION OF ETHIOPIA AND THE HORN

7.1. Introduction
Human beings are producers and consumers of wealth from natural resources. In their
interaction with nature for a living, humans both develop and destroy their environment.
Human population can be considered as a point of reference from which all the other
elements are observed, and from which they all, derive their significance and meaning.

Many disciplines like Geography, Demography, Economics, Epidemiology, Sociology and

many more study human population. Their differences lie in the methodologies they employ
and the aspects they emphasize. Since Geography is basically the study of regional/areal
differences in the distribution of natural and cultural phenomena, the study of population in
Geography aims at showing and explaining regional/spatial differences on population
distribution and densities, population numbers, human-environment interactions, population
dynamics (fertility, mortality and migration), as well as population characteristics and
qualities (age, sex, education and health composition etc.).

Population numbers, dynamics, densities, characteristics and qualities vary in space. These
variations can be studied at different levels: district, provincial, regional, national,
continental and global. The concern, in our case, is to study the densities, characteristics and
some qualities of the population of Ethiopia and some neighboring Horn countries.

Objectives

After the completion of this chapter, you will be able to:

 Discuss the importance and sources of population data

 Compute basic demographic rates
 Develop an understanding of the population characteristics and dynamics of Ethiopia
and the Horn
 Describe the spatial distribution of the Ethiopian population and provide
justifications for its unevenness
  Explain the process of urbanization in Ethiopia and look into the opportunities and
challenges
Activities

1. How do countries get reliable population data for their socioeconomic development
planning endeavours?
2. What are the challenges and opportunities of a young and growing population?
3. Why is Ethiopia the least urbanized but rapidly urbanizing country?
4. Discuss the factors that explain the unevenness in the distribution of the Ethiopian
population.

7.2. Population Data: Uses and Sources

Regular and reliable population data are vital for effective socioeconomic development
planning and administration. Such data are needed to plan for the provision of
infrastructures such as schools, hospitals, roads, water and sewerage facilities, housing,
establishing voting district boundaries, estimating future tax revenue and designing public
programs. Hence, demographic data are crucial to administrators, businessmen, researchers,
academicians and planners. The population of a country is an agent as well as a beneficiary
of any planned socio-economic development undertaken. Therefore, it becomes inescapable
to have population information as the demography influences production, distribution,
consumption, defense and administrative services at any administrative or natural unit
considered.

There are three conventional sources of obtaining population data namely census, sample
survey and vital registration.

A. Census

A census could be defined as the total process of collecting, compiling and publishing
demographic, economic and social data pertaining at a specified time (s) to all persons in a
defined territory. Its major characteristics include:

 Universality: inclusion of all persons in a given area during the count,

  Periodicity: census undertaking at regular time intervals with reference to a defined
point of time usually 10 years and 5 years,
 Simultaneity: undertaking census in a very limited time duration called the census
day/night,
 Government sponsorship being an expensive endeavour, and publication

There are two procedures for collecting census data: dejure and defacto approaches

 Dejure approach: it involves counting people according to their usual place of

residence (where he/she lives most of the time). This system gives a picture of the
total permanent population of an area thereby making it suitable for planning and
administrative purposes.
 Defacto approach: Under this approach each individual is recorded at the place
where he/she was found at the time of the census. The defacto enumeration may give
enlarged totals to holiday resorts.
B. Sample Survey

This is a method in which a defined population/sample/ is selected with the view that
information acquired would represent the entire population. This method is advantageous
over census as costs can be greatly reduced; and it is simple to administer and taken much
faster. Sampling may also be used with censuses in order to obtain more detailed
information to supplement census data. However, sample surveys have the inherent
weaknesses related to sampling errors and inadequate coverage thereby demanding caution
in their undertaking.

Data from most censuses and sample surveys include geographic location, age, sex, marital
status, citizenship, and place of birth, relationship to the head of household, religion,
educational characteristics, occupation, fertility, income, language, ethnic characteristics,
disabilities and migration.
 C. Vital Registration

Vital registration is a system of continuous, permanent, compulsory and legal recording of

the occurrence and the characteristics of vital events like births, deaths, marriages, divorces,
and adoptions. Vital registration data tend to be more precise than that of census/sample
survey and the system provides time series data.

Despite the enormous usefulness of population information, it could be noted that population
data could suffer from inaccuracy resulting from: poor and inadequately financed methods
of collection; poorly trained enumerator; suspicion and ignorance of censuses and false
statements specially of age and income; constant changes in administrations; omission of
more inaccessible areas; as well as wide difference in connotation of terms like language,
ethnicity, and occupation. The errors are likely to be introduced at the stage of data
collection, data processing, analyses and the writing up of the report. As such, the errors
need to be detected and all the necessary adjustments made to enhance their usefulness.

Check!

 Who are the users of population data?

 How many times has Ethiopia undertaken a census? What does the inter-censual
population change look like at least in terms of number and its dynamics?
 Why are some individuals reporting false data pertaining to their age and income?

7.3. Population Dynamics: Fertility, Mortality and Migration

Introduction

The population of any particular region (country) grows/declines as a result of the combined
effect of the three demographic variables: fertility, mortality and migration. Ethiopia is endowed
with a large and fast-growing population ranking 2nd in Africa after Nigeria. According to the
first ever census return of 1984, the population of Ethiopia was 42.2 million. The estimated rate
of growth of the population in 1984 was 2.9 percent. The total population grew to 53.5 million in
the second census held in 1994. The country‟s population reached about 73.8 million in 2007.
Based on projected data from CSA, Ethiopia has an estimated 2019 population of 112 million,
which ranks 12th in the world, and the current growth rate is about 2.6%. The largest part of the
population (80%) is rural based. Like many other developing countries, Ethiopia has a youthful
population where about 65 percent of the population is below 24 years of age. The population is
also unevenly distributed.

7.3.1. Demographic Measurements

In Ethiopia, fertility and mortality are the two principal determinants of population growth as
international migration is insignificant. Some of the basic demographic measurements include:

1. Crude Birth Rate refers to the number of live births per 1000 population
Total annual live birth
CBR = 𝑥1000
Total midyear population

2. General Fertility Rate refers to the total number of live births per women of
reproductive age

𝐺𝐹𝑅 = 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒

𝑏𝑖𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝑥1000
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛15 − 49

GFR is a relatively specific measure of fertility as it specifically relates births to women in

the reproductive age.

3. Total Fertility Rate (T.F.R.) refers to the average number of children that a woman
would have at the end of her reproductive period if the current age specific fertility rate
remains unchanged.

𝑇𝐹𝑅 = 5𝑥 ∑ 𝐵𝑖
𝑛=1 𝑊𝑖

Where, Bi = Total live births in age group i,

Wi =Total number of women in age group I (i =age group i.e. 1= 15-19, 2=20-24 3=25-29, 4
= 30-34, 5 = 35-39, 6=40-44, 7 = 45-49)

4. Crude Death Rate refers to the number of deaths per one thousand population in a year
Total annual Death
CDR =
Total x1000
midyear
populatio
n
5. Infant Mortality rate refers to the total number of deaths of infants per one thousand
live Birth
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ
𝐼𝑀𝑅 = 𝑥1000
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑟𝑡ℎ
Infant mortality draws special attention because of its large size and the heavy impact it has
on the crude death rate. The 2016 demographic and health survey result showed that infant
mortality in Ethiopia has decreased from 97 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 48 in
2016.

6. Maternal Mortality Rate: refers to death of mothers in connection from pregnancy and
birth complications per hundred thousand live birth.
Total annual maternal death due to birth complications
MMR = Total live birth 𝑥100,0000

7. Life Expectancy at birth: refers to the average number of years that a newly born baby is
expected to live. It is used as a summary measure of the mortality experience of the whole
population.
8. Natural Rate of Increase: is the difference between crude birth rate and crude death
rate expressed in percentage.
NRI= (C.B.R. - C.D.R.)

7.3.2. Levels and trends in Fertility and Mortality rates in Ethiopia

Birth and death rates show significant spatiotemporal variation. Clear differences in birth
and death rates are emerging between rural and urban areas of Ethiopia. Urban areas have
lower birth and death rates compared to rural areas implying that living and health
conditions are better and, perhaps, family planning programme is gaining ground. Women in
rural areas have an average of 5.2 children, compared to 2.3 children among women in
urban areas.

Looking at TFR by region, in 2016 fertility was the lowest in Addis Ababa (1.8 children per
woman) followed by Dire Dawa (3.1), Gambella (3.5), and Amhara (3.7); while regions that
have TFR rates more than the national average are Somali (7.2), Afar (5.5), Oromia (5.4),
and Tigray (4.7). Recently, fertility is showing a declining trend. Total fertility rate (TFR)
declined from 7.52 in 1984 to 6.74 in 1994, and currently, women in Ethiopia have an
average of 4.6 children.

Similarly, mortality rates are also showing a declining trend. Before 2000, almost all
regional states recorded more than 100 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, but by 2011 infant
mortality in all regions was lower than 100, except for Benishangul Gumuz. Mortality rates
also show considerable variation by reigns. In 2016, IMR at the country level was 54 where
it was 48 in urban areas and 62 in rural Ethiopia. Accordingly, lower than national average
infant mortality rate was recorded in Addis Ababa followed by Somali and Gambella; while
higher IMR was recorded in Benishangul, followed by SNNPR and Tigray.

Life expectancy at birth in Ethiopia increased from about 36.7 years in the 1960s to 62.6
years in 2016. Female life expectancy (65.4 years) is about four years higher than male life
expectancy (61.2 years). Life expectancy at birth is greater for urban areas than for rural
areas. It exceeds the national average in Addis Ababa; while the lowest is in Benishangul-
Gumuz (47 years) followed by SNNPR (49 years). The relatively high life expectancy and
low infant mortality rates for Addis Ababa may result from relatively easy access to health
services.

Comparison of birth and death rates of Ethiopia with some neighboring Horn countries as
well as with world countries experiencing the highest and lowest values for the demographic
rates, will help us understand where we stand.
Table 7.1: Comparison of Birth and Death Rates and Life Expectancy of Ethiopia with
Selected Countries.

Country C.B.R C.D.R I.M.R Life Expectancy

(Years)

Ethiopia 36.5 7 49.6 62.6

Kenya 23.9 6 37.1 64.3

Somalia 36.6 11 94 52.8

Eritrea 29.6 7 45 65.2

Djibouti 23.4 8 45.8 63.6

Highest Angola/Niger= Lesotho=15.0 Afghanistan=110 Monaco=89.4

Values 44.2

Mali= 43.9 Lithuania=14.6 Somalia=94 Japan=85.3

Lowest Monaco=6.6 Qatar=1.5 Monaco=1.8 Chad=50.6

Values Japan=7.7 UAE=1.9 Japan=2 Guinea Bissau=51.0

Source: Population Reference Bureau, population data sheet, 2017

As indicated in Table 7.1, there is an obvious difference between developed and developing
countries in the demographic rates. All demographic rates are high and life expectancies are
low for developing countries. Even among the five neighbouring countries as part of the
developing world, Ethiopia's infant mortality rate is higher than Kenya, Eritrea and Djibouti,
giving Ethiopia the lowest life expectancy among the counties. It is wise to note that
Ethiopia‟s crude birth rate, crude death rate, and infant mortality rates are about 5.5, 4.7 and
27.5 times greater than the countries that have the lowest crude birth rate, crude death rate
and infant mortality rates in the world respectively. People living in the country with the
highest life expectancy at a global level live about 27 years more than ours. It is only the
war-torn Somalia that has the highest death rate and the lowest life expectancy from our
neighbors.

It is also important to note that the difference between developing and developed countries
in crude death rates is not as high as the difference in birth rates. The main reason for this is
some degree of improvement in medical services in most developing countries during the
last few decades. As opposed to declining death rates, birth rates have remained high due
to:

 Little family planning practices and lack of population education;

 Lower status of women
 Early marriage, particularly of females;
 Parents consideration of children as assets, though little obliged for their education,
health;
 The relatively high infant and child mortality rates, that trigger couples to have more
births to compensate for the loses and
 Perhaps religious influences.
Countries of the Horn of Africa have higher population growth rate that exceeds 2.6 percent.
Their population is growing faster and annual addition to the total population is enormous. Some
of the consequences of this rapid population growth under conditions of slowly growing
economy include:

 low per capita GNP

 increased unemployment and under -employment
 mounting social ills such as destitution, begging, theft, prostitution
 continuous inflation that erodes purchasing power of the currency
 shortage of cultivated land and food shortages
 overcrowding of infrastructural and social facilities; housing problems and increase in
urban slums and squatter settlements
 Environmental problems such as deforestation, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and
pollution.

7.3.3. Migration in Ethiopia and the Horn

Migration is an old and inevitable phenomenon, although human mobility has accelerated these
days as a result of economic and technological progress especially in the fields of
communication and transportation. It is considered as a form of geographic mobility involving a
permanent or semi-permanent change of residence between clearly defined geographic units.
An assessment of human mobility is pivotal for its diverse effects. Some of the multifaceted
implications of migration are indicated hereunder:
 Migration yields an increased level of urbanization;
 It enhances rural-urban linkages in creating an integrated economy
 It influences spatial population distribution
 Migration negatively influences human fertility and mortality patterns and levels; and
affects age and sex composition of the population.
 It is a means of achieving economic efficiency.
 It can also be a cause and consequence of inequality and unequal development
 It is regarded as a cause and consequence of diversity; and a mechanism of spreading
cultures
 It is a necessary condition for the creation and strengthening of a sense of nationhood and
national unity
 It creates a creative and open society to new ideas than a homogenous group of people.
A. Internal Migration in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is an ancient original abode of human migration before the various parts of the world
are occupied. In Ethiopia, both short and long migratory movements have been going on for
millennia in time and space influenced by demographic, environmental, socio-economic and
political factors.

Population movement in Ethiopia accelerated in the early twenty century with the rise in urban
centers as well as the Italian occupation. However, voluntary and individual rural out migration
during the Derg Regime was low for the following reasons.

 The 1976/77 „land to the tiller‟ granted land to the rural landless farmers, which in turn
reduced their motivation for out migration.
 Establishment of urban dwellers association and rural peasant associations that
demanded a person to be either a member of an urban kebele or PA that did not
encourage rural-urban or urban-rural migration.
 The 1975 urban land nationalization that dispossessed landlords‟ rights to own more
than one house that further led to a chronic shortage of urban housing which in turn
discouraged migration.
  The high level of urban unemployment and underemployment coupled with declining
real incomes and growing poverty was a disincentive for potential migrants.
 The Derge was also taking away whoever is scrounging around in the city as soldiers to
the warfront that kept the youth from moving to the urban areas.
During the current regime, the ethnic politics in the country and associated administrative
barriers are said to discourage inter-regional migration and sound spatial distribution of the rural
population. The incumbent government‟s policy that demands continued residence in one‟s rural
kebele/PA as a condition for claiming access to land also discourages the movement of rural
population out of agriculture. Another restriction to distant migration out of rural areas is the
high cost of migration relative to expected employment opportunity and return.

However, landlessness of emerging rural youth; drought and rainfall unreliability in the
highlands; and land degradation and the resultant diminished carrying capacity of the land could
be important push factors in the out migration of people out of their rural domicile. Internal
migration in Ethiopia is, therefore, among the highest in Africa. According to the 2007 Census
result, the country has a relatively high level of internal migration where out of the total
population of the country, 16.6 percent is labeled as migrant population.

B. International migration
International migration in Ethiopia accelerated after the 1974 revolution where many refugees
were attempting to escape political conflict, persecution and famine. Attempt of political
centralization and oppression; the independence struggle of Eritrea from 1961-1991 that led to
violent clashes in the North; and the period of Red Terror between 1976-79 generated massive
emigration from Ethiopia.

Today, Ethiopia could be considered as one of the countries that has a large number of emigrants
overseas. Ethiopia‟s diaspora, estimated to be about four million, is also considered one of the
largest of all African countries. Large numbers of Ethiopian migrants are found in the Middle
East, USA, Canada, Europe and African countries such as Sudan, Kenya, South Africa and
Botswana.

The causes of cross-border migration include:

  Lack of employment and livelihood opportunities, and negative attitudes attached
with low paying and informal job and poor work ethics amongst the youth.
 Rural underemployment and lack of resources
 Unfavorable political context and insecurity, civil war and political turmoil,
 Ethiopia‟s location in the fragile region of the Horn of Africa and its long
boundary that extends over 5,328 km which makes border management difficult
 Existence of large number of local brokers with networks extending to countries
of destination;
 Misinformation and false promises by brokers/traffickers; success stories of
pioneering migrants; family and peer pressure
 Emergence of „culture of migration‟ and migration networks
 Demand-side factors of migration (shortage of labour in low-paying, informal, and
perilous jobs, such as domestic work, construction, agriculture in destination
countries)
Ethiopia is a country of origin, transit and destination for international migration. Ethiopia
appears to be a hub on three land routes of which one leads from the Horn of Africa via
Sudan, Chad, Egypt and Libya to the Mediterranean Sea towards Europe; the second
through Somalia and Djibouti to Yemen across the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea towards the
Middle East. 60 to 70% of Ethiopians migrating to the Middle East are irregular migrants.
The third migration route is the Southern irregular route that is an overland route Kenya
Tanzania towards to South Africa. Bole International Airport is also reported to be a hub of
transit on the air route leading to Europe, and the Middle East.

International Labour Organization/ILO/ in 2016 identified the following migration source areas
of Ethiopia with high and growing incidence of emigration:
a. Dessie (North and South Wollo) area: it includes Kemise, Bati, Kalu (Kombolcha),
Dessie and its surroundings, Tehuledere (Haiq, Girana, Bistima, Bakaksa, Worebabo),
Mersa, and Woldia.
b. Shashemene (Western Arsi and Bale) area: it include Shashemene-Zuria, Kofele, Kore,
and Assassa.
c. Jimma (Western Ethiopia) area: includes Kaffa, Wolega and Iluababora, and more
specifically Mana, Kerisa, Dedo, Agaro, Setema, Sigmo, and Gomma areas.
 d. Mekelle/Tigray area: specific localities include Alamata, Kobo, Raya, Erob,
Edagahamus, Gulomehadi, Etsebi, and Weneberta.
Other prominent emigration source areas include (Assela-Zuria, Adama-Zuria, Ambo,
Fitche, Chancho, and Western Hararghe (Hirna, Gelemso); Shewa Robit, Debre Birhan,
and Debre Tabor).

As a major destination country, Ethiopia hosts the second largest number of refugees in Africa.
According to UNHCR 2019, refugee and asylum seeker population in Ethiopia was about one
million. Many migrants, refugees and asylum seekers entering Ethiopia are escaping political and
civil unrest as well as harsh or undesirable conditions (e.g. drought) in neighboring countries of
South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan.

Check!

1. What is special to the areas mentioned above to be major emigration source areas?
2. What are the consequences of illegal cross-border migration on the migrants,
migrant families, and the country at large?
3. What are the measures that should be taken to minimize illegal cross-border
migration and promote safe migration?

7.4. Age and Sex Structure of Ethiopian Population

Age Structure refers to the distribution of population by age groups. The most used age
groups are five-year age groups (0-4, 5-9, 10-14, ..., 60-64, 65 and above) and broad age
groups (0-14, 15-64, 65 and above).
Table 7.2: Percentage distribution of the population of Ethiopia by broad age groups in the three
consecutive censuses (1984, 1994 and 2007).
Census Broad Age Groups Dependency ratio
year Youth dependency Old age Total
dependency dependency
O – 14 15 – 64 65 +
1984 49.8 50.2 3.4 107.8 16.2 124.0
1994 45.4 51.4 3.2 92.0 10.7 102.7
2007 45.0 51.9 3.2 86.7 6.1 92.8
Source: CSA, Statistical Abstract, 2007.

Age groups 0-14, 15-64 and 65 and above are known as young age, working age and old age,
respectively. Our young age population is very large, about half of the population, while the old
age population is very small. Because of the predominance of young age population, the median
age of the population is about 17 years. The high percentage for the young age group is the result
of high birth rate and natural increase, while the small percentage of the old age group is the
reflection of high mortality rate, which results in low life expectancy. On the contrary most
developed countries have working age population of about 60 percent or more, and old age
population of about 10 percent or more.

It is generally accepted that people in the young and old ages are dependent on the working
age population. Age dependency ratio (A.D.R.) can roughly be used to show the magnitude
of dependency. It is expressed as:
P0−14+
A. D. R = … X 100 Where: P is population in the age groups
P15−64

Another ratio that can be calculated out of the broad age groups of the population is the old
age index. This index expresses the old age population as the percentage of the working age
population as follows:
𝑃65 +
𝑂𝐼 = 𝑋100
𝑃15−64
Youth dependency ratio and old age index for Ethiopia's population in 2007 were about 93
and 6 respectively. This means that for every 100 persons in the working age there were
about 93 young dependents and 6 old persons of 65+. In 2015 the total dependency ratio
declined to82.1; and youth dependency ratio was75.8.
If male and female population is classified into five-year age groups, a population pyramid
can be constructed. From population pyramids we can tell which groups have large number
of people, which age groups have male-female imbalances, and the fertility and mortality
situations.

Figure 7.1: Population pyramid of Ethiopia, 2017

In general population pyramids of developing countries like Ethiopia have very broad bases
showing the preponderance of young age population, and become thinner and thinner
upwards as age advances. So the percentages of population in upper age groups are very
small.

The age distribution of the population of Ethiopia shows that the country has a youthful
population resulting in heavy youth dependency. Heavy youth dependency has many serious
implications on socioeconomic development, which include:
 i. Imposition of heavy burden on the working population
ii. allocation of most of the household budget to food and other household needs with
little/nothing left for saving; which then affects investment
iii. diversion of limited resources on social services - building of schools and hospitals
and purchase of medicines, etc. which could have been geared to directly
productive investment; and
iv. creation of a society with booming babies that require an expansion of employment
opportunities by the time they are of age
v. further promotion of high-level fertility by increased number of women entering
the reproductive age (ages 15-49) annually.

All these mean that the capacity to save is seriously constrained at both household and
national levels, thereby negatively affecting capital formation, investment and development;
and this could continue for years to come.

Sex Structure

Sex structure refers to the ratio of male population to female population at different age
groups. It is usually expressed as:

𝑆𝑒𝑥 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 = Male

𝑥100
𝐹𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑒
According to the 1984 census result, sex ratio for the population of Ethiopia was 99.4. This
means that there were about 99 males for every 100 females. The respective figures for
rural, urban and Addis Ababa populations were 100.9, 86.8 and 90.2. The 1994 census
result shows that it was 101.3 for the country and 102.6, 93.3 and 94, respectively, for rural
areas, urban areas and Addis Ababa. In 2015, male to female ratio for Ethiopia was 99.96
males per 100 females. Sex ratios are generally lower for urban areas, and higher for rural
areas primarily due to larger female in-migration to urban areas. Sex composition of the
population also shows some variation by region. In Afar, Somali and Gambella, the number
of males exceeds that of females, while in Addis Ababa the number of females is
considerably higher than the number of males.
Sex ratios also vary with age. At birth and young ages males tend to be greater in number,
but they become increasingly less as age increases. Hence, sex ratios are high in young age
groups and low in adult and old age groups. Greater male births account for greater number
of males and high sex ratio in young ages, but because mortality of male children is greater,
the gap narrows down and the sex ratios decline to fall below 100 in twenties and thirties.

7.5. Population Distribution in Ethiopia

Population distribution refers to the arrangement of people over space that is provided for them
to settle and make a living through exploiting resources. The distribution of population in
Ethiopia is very uneven as a result of physical and human factors operating together. The most
important physical factors that affect population distribution include climate, soil, vegetation,
drainage and slope while the historical pattern of population movement, the type of economic
activity, urbanization, industrialized and the demographic variables are important human
influences.
Figure 7.2: Population Distribution Map of Ethiopia

7.5.1. Measures of Population Distribution

Population Density

Population density refers to the number of people per unit area. There are several ways of
expressing population density, three of which will be mentioned here.

A. Crude Density
Crude density is found by dividing total population to total area. This kind of density is
called crude because it does not show variations in population distribution within a given
area. In 1990 crude density for Ethiopia was 40.74 people/km 2 and this has increased to 52
people /km2 in 1998; and it amounted to more than 100 currently.

There is considerable variations in population density among the administrative regions of

the country. Excluding the urban based administrative regions, Southern Nations,
 Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) region is the administrative area with the largest
population density (173 people/km2 ) followed by Amhara region. Gambella (13
people/km2), Somali, Afar and Benishangul-Gumuz are regions with low densities of
population. Crude population density conceals /much of the variations within regions.

Table 7.3: Population Density of Ethiopia for 2015 by Administrative Regions

Region Population Area(km2) Density(p/km2)

Tigray 5,247,005 84,722 61.9
Afar 1,723,000 72,053 23.9
Amhara 20,401,000 154,709 131.9
Oromia 33,692,000 284,538 118.4
Somali 5,453,000 279,252 19.5
BenishangulGumuz 1,005,000 50,699 19.8
SNNPR 18,276,000 105,476 173.3
Gambella 409,000 29,783 13.7
Harari 232,000 334 716
Addis Ababa 3,273,000 527 6,210
Dire Dawa City Adm. 440,000 1,559 282
Total 90,078,000 1,063,652 84.7

Source: CSA, Statistical Abstract,2015.

The variation in crude density could be more pronounced if we consider subordinate

administrative units in the hierarchy. For example, there is an enormous variation in density
among the zones in Ethiopia. Some of the zones with very high densities are Gedeo, Sidama,
Kambata, Guraghe, Wolayta and Hadiya; where densities exceed 300 persons per sq.km. On
the other hand, peripheral zones such as Kamashi, and Metekel have population densities of
less than 20 persons/km2. Likewise, if population densities of lower administrative units are
considered the variations could still be greater.For instance, Wanago, Damot Gale, Aleta
Wendo, Yirga Chefe, Dara, Kacha Bira, Angacha, Sodo Zuria, Shebedino and Kedida
Gamela have crude densities of exceeding 500 people/km 2; while Weredas with extremely
low densities include Guba of less than 10 people/km2) include Gog, Vaso, Dolo Bay, and
 Liben. Therefore, it could be generalized that "the lower the administrative unit considered,
the greater the variations in population density "

Physiological Density

Physiological density is a ratio between total population and arable part of a country.
Ethiopia's physiological density (for 1998) is 61.8 people/km 2. Arable part of Ethiopia,
which is used as a denominator here is 969,680 km 2. Compared to Physiological densities
of countries like Japan (1,732 people/km2), Egypt (1,575 people/km2) and Netherlands
(1,220 people/km2), Ethiopia's physiological density is very low.

Agricultural Density

This is a kind of density, which takes only agricultural population as a numerator and
cultivated land as a denominator. It is also called rural density since in most developing
countries there is not a significant difference between rural and agricultural population. This
density measure is more meaningful than both crude and physiological density measures as
it gives a better indication of the pressure of population on land resources.

Rural population per square kilometer of cropland is the highest for Somali Afar and
Gambella. The large ratio is due to the smaller proportion of land that is appropriate for
agriculture relative to the large landmass and small population. It is also highly likely that
through the proper utilization of the land for example by using irrigation in Somali and Afar
and investment in Gambella regions, the agricultural density would decline in the years
ahead. SNNP region also has a high ratio compared to the national average owing to the
high population relative to their agricultural land. The smallest agricultural density lies in
Benishangul (3.8), Amahra (5), Oromia (5.6) and Tigray (5.9).

The two factors that explain variations in agricultural density are the proportion of cultivated
land and urban population of the regions. Other things being equal, agricultural density
tends to be higher where both the percentage of cultivated land and the percentage of urban
population are low.
 7.5.2. Factors Affecting Population Distribution in Ethiopia
The distribution of population in Ethiopia is very uneven. This extreme unevenness is the result
of the combined effect of physical and human factors which shall be discussed hereinafter.

Physical Factors

The most important physical factors that affect the distribution of population in Ethiopia include
climate, mainly rainfall and temperature, soil and vegetation. The other physical factors include
drainage and slope. High temperatures in combination with low and irregular rainfall diminish
habitability I the lowlands of Ethiopia. On the other hand, the highland plateaus of Ethiopia
where rainfall is high and temperature is moderate tend to be densely settled. The effect of
climate upon population distribution is immensely important not only directly upon humans but
also indirectly through its influence upon soils, vegetation and agriculture.

Steep slopes and surface ruggedness play their own part in restricting human access, habitation
and cultivation. Since soil formation and vegetation growth are closely associated with relief,
wherever the landscape is not significantly broken or dissected, soils tend to be good and
vegetation cover richer. Likewise, attractiveness of a region for human occupation may depend
partly on the nature of the soil. The fertile volcanic highland soils of Ethiopia offer a partial
explanation for the high concentration of the population in the plateaus. In Ethiopia most of these
physical factors are influenced by altitude.

Table 7.4: Population-Altitude Relationships

Altitude (m) Percentage of area Percentage of population

> 2,600 5.8 10.4
1,800-2,600 31.8 67.1
1,400- 1,800 28.1 11.5
1,000-1,400 13.4 8.2
<1,000 21.5 2.8
Total 100.0 100.0
Source: Aynalem Adugna, 1987.
Table 7.4 shows that 77.5 percent of the population of the country lives in areas above 1,800
meters above sea level which makes37.6 percent of the total area. The area above 1,400,
 which makes up 65.7 percent of the total area of Ethiopia, supports 89.0 percent of the
population of the country. However, caution could be made as there are many severely
dissected areas within the highlands with a few or no people.

Lowlands are characterized by scarcity of rainfall, high temperature, and poor vegetation
and soil conditions. In addition, the lowlands tend to be infested with tropical diseases like
malaria and yellow fever that contribute to the sparse population distribution. Unlike the
high population concentration along the valleys of major rivers of the world such as the
Nile, Indus and Huang He; the disease infested narrow and steep valleys of major rivers of
Ethiopia are areas of sparse population distribution. However, with improvements in
irrigation agricultural and other development projects as well as medical technology, the
lower valleys of the major rivers of Ethiopia are likely to attract more people from the
highlands.

Human Factors

Human factors which have influenced population distribution in Ethiopia may be divided
into two:

A. The historical pattern of population movement and

B. Types of economic activities.
The Historical Pattern of Population Movement

After the decline of the Axumite Empire, there was southward movement of the Tigre,
Amhara, Agew and Guraghe populations starting from the 7th century. There was also large-
scale northward movement of the Oromos during the 16th and 17th centuries. The two waves
of population movements, one from the north, and the other from the south, offer a
significant explanation of denser population distribution in and around the central highlands.

Economic Activities

Types of productive activities strongly influence the carrying capacity of land; and the
carrying capacity in turn influences the number of people that can inhabit an area. The arid
and semi-arid lowlands of Ethiopia that are inhabited by pastoralists and semi-pastoralists
are sparsely settled. Hence, with pastoral herding, population densities are extremely low.
Compared to areas of pastoral herding, cultivated lands have greater carrying capacity
thereby supporting higher population densities. However, the type of crop cultivated could
also result in varying densities. For instance, the northern and north central areas of
Ethiopia with cereals as the main crops have relatively low yield per unit area; and hence
they have relatively low carrying capacity and moderate density. On the contrary the enset
and coffee regions of Ethiopia have greater yield per unit area that gave rise to the very
high density of population in some South-central Zones and weredas.

The development of commercial farms in some parts of Ethiopia like the Awash valley is
also a significant factor in causing population movements and changes in the population
concentration. Likewise, urban and industrial growths as well as transportation routes can be
considered as some of the important elements in bringing about population re-distribution
over time and explaining density variation.

7.6. Socio-cultural Aspects of Ethiopian Population: Education, Health and Languages

7.6.1. Education

Education is the bacon of opportunity which provides a platform for a decent livelihood.
Literacy is a means by which members of a society are enabled and empowered to effectively
participate in the development process. High level of education correlates with higher incomes,
better health, longer life span, and lower mortality. Hence, human capital development is a
cause and consequence of development. Education is also a human right.

The total number of primary schools in Ethiopia was 34,867 in 2016; while gross enrollment at
primary first and second cycles (grade 1-8) was 9,407,490. The Gross Enrolment Rate
(GER)that shows the total number of children that have enrolled in grades 1-8, irrespective of
their age, as a proportion of the school age population (7- 14 years) was 108.7%. This shows
that nationally there are more children in primary grades than there are children between 7 and
14 as children younger than 7 and older than 14 are enrolling into primary schools. There is
wide regional variation, with Dire Dawa and Afar having the lowest GER at 70% and 66%
respectively. Gambella and Addis Ababa have very high GERs both over 140%.
As regards to the gender parity, in Addis Ababa more females are attending school than males.
Lower female participation is found in Somali and Harari regions. In terms of student-section
ratio, the national average is 55 for grades 1-8. Somali region has the highest ratio indicating that
children in this region learn in overcrowded classrooms compared to children in other regions.
The Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) at the national level is 46 for grades 1-8. PTR is highest in Ethio-
Somali, followed by Oromiya and SNNP; whiled Addis Ababa has the lowest.

There were 3,156 secondary schools in 2016 in Ethiopia. The national gross enrolment ratio for
all secondary grades was 29.04%, (Addis Ababa has the highest GER at 82.27%.) implying that
there are many children who are not completing primary education and proceeding to secondary
education. Nationally GER for males is higher compared to females, though in Tigray, Amhara
and Addis Ababa more females are attending secondary education. Afar and Somali regions have
the lowest enrolment rate in secondary education.

However, the recent developments are encouraging and primary education is almost
universalized and there is at least one primary school in each rural kebele. The number of
secondary schools in both urban and rural areas in 2016 was 3156. The number of public
universities has reached 45 today from only 2 in the early 1990s; where hundreds of thousands of
students are enrolled in the tertiary level of education every year

7.6.2. Health
The Government of Ethiopia has been investing heavily in health system strengthening through
its pro-poor policies and strategies that brought about significant gains in improving the health
status of Ethiopians. Despite recognizable improvements, Ethiopia has still a heavy burden of
diseases but a low rate of self-reported illness and low health facility coverage and utilization.
The available literature indicates that the majority of ill health in Ethiopia is related to potentially
preventable, communicable diseases and nutritional disorders.

Some of the root causes of the poor health status of the population are:

1. Lack of access to clean water: rivers and lakes remain the most important sources of
water particularly for people in rural areas although such waters are largely unsafe.
 2. Lack of adequate nutrition: studies reveal that malnutrition is rampant and is among the
highest in the world. About half of children under the age of five are malnourished,
stunted or wasted. Malnutrition still remains high as the country has not attained food
security or due to poor knowledge about nutritional requirements and dietary habits.
3. Disease related to beliefs, behaviors and traditional practices which have a negative effect
on health status include circumcision, early marriage, and low value of girls and children
4. Lack of health services: The health care infrastructure of the country had suffered from
under funding; and health service coverage is less than 50% of the population. The
services tend to be urban biased.
The combined problem of poor health and inadequate nutrition are likely to have life-long effect
on children making them physically unfit, unproductive, mentally inactive and less dynamic.
Since protein and energy malnutrition affects adult working population, the impact on
agricultural production and productivity is likely to be high.

The major killer diseases accounting for about ¾ of all deaths include prenatal-maternal
conditions, acute respiratory infection, malaria, nutritional deficiency for children under 5 years,
diarrhea, AIDS and Tuberculosis.

Despite significant improvements, Ethiopia's health situation is still at a staggering situation. The
current health workforce consists of 0.04 doctors, 0.43 nurses and 0.05 midwives per population
of 1000, also represented as: one doctor for 26,943 people, one nurse for 2,311 people, and one
midwife for 21,810 people. In order to overcome the lack of human resources for health and low
utilization of health services, the country adopted a strategy to train the health extension workers
(HEP) and midwives as well as scaling up family planning.

There are variations among the regions of Ethiopia in population per hospital and per hospital
bed. Regions like Amara, Somali and SNNP have population-hospital ratios of over 10,000 in
each case. These three regions also have high population - hospital bed ratios. The implication
is that there could be many people with no chance of seeing a doctor or having an access to a
hospital bed even if they wished to. Large numbers of people should also travel several tens of
kilometers to arrive at the location of the nearest hospital. Since Ethiopia's high population
growth rate will continue for the coming couple of years, and given the low rate at which the
 services are expanding, it could be assumed that problems in education, health and other areas of
services will continue.

7.6.3. Languages Families and Languages of Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a country where about 80 languages are spoken. According to the 2007
Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia, Afan Oromo and Amharic were the major
mother tounges in the country accounting 33.8% sand 29.3% respectively. Somaligna
(6.2%), Tigrigna (5.9%), Sidamigna (4.0%), Wolaytigna (2.2%), Guragigna (2%), Afarigna
(1.7%), Hadyiyagna (1.7%), and Gamogna (1.5%) do have significant number of speakers.
On the other hand, some of the languages are spoken by a few thousands.

The Ethiopian languages belong to two Supper Families: Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan.
Most Ethiopian languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic Supper Family.

A. Afro-Asiatic
The Afro-Asiatic Supper Family, is divided into three families, namely: Semitic, Cushitic
and Omotic.

Cushitic

The Cushitic languages are predominantly spoken in central, southern, eastern and
northeastern parts of Ethiopia mainly in Afar, Oromia and Somali Regional States. It has the
largest number of speakers and the widest spatial coverage. This family of languages
consists of many individual languages such as Oromigna, Somaligna, Sidamigna, Afarigna,
Kembatigna, Hadiyigna, Alabigna, Gedeogna, and others.

Semetic

The Semitic languages are spoken in northern, central and eastern parts of Ethiopia
particularly in the regional states of Tigray, Amhara, Harari and northern Southern Nations,
Nationalities and Peoples' Regional State. Some of the Semitic Languages include
Amarigna, Tigrigna, Guragigna, Siltigna, Aderigna, and Argobigna.

Omotic
The Omotic languages are predominantly spoken in the south–central and south-western
parts of Ethiopia mainly between the Lakes of southern Rift Valley and the Omo River . The
languages, which make up this family, are numerous although they are not as widely spread
as the Cushitic and Omotic. Wolaitigna, Gamogna, Kullogna, Kefigna, and Kontigna are
some of the languages in this family spoken by millions and many thousands of people.
Relatively small number of people speaks most of the languages in this group.

B. NiloSaharan
The Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken in the western lowlands of Ethiopia along the border
with Sudan, in Gambella and Benishangul Gumuz Regional States. These Languages are
spoken by small numbers of people often less than 500,000 people. The individual
languages of Nilo-Saharan Supper Family include Kunamigna, Bejigna, Gumuzigna,
Maogna, Kewamigna, Nuerigna, Annukigna, and others.

7.7. Settlement Types and Patterns

7.7.1. Types of Settlement

Settlements are places that are inhabited by people more or less on a permanent basis, as
distinct for example from camps, and where people carry out a variety of activities such as
agriculture, manufacturing and commerce. Different settlement types develop mainly in
response to some physical and human factors.

Settlements are divided into two, namely, rural and urban on the bases of the dominant
economic activity, population densities and availability of socioeconomic and infrastructural
facilities. Towns or urban centers have non-agricultural activities as dominant, while rural
areas are almost totally agricultural. Population densities are generally very high in urban
area compared to densities in rural areas.

 Rural Settlement
The vast majority of the Ethiopian population still lives in rural settlements consisting of
hamlets and villages. Rural settlements can be temporary or permanent depending on
whether there is frequent change in the site of the settlements.
 Temporary / Mobile Settlements
The lowlands in most parts of the Rift Valley and peripheral areas, being generally hot and
dry, are characterized by pastoral herding and mobile settlements. The settlements are
mobile because pastoralists have always been searching for new sites for water and pasture
for their livestock.

The major problem often mentioned about mobile settlements is that of providing social
services like clean water, schools, hospitals, electricity etc to the people. These fixed
physical infrastructures and services cannot move from place to place like the pastoralists,
and to benefit from such services people have to be in permanent settlements. However, it
must also be noted that settling pastoralists is not something that can be done in a year or
two since it involves change of livelihood strategies, attitudes and value systems. So, it has
to be considered as a serious development task that could involve the pastoralist community
and governmental and non-governmental stakeholders; and perhaps it could last for
generations.

 Permanent Settlements
Settlements are considered as permanent if there are no frequent changes in their locations.
Most Ethiopian rural highland settlements where crop cultivation is practiced are permanent.

Permanent settlements are of two types. One of them is scattered (also called diffused or
dispersed), while the other one is known as grouped/ clustered or nucleated. In areas of
dispersed settlements homesteads are separated by relatively long distances which could be
associated with individual land tenure and desire of people to live near to their farm
holdings. Grouped settlements, on the other hand, are characterized by concentration of
large number of homesteads and households at one place as for example for reasons of
defense, to provide threshold population to support basic social services as was the case of
villagization program during the Dergue.

7.7.2. Urban Settlements and Urbanization in Ethiopia

Urbanization refers to the increase in the percentage of the population living in urban
centers. It entails the process of becoming urban, moving to cities and changing from
 agriculture to other pursuits of life which are common to towns and, with a corresponding
change of behavioral patterns.

Urbanization is crucial to sustain the pace of economic development and improve the quality
of life for both urban and rural populations. Linkage between urban and rural areas could
foster efficiency of value chains in agro-industry, improve agricultural productivity, promote
service expansion and create sufficient industrial jobs in urban centers to absorb the
perpetual influx of population from rural areas. However, if the rapid urbanization is not
properly managed, it is presumed to bring with it a number of development challenges such
as unemployment, housing shortages and informal settlements, infrastructural and service
shortages, poverty and social distress.

The major criteria used to classify settlements as urban in Ethiopia are:

i. Minimum of 2,000 people;

ii. Two-thirds of the population engaged in non-agricultural activities;
iii. Chartered municipality;
iv. The presence of social services and amenities
The number of settlements meeting these criteria in 1984 was about 322. These settlements
had 10.23 percent of the total population of the country and this is one of the least urban
population sizes in the world. The number of settlements with greater than 2,000 people in
1994 had increased to 539. These have 12.8 percent of the country's population. In 2007, the
number further rose to 927. Today, the urban population is about 20 percent of the country‟s
population.

An overview of the History of Urbanization in Ethiopia

Before the foundation of Addis Ababa as a capital city, the earliest capitals and other towns
did not have a permanent population exceeding 6000. These centers were not capable of
acting as centers of influence for the life of the population of the rural hinterland in their
years of existence. The only prominent urban centers were Axum, Lalibela and Gondar. For
many years, in place of a fixed capital, there had been mobile military camps that followed
their peripatetic rulers.
Modern urbanization in Ethiopia is associated with the establishment of Addis Ababa as a
capital by Emperor Menelik II in the late 19th century. Unlike earlier capitals, there had been
different factors that contributed to the growing and permanency of Addis Ababa as a capital
city that are indicated as follows.

 Introduction of the fast-growing Australian eucalyptus tree which satisfied the firewood
needs of the ever-growing urban population.
 Water supplies improved due to the introduction of wells and reservoirs.
 Introduction of modern schools, hospitals and health centres, hotels, cafes, bars, bakeries,
butcher‟s shops, cinema, post office, modern cathedrals, telephone and telegraph system,
bank, printing press etc.
 The construction of roads that radiate from Addis Ababa; and the arrival of the Franco-
Ethiopian railway at Addis Ababa in 1917.
 The Italian occupation had also intensified the establishment of small-scale industries and
institutions, road construction thereby contributing to the growth of the city.
Today, Addis Ababa is not only the capital of Ethiopia; it is also the diplomatic capital of Africa.
Numerous embassies and consular representatives cluster in the mountainous city where the
Organization of African Unity, now the African Union, and the UN Economic Commission for
Africa have their headquarters. Addis Ababa is geographically at the very heart of Ethiopia. It
has a congenial climatic condition. The city enjoys excellent connections with all Ethiopia‟s
economic zones. It is also connected to the rest of the world via its reputed airlines and various
international airlines.

For the past several decades, the country has experienced a very low level of urban development,
despite its high rate of urbanization. Ethiopia is a least urbanized country even by African
standards. In the words of some writers, Ethiopia is regarded as a „vast urban desert‟. The
country‟s low level of urbanization can be attributed to:

 The self-sufficiency of agriculture which reinforced rural peasant life;

 Low level of industrialization, low level structural transformation and economic
development
 The morphology of the country that hindered transportation and communication
  The continual warfare for centuries between kingdoms in to which the country is divided;
and the frequent changes of the royal residence
 Lack of employment, and housing shortage in urban areas that discourage in migration;
 Political instability, ethnic conflict and social unrest during the late 1970s and 1980s;

Drivers of and Opportunities for more Urbanization in Ethiopia

These days, urbanization is proceeding at a much faster rate in Ethiopia. The urban
population is growing at about 5% a year, primarily driven by migration to urban areas. The
proportion of the urban population of Ethiopia in 2015 (20%) is projected to mount to 37%
by 2035.Some of the conditions which have been contributing to expansion of urban areas
are (drivers of urbanization):

 The establishment of Addis Ababa as a centre of expansion, and its permanency

thereof.
 The construction of the Ethio-Djibouti railway line along which many stations have
developed into important towns.
 The five-year Italian occupation which has contributed to road building, the
establishment of small-scale industries and service giving institutions.
 The integration of the provincial capitals and major administrative centres found in all
directions by all-weather roads radiating from Addis Ababa.
 Political decentralization and provision of administrative status of some urban
settlements
 Proximity to existing cities and main transportation corridors trigger new urban
development through agglomeration and metropolisation effects
 High Population density and growth rates in the populous highlands of Ethiopia
facilitate the emergence of towns
 Presence of new and large commercial farms, mining areas, and agro-industries such
as sugar factories; as well as mega projects like fertilizer factories, cement factories
that attract people
 Large infrastructure investments such as airports and highways, and dry ports that
attract investment and create jobs encourage urbanisation
  Opening of Universities that support entrepreneurial activity and innovation in their
local economies
 Tourism assets and attractions such as parks, resort centres, and heritage cities and
sites contribute to urban expansion.
 Development of border towns with strengthened inter-country trade

Distribution of Urban Centers in Ethiopia

The distribution of urban centers in Ethiopia shows considerable spatial variation. This
could be explained in terms of the varying concentration of industries; and services such as
schools, health institutions, water supplies, electricity, means of transport, etc. Based on
varying concentrations of urban centers and urban populations, the Ministry of Urban
Development and Construction identified the following hierarchy of urban centers:

i. The Addis Ababa Metropolitan cluster includes Addis Ababa and its surrounding
towns; and Adama and its surrounding towns
ii. Secondary city clusters consist of:
 Lake Tana Urban Cluster: Bahir Dar, Gondar Debre Tabour, Debre Markos
 South Rift Valley Urban Cluster: Hawassa-Shashemene-Dila; and Hosana-Sodo-Arba
Minch
 Eastern Urban Cluster: Dire Dawa, Harar, Jigjiga
 Mekelle Urban Cluster: Mekelle, Adigrat, Shire, Axum
 Dessie- Kombolcha Urban Cluster.
 Jima Urban Cluster: Jima, Agaro, Mizan, Tepi, Gambella
iii.Tertiary urban clusters include:
 Nekemte Urban Cluster: Nekemte, Dembidolo, Gimbi, Metu, Assosa
 Gode - Kebri Dar oasis city network
 Semera-Mille – Asaita oasis city network
Like most developing countries, Ethiopia‟s urban population is concentrated in one primate city,
Addis Ababa. The population of Addis Ababa grew from 1.4 million in 1984 to 2.2 million in
1995, and to 2.7 million in 2007 representing about 29% of the urban population of the country.
Its current estimated population is over four million.
Growth Rate of Urban Centers

The annual average national growth rate of urban population is about 5.0 percent. But this
being an average, rate of growth of urban population varies from town to town and from
time to time. Ethiopia‟s towns are characterized by wide range of growth rates that could be
classified into one of the following three broad categories:

i. Declining Towns: it includes towns whose populations are actually declining in

absolute numbers because net out migration is greater than natural increase. This
could be due to lack of employment opportunities and worsening living conditions.
Some of the towns that have at least once experienced a decline include, Axum,
Goba and Maichew.
ii. Slow Growing Towns: This category is composed of towns that grow at the rate
which is less than the rate of natural increase. Towns such as Holeta, Harar and Gore
have been indicated to grow slowly in the recent past.
iii. Fast Growing Towns: All towns with growth rates of greater than the natural rate of
increase make up this group. These towns pull large numbers of people from the
declining or slowly growing towns and rural areas due to the opportunities they offer
associated with expansion in industries, social services or a change in their
administrative status as zonal or regional capitals. Given the dynamism, however, it
is wise to note that a once declining town could be slowly or even fast growing after
sometime and vice versa.
Review Questions

1. What conditions make provision of infrastructure and services for temporary settlements
difficult? Do you know any strategies that the government is taking to address the
problem?
2. What were the problems of the villagization program attempted by the Dergue?
3. Justify why Ethiopia still remains to be the least urbanized country in the world.
4. Discuss on the major problems of urban centres of Ethiopia
 CHAPTER EIGHT
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN ETHIOPIA

8.1. Introduction
Humans have been involved in a number of activities in order to satisfy their diverse material
and spiritual needs. These activities, which are designed to satisfy the needs of human beings,
are known as economic activities.
Economic activities are highly diversified in their nature and characters. Some are simple
while others are complex. Some are primitive where as others are advanced. But whatsoever
characters they have, all of them are equally important through satisfying peoples‟ needs.

Geographers classify a nation‟s economy into primary, secondary, tertiary or the service sectors.
Increasingly the service sectors are seen as forming a fourth or quaternary sector and a fifth or
quinary sector. This categorization is seen as a continuum of distance from the natural
environment. The continuum starts with the primary sector of an economy that extracts or
harvests products from the earth. The primary sector includes the production of raw material and
basic foods. Activities associated with the primary sector include agriculture (both subsistence
and commercial), mining, forestry, farming, grazing, hunting and gathering, fishing and
quarrying. The secondary sector of the economy manufactures finished goods. All of
manufacturing activities, and construction lie within the secondary sector. The tertiary sector of
the economy is the service industry that provides services to the general population and
businesses. Activities associated with this sector include retail and wholesale sales,
transportation and distribution, entertainment, restaurants, clerical services, media, tourism,
insurance, banking, healthcare, and law.

In this section, you will learn about the major types of economic activities in Ethiopia;
differentiate their spatiotemporal distributions and their contributions to the overall development
of the country.

Objectives

At the end of this chapter you will be able to:

 explain the roles of mining sector in the Ethiopian economy and the major constraints of
the sector;
  discuss the contributions and challenges of fishing and forestry sectors;
 Expound the main contributions, potentials, characteristics and problems of Ethiopian
agriculture;
 Explain the main contributions, potentials, characteristics, distribution and problems of
Ethiopian manufacturing industries;
 Examine types, roles and distribution of transportation infrastructure and services in
Ethiopia
 Identify tourist potentials of the country and look into the performance of the sector to the
socio-economic development of Ethiopia

8.2. Mining Activity in Ethiopia

Brainstorming Questions
1. Are there metallic minerals and non-metallic minerals including fossil fuels in Ethiopia
that could expedite its development?
2. Describe the contribution of mining industry to the economy of Ethiopia.
3. What do you think are the major challenges of the mining sector in Ethiopia?

8.2.1. Introduction

Mining involves the search for minerals from the crust of the earth. Minerals are naturally
occurring organic and inorganic substances. They form important part of natural resources.
Mining is important to the economy of Ethiopia. Currently, mining contributes to only 1.5 % of
GDP (USD 32 billion).

As you have seen in chapter two, the Geology of Ethiopia and the Horn, mineral occurrences are
associated with the geologic process. The oldest (Precambrian) rocks and the sedimentary
(Mesozoic) rocks host most of the economic metallic and nonmetallic mineral deposits in
Ethiopia.

So far, the developed large scale gold mine in Ethiopia is the Lege-dembi gold mine, located in
the southern greenstone belt region. It is operated by private company with estimated reserve of
82 tons and an average annual production of 3.6 tons of gold.
There is also small-scale open pit mine of columbo-tantalite at Kenticha in the Adola belt. The
deposit is both a weathered crust ore (the top 60 meters) with proven reserve of 2400 tons of
tantalum pentaoxide and 2300 tons of niobium pentaoxide, and primary ore with proved reserve
of 2393 ton Ta2O5 and 2362.5-ton Nb2O5. The Mine has been operating since 1990 with a pilot
plant producing about 20 tons per year. At present it is producing over 190 tons of tantalite
concentrate of tantalite colombite ore per annum. Tantalum is used in making all electronic
devices such as mobile phones, cameras, computers and so forth and is thus highly demanded.
Ethiopia presently supplies close to ten percent of the World production of tantalum and has a
good potential for a considerable expansion of the percentage.

Secondary enriched (placer) gold has been mined traditionally (artisinaly) for years back to
biblical times. Formalization of the artisanal miners has been strengthened since the early 2000‟s
that about 1000 Kg of gold is purchased from the local miners and dealers by the National Bank
of Ethiopia that in turn increases the generation of foreign currency.

Soda ash is being mined at Lake Abiyata in the Rift Valley about 200 kilometers south of Addis
Ababa. The reserve at Lake Abiyata and the surrounding lakes exceeds 460 million tons of
sodium carbonate at salt concentration ranging from 1.1 to 1.9%. The plant is producing about
5,000 tons soda ash per year at semi -industrial scale. The consumers of the soda ash are local
caustic soda factory, soap and detergent manufacturers.

Kaolin, quartz and feldspar are also being mined from the Adola belt in southern Ethiopia by
government enterprise. The consumers of the products are the Awash-Melkasa Aluminium
Sulphate and Sulfuric Acid Factory and the Tabor Ceramics Factory.

Silica sand is also being mined and utilized by local industries. The cement factories of the
country are using high quality limestone, clay, gypsum and pumice as a raw material for cement
production.

There is also large input of construction minerals such as sand, gravel, scoria, crushed stones,
aggregates, pumice, scoria, etc to the construction industry (including buildings, roads, dams,
bridges etc.).
The gas fields are located in the south-eastern part of the country at Calub, Hilala and Genale gas
fields in the Ogaden Basin. The gas resources potential of these fields has been assessed as 4.6
Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF).

Other mineral products including platinum from laterite, gemstones (opal and other precious
stones) and decorative and construction materials are also produced by licensed foreign and local
mining companies in the southern, western, central and northern regions of the country.

8.2.2. Status of the mineral sector investment in Ethiopia

The Mining laws of Ethiopia have been issued in 1993 and amended recently, to attract private
sector investment compared to other developing countries mining codes. The 1994 mining
regulation was also issued to make all licensing and administration procedures as transparent as
possible.

Encouraging foreign and local mineral development investments have been shown since late
1990's. The total investment amount registered by the private sector to date is about 1.1 Billion
US Dollars where by 95 % percent of it is direct foreign investment for the development of
precious and industrial minerals.

The mining stakes in Ethiopia are held by: The Ethiopian Mineral Development Share
Company, a Government organization (EMDSC) established in 2000 is engaged in all mining
activities in the country; the Ezana Mining Development, functioning since 1993, a privately
owned Ethiopian enterprise in consulting in all aspects related to mining including all
types of explorations; the Midrock Gold, a subsidiary of Midrock Gold Group, in operation at
Shakisso town in southern Ethiopia, involved in gold mining (production of 3500 kg of gold per
year extracting 50,000 tons of rock per month); and the National Mining Corporation (set up
in 1993), a private company involved in all facets of mineral and petroleum product
production including by products.

Potash mining has generated lot of interest in recent years. Allana Potash, a Canadian mining
company is poised to start mining for potash in the Afar Regional State while the Indian Sainik
Potash has been working in the Dallol depression.
Prospecting for iron, gold and base metals is also in progress in many regions of the country.
More and more gold mines are being located, such as in the Afar region and in the Konso Zone
in south western Ethiopia.

Presently a number of junior exploration and world class mining companies are operating in
Ethiopia for different mineral commodities. Apart from these there are wide ranges of future
investment opportunities found in Ethiopia that hope to be of mutual benefit to the investors and
the speedy socioeconomic development of the country.

8.2.3. The importance of Mining sector in Ethiopia

Economic benefits

 Generates revenue from sales, taxes, royalty: The federal government has been
collecting royalty of about 48.5 million birr (4.4 million USD) from the large-scale
production of gold every year for the last three years. The regional administrations also
collect royalty from the small scale and artisanal production of precious minerals,
industrial and construction materials.
 Generates foreign currency earnings: The amount of foreign currency earning is about
135 million dollars every year for the last couple of years from the sales of export of
minerals such as gold, tantalite concentrate platinum, decorative dimension stones and
gemstones. This export earning contributes up to 7-10 % of the total export foreign
currency earnings of the country.
 Employment opportunity: The contribution of mining to employment in Ethiopia is
today small (a few thousand), as the sector is small and mining is not a labour-intensive
industry. Artisanal mining on the other hand is likely to involve several hundred thousand
workers.
Even though the country is believed to have wide mineral potential, the contribution of the
mining sector to the national economy has been a maximum of 6%.

Social Benefits
 Expansion of infrastructures such as roads, electric power, telecommunication etc
 Expansion of social services such as health facilities, schools service, schools, water
facilities as well as airstrips for the local communities.
  Train local communities to engage in other form of business such as plantation of coffee
and other trees, introducing agricultural activities (irrigation)
 Promote small entrepreneur‟s engagement in the local community by providing services
such as hotel, mini- markets, stationeries, etc.

8.2.4. Environmental issues and management related to mining

It is inevitable that extraction of minerals from the earth leads to disturb the environment. When
disturbing the environment there must be careful and systemic protection of the whole system of
environment that assures sustainable use of the current resource and or ecosystem and that bring
about either less or almost none destruction or pollution of the environment.

The mining legislation of Ethiopia, which came in to effect in 1993 has provision that requires as
compulsory criteria to study, submit and get approval of Environmental Impact Assessment from
the respective Authority in order to develop large scale mining project. The common
environmental issues in Ethiopia to be considered in development of the medium to large scale
mining projects are the surface and ground water system, the physical land management (soil,
rock stability, deforestation grass land, farm land, etc), spillage of strange chemicals/metals, air,
noise, dust, aesthetic values of the area, cultural and tourist heritages, the communities as well as
all other lives surround the mine proximity.

In principle the licensees shall ensure the financial mobilization of the environmental
management and mine closure plan. Therefore, sinking fund is required to be pledged while the
mining activity is going on and management plan shall be implemented throughout the life of the
mine.

8.3. Forestry

It is related to exploiting forest products, which include gathering of fuel wood, production of
timber and charcoal, and construction of houses. Forest resources of Ethiopia were described in
Chapter Six, section 6.2; and in this section emphasis is given on the economic significance of
forestry activity for the national economy.
Economic significance of forest

Even though the importance of forest and forest product is little in earning foreign exchange,
their significance at local level is large. For instance, their contribution to the national economy
in the form of GDP is about 2.5%.
Most of the trees cut in Ethiopia today are used for domestic purposes like for;
 Fuel wood,
 Timber household furniture,
 For building and construction.
This indicates that forest products are sold on the local markets at lower prices. The
commercial exploitation of forest resources in Ethiopia is still in its infancy stage. This is
mainly because of the following major factors;

 Rapid deforestation
 Low demand for timer
 Lack of modern lumbering technology
 Inaccessibility of natural forest

8.4. Fishery

8.4.1. Introduction

Fishing is a primary economic activity that involves harvesting of fish resources from water
bodies. Fish can provide an important source of proteins in the diet for much of the world‟s
population. Fishing is known to be one of the oldest human activities. Still fishing is the most
widely spread economic activity both in private and modern societies.

Due to the presence of a number of lakes, river and reservoirs rich in fish resources, Ethiopia has
great potential for fishing. However, at present there is no reliable estimate due to lack of
exhaustive and systematic (regular) stock assessment. The total estimated potential yield
calculated from the surface area for major lakes is 60,000 tons per year. However, in the face of
the above uncertainty the potential yield stood between 30,000 and 45,000 tons per year for the
main water bodies.
 At present in Ethiopia, more than hundred local fish species have been identified. The bulk of
the production is made of Tilapia, Bargus, Clarias and Labeo species. In the two southern Rift
Valley lakes, Chamo and Abaya, Nile Perch is caught in significant quantity. Nile perch is also
found in major riverine fisheries. Moreover, principal physical characteristics and the recent
estimate of potential yield of the main water bodies are presented in the table given below.

Table 8.1: Estimated fish Resource potential of Ethiopian lakes

Lakes Area Maximum Annual Potential Main Fish Species

Depth (1000 kg live
weight)
Tana 3600 km2 4 15,000 Barbus, Clarius, Tilapia

Abaya 1160 km2 13 7,000 Nile perch, Bagrus, Barbus Clarious,

Labeo
Ziway 434 km2 4 3,000 Tilapia, Barbus
Chamo 557 km2 10 3,000 Nile perch, Bagrus, Barbus, Clarious,
Cyprinus
Koka 250 km2 5 2,000 Tilapia, barbus Clarious, Cyprinus
Langano 230 km2 45 3,000 Tilapia, barbus Clarious
2
Awassa 129 km 10 1,000 Tilapia, Barbus Clarious
Metahara - 85 2,500
Beseka
Source: FAO,2015

8.4.2. Fishing Grounds in Ethiopia

Most fishing activities in Ethiopia take place in fresh waters, such as rivers, lakes and ponds.
According to Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Department, Ethiopia‟s fresh water bodies are
known to have 101 species of fish, among which four are endemic to the country. In general, the
Ethiopian fishing grounds could be classified as Lakes and Rivers

Lakes fishery: the Ethiopian lakes are estimated to cover a surface area of about 7000 km2. They
account about 79 percent of the total yearly fish production of the country. The most important
lakes where much of the fish production comes include Lakes Tana, Ziway, Langano, Hawassa,
Abaya and Chamo. The annual maximum sustainable fish yields of our lake are estimated to be
above 35,000 tons. However, presently only 4,000 tons are produced annually. Among the 101
 species of fish available in the country 25 of them are commercial fish species and are found in
the lakes. Generally, the lakes have high promising potential for the development of commercial
fish industry.

River Fishery: Most rivers of Ethiopia have high fish resources. Most fish production of the
river is confined to local consumption by villagers living near and around river banks. The
fishing potential of Ethiopian rivers has not yet been fully known. But according to some
references, the country‟s rivers and streams can produce; on average about 7,000-10,000 tons of
fish annually. For example, river Baro alone can supply a maximum sustainable yield of 2,500
tons per year.

Table 8.2. Ethiopian water bodies and their fisheries

Water bodies type Extent Fishery potential (tone/year) Catch (tone/year)

Major lakes 6,477km2 23,342 10,598

2
Major reservoir and dams 857km 4,399 1,366
2
Small water bodies 275km 1,952 303
Rivers 7,185km2 21,788 3,121
Total 14,794 km2 51,481 15,389
Source: Assefa, 2014

According to FishStat data, Tilapine species averaged about 50 percent, Catfish about 22 percent
and Nile Perch about 9 percent of total production over the last decade. There are seasonal
variations in the availability of different types of fish, but as there are some differences between
the lakes, traders can smooth out supply to some extent.

8.4.3. Demand and consumption of fish

Fish as a source of human food has a long history in Ethiopia. People consume large amount of
fish in fasting days, in big cities, around production areas and towns, especially in Hawassa,
Zeway, Arbaminch, Bahir Dar and Addis Ababa.

Outside these areas, however, the domestic market for fish is small. The factors which account
for this low level of local fish consumption are the following.
  First, fish has not been integrated into the diet of most of the population.

 Second, because of religious influences on consumption patterns, the demand for fish is
only seasonal. The demand for fish is higher than supply during fasting seasons.

 The other factors that contribute to the low level of consumption are the limited supply of
the product and its high price.

 Long distance of the fish production sites from densely populated areas and major
settlements, together with its perishability reduce fish consumption levels

The demand for fish is showing an increasing trend. For instance, total demand for fish in 2003
was about 67 thousand tonnes, which is predicted to grow 118 thousand tonnes in 2025. The
rapid growth of population and the progressive shortage of livestock products had changed the
situation to a growing demand of fish.
Socio-economic contribution of the fishery sector

 Role of fisheries in the national economy: Despite the sector low contribution to the
Gross Domestic Product (0.1 percent), the fishery sector in Ethiopia plays an appreciated
role in terms of providing employment and income at the local level and contributing to
food supply at the national level.

 Trade: The Ethiopian cross-border fish trade is currently not properly documented.
However, available evidence from FAO Fishery and Aquaculture Statistics,2015 has
documented that the country earned 0.4 million USD from exports and imports
significant amounts of fish from neighbouring countries amounted 3.8 million USD over
the recent period. The per capita fish food supply is around 300g, significantly below the
mean 2.6 kg per capita per year for the East African sub-region.

 Food security: Fisheries are regarded as an important sector in the effort to increase
animal protein consumption and achieve food security for the growing population.

 Employment: A considerable workforce is employed, both directly and indirectly, by

Ethiopia‟s capture fisheries which also help in sustaining local communities. Whereas
4052 persons were employed directly by the sector in 2010, a total of 9,148 others
benefited from indirect employment offered by the sector.
  Fish meal as animal feed source: Fishmeal is an excellent source of protein for animals.
The offal of fish can be processed and used for animal feed. It has high levels of essential
amino acids such as methionine and lysine, and it also has a good balance of unsaturated
fatty acids. These days, there is an increased demand of fishmeal from poultry farmers.

 Sport fishing as a recreational value: Recreational fishing (sport fishing) is particularly

becoming common in southern part of Lake Tana. This activity has been started in the
country since 1970s.

8.4.4. Constraints and opportunities of the fishing sector

Like for most of Africa, Ethiopia is riddled with poverty, economic stagnation and
environmentally unsustainable practices, all of which pose serious constraints to fisheries
development. However, ample opportunities exist for the sector to help reverse national
development challenges by making a significant contribution to poverty alleviation, economic
growth, better nutrition and ecological improvement.

Factories, agriculture and sewage are the sources of major pollutants affecting Ethiopian water
bodies and their fisheries. The extraction of minerals from Lake Abijata could have negative
effect on fish stocks, just as the effluents from the tannery at Koka Reservoir and the textile
industries at Hawassa and Arba Minch can affect the fisheries. Also, the increasing rate of
deforestation could result in increased drying up of water bodies and increase in water turbidity.
Further, the dam on River Omo has negatively affected the anadromous fish which migrate from
Lake Turkana to spawn in the river.

Inadequate legal and policy frameworks have largely given rise to poor fishery resource
exploitation resulting, in some cases, in the overfishing of some important species, such as the
Nile perch in Lake Chamo, and tilapia in Lakes Hawassa and Ziway. Though there are fishery
laws and regulations currently in place, these legislations are inadequately implemented.

The sector also suffers from limited human resource availability, with an acute shortage of
trained personnel. This poses serious constraints on fishery management and technical and
extension support services.
Public and private investment in fishery and aquaculture is low and the infrastructure inadequate.
There is also an urgent need to invest in modern value chain-based fish processing and marketing
infrastructure.

Local fish demand can be greatly increased with a change in the people‟s food habit, in favour of
fish. Improvement in fishing techniques, technology transfer to fishers, training of fishery
management personnel, attraction of financial capital to the industry, fish value chain
improvement, and aquaculture, can all result to increased fish production, increased trade and
overall economic development of the country.

Attractive fish prices at local market for better profit; the presence of diversified fish species; and
inhabitants‟ traditional knowledge for fisheries and good consumption habit are considered as
occasion for the sector escalation.

In addition, the future fishing villages‟ offers homogeneous and less dispersed pastoral
communities which are ideal for social mobilization for poverty alleviation programs. Reservoir
fisheries require minimal initial investment and provides quick returns compared to other
economic activities. Access to microfinance facilities, which have received strong internal and
external support, will therefore promote rapid development of fisheries, especially for the benefit
of women and youth. It does not also require sophisticated skills and knowledge for the entry and
coping up with operation at small scale level. Absence of social and culture taboo in fish
consumption is also another asset for fish production in Ethiopia.

Review Questions

1. State the most important socio-economic importance of fishery sector.

2. Mention the factors which account for the low level of local fish consumption in Ethiopia.
8.5. Agriculture in Ethiopia
8.5.1. Introduction

Agriculture is defined as the purposeful tending of animals and plants. It is one of man‟s oldest
activities, and dates back to the Neolithic period (10,000 years before present). Even today,
agriculture remains an important economic activity accounting for more than 15 percent of the
earth's cultivable land. Similarly, about 60 percent of the world's population gets its livelihood
from agriculture.

The type of agriculture practiced in any area is influenced by physical and socio-economic
factors. The environmental factors like soil; climate, relief, etc. impose certain limitations on the
types of crops that may be cultivated and the type of livestock that may be reared. However, in
addition to such environmental factors, various socio-economic factors like farm size, type of
land tenure, capital availability, transport and marketing facilities, price, government polices, etc.
also influence farming patterns.

Agriculture is important for a number of reasons. It provides: basic food supplies for the
population; raw materials like cotton, sugar cane, oil seeds, etc. to industries; export crops, from
whose sales industries infrastructure and the like may be established; and employment for the
population.

The great majority of the Ethiopian population resides in rural areas engaged in some form of
agricultural activity. Agriculture is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy and therefore this
particular sector determines the growth of all the other sectors and, consequently, the whole
national economy. Despite a long history of agricultural practices in Ethiopian, the sector is still
very backward. Farming methods and techniques have hardly changed in the last 2000 years.
The sector is dominated by small-scale farmers that practice rain-fed mixed farming by
employing traditional technology, adopting a low input and low output production system. It is
also in this sector that the over whelming majority of the poor reside.

Therefore, in this section emphasis is given to explain to the agriculture systems of Ethiopia
including its role, structure and performance, farming type and the major challenges of the
sector.
 8.5.2. Contributions, potentials and characteristics of agriculture in Ethiopia The
contributions of agriculture in Ethiopia

The Ethiopian economy is an agrarian economy. Agriculture is the backbone of the

economy of the country as the following facts indicate.

 Agriculture accounts for most of (30- 42%)t of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
of the country.

 Agricultural products account for more than 90 percent of the foreign exchange
earnings of the country.

 Agriculture provides raw materials for the processing industries

 More than 80 percent of the Ethiopian population derives its livelihood directly from
agriculture.

The Agricultural Resource Base/potentials of Ethiopia

Ethiopia has abundant agricultural resource base due to its varied agro-ecological zones. The
varied climatic conditions and contrasts in elevation allow for the cultivation of various crops
ranging from cool weather crops to sub-tropical and warm weather crops. The country has no
less than 21soil types with varying physical and chemical features, and in the alluvial beds of
major rivers close to 16 percent of the country's area is suitable for irrigated agriculture. The
country has also vast grazing land and livestock population as the country possesses a huge but
largely unutilized potentials of livestock resources with a vast (55 – 58 % of its total land area)
grazing land. The country has extensive livestock population, with estimated 30 – 35 million
livestock units (TLU) standing first in Africa and 10 th in the world and numerous livestock
species.

Land Use

Ethiopia has a total land area of about 113,000,000 hectares. There is no comprehensive survey
of land use pattern in the country but some estimates suggest that about 12.6million hectares,
10.3% of the total area, is intensively cultivated, and a further 15.3million hectares (12.5%) is
 moderately cultivated. High forest and wood land areas account for 6.9%, while grassland for
30.5% of the total area.

Accepting the estimate that some 27.9 million-hectare of land is already cultivated (intensively
and moderately),the possibilities for expanding land under rain-fed agriculture is not very high.
More importantly, new land that can be brought under cultivation may be offset or even
outstripped by land which needs to be withdrawn from cultivation because it is severely eroded
or degraded.

It is often suggested that the size of additional land that can be brought under rain-fed
cultivation is limited to the 100km wide strip of land stretching from Gambella, bordering
Sudan to Humera in the north. But this claim must be taken cautiously since the tropical rain
forests in the western parts of the country are highly fragile and incapable of supporting
permanent cultivation. It also requires heavy investment in infrastructure and machinery to
cultivate the land while animal husbandry is affected by trypansomasis.

Expansion into much of the non-arable lowland areas is constrained by moisture stress. But
these areas are drained by major river basins and are suitable for irrigation. It is estimated that
the major river basins of the country can irrigate about 3.5 million-hectare of land. At present
only about 161,010 ha or 4.6% is irrigated around the major river basins. Besides opening up
new land for cultivation, irrigation allows to cultivate two or three crops each year instead of a
single crop most common under dry farming. It also enables farmers to grow high value crops,
especially fruits and vegetables. Nonetheless, the amount of investment required to expand
irrigated agriculture around the major basins is often considerable.

Agricultural Land Use in Ethiopia

Land resource is more crucial to the livelihood of the people depending on agriculture:

 Agriculture is a land-based activity unlike secondary and tertiary activities where

contribution of land to its output is greater. Thus, lack of access to land is directly
correlated with incidence of poverty in rural areas.
 Quality of land has a direct bearing on the productivity of agriculture
 Land ownership has a social value and serves as a security for credit, natural hazards or
life contingencies, and also adds to the social status.
Agricultural land refers to the share of land area that is arable, under permanent crops, and under
permanent pastures. Arable land includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary
crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture,
land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land under permanent crops
is land cultivated with crops that occupy the land for long periods and need not be replanted after
each harvest, such as cocoa, coffee, and rubber. This category includes land under flowering
shrubs, fruit trees, nut trees, and vines, but excludes land under trees grown for wood or timber.
Permanent pasture is land used for five or more years for forage, including natural and cultivated
crops.

According to the result from 2016 Agricultural Sample Survey conducted by Ethiopian Central
Statistics Agency (CSA) more than 19 million hectares of land was used in different types of
land use by smallholder farmers during the major season of the survey year.

The percent distribution of the land use by different types of land uses is shown in Fig 8.1.
Accordingly, about 77 percent of the land operated by smallholder farmers was allocated to
crops, both temporary and permanent crops while 11.5% of the land used for grazing land.

Figure 8.1.: Percentage distribution land utilization, main season 2016/17

Cropping seasons in Ethiopia

The two main crop seasons in Ethiopia are the belg and meher seasons which receive rainfall
from February to June and from June to October, respectively. belg crop season is officially
defined as any crop harvested between March and August, while the meher crop season is
defined as any crop harvested between September and February. The meher crop season is the
main season and produces 90-95 percent of the nation‟s total cereals output, and the belg harvest
provides the remaining 5-10 percent of cereal output.

Cropping Pattern in Ethiopia

The highlands of Ethiopia are easily distinguishable from their lowland counter parts as far as the
pattern of agricultural land use is concerned. The highlands do not only produce a variety of
crops due to their improved environmental conditions as well as due to the variety of agro-
ecological zones caused by altitudinal variations, but they also practice an elaborate system of
land preparation and crop rotation.

The number of crops grown decreases as one moves from the central highlands to the peripheral
lowlands. The highlands are, thus, more diversified than the lowlands. Cereals (teff, wheat,
barley, maize, sorghum, etc,) are the most important crops in Ethiopia as indicated in the Table
8.4.

Table 8.3: Estimates of Agricultural Production and Cultivated Areas of Major Grain Crops for Private
Peasant Holdings-Meher Season

2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18

Agricultural Cultiva Total Cultivat Total Cultivat Total Cultivat Total
Production ted Producti ed Producti ed Producti ed Producti
Area* on Area* on Area* on Area* on

Cereals 10,144 236,077 9,974 231,288 10,219 253,847 10,232 267,789

(Annual %
3 9.4 -1.7 -2 2.5 9.8 0.1 5.5
Change)

Pulses 1,558 26,718 1,653 27,693 1,550 28,146 1,598 29,785

(Annual % -10.6 -6.5 6.1 3.6 -6.2 1.6 3.1 5.8

Change)
 Oilseeds 856 7,601 859.1 7,848.10 805 8,392 846 8,550

(Annual %
4.9 6.9 0.4 3.3 -6.3 6.9 5.1 1.9
Change)

Total 12,558 270,396 12,486 266,829 12,574 290,386 12,676 306,124

(Annual
1.2 7.5 -0.6 -1.3 0.7 8.8 0.8 5.4
%Change)

Source: National Bank of Ethiopia, 2017/18

*Area in thousands of Hectares and Production in thousands of quintals

Animal Husbandry

Ethiopia has a large livestock population (1 st in Africa). The distribution of livestock production
in terms of agro-ecological zones and administrative regions is very uneven. About 75% of the
cattle and sheep population are found in the highland zone while 70 percent of the goat and
100% of the camel population are found in the lowlands. More than 90% of the livestock
population is found in Oromia, Amhara and SNNPR. The average number of cattle per
household (per capital holdings) for the less densely populated Afar region and Somali where
livestock are central to the livelihood of the pastoral population is the highest. Most of the total
value of livestock output (70%) is contributed by cattle.

Livestock contribute 30-35% to agricultural GDP and 13-16% to overall GDP. These figures are
considered as an underestimate since they do not consider the value of manure (fertilizer, fuel)
and transport. The livestock sector contributes about 13% of the total value of agricultural
export. The contribution of hides and skins from the livestock exports is the highest (more than
95%).

Despite a large livestock population, the contribution of the livestock sector to the national
economy is limited due to primitive methods of livestock breading, cultural attitudes, higher
mortality rates of livestock due to disease and other causes.

Characteristics of Ethiopian Agriculture

Even though there are some variations in the nature of practices and production endeavors of
farmers based on agro-ecological diversities and socio-cultural characteristics from place to
 place, nevertheless agriculture in Ethiopia also possess some basic and general characteristics.
These basic attributes are:

1. Subsistence Orientation
In Ethiopia peasants produce mainly for their own household consumption and only a limited
proportion is meant for the market. It is found that peasants retain up to 80% of their produce for
home consumption and seeds. Similarly, Ethiopian peasants usually cultivate different types of
corps (10-15) and rear different types of livestock to meet their various needs.
2. Fragmentation of farm plots and Small size of Holdings
Because of the ever-increasing population that gave rise to continuous generational division of
land through generations; terrain irregularities and prolonged degradation, holdings are highly
fragmented in Ethiopia. The average number of plots per household ranges mainly from 3-8. The
vast majority of the farming households possess less than one hectare of land, with the average
land holding dropping to 0.28 ha/household nowadays.

2. Low Use of Inputs

Ethiopian agriculture is characterized by low use of natural and chemical fertilizers. Less
than 60 percent of smallholder farmers used commercial, chemical fertilizers while only 10
percent used organic fertilizers in 2016. Thus, only a small proportion of the cropland is
fertilized.

4. Susceptibility to Disasters

Agriculture is Ethiopia is highly vulnerable to natural disasters such as drought which affects the
lives of millions of humans and animals. The incidence and intensity of disasters has been
increasing. Limited soil conservation measures, forest destruction and expansion of agriculture
into marginal areas increased the frequency of drought. The natural disasters have usually
resulted in famines.

5. Limited practice of irrigation and dependence on rainfed agriculture

Although Ethiopia has vast area of irrigable land, the proportion of cultivated land is so small
due to physical (steep slopes and deep gorges, water logging, salinization and siltation….) and
human (e.g. capital, technology, skilled manpower etc) constraints. Therefore, there is great
dependence on rain-fed agriculture which renders it highly vulnerable to climatic changes. Over
98 percent of the Ethiopian farmers rely on rain-fed agriculture. Besides, the possibilities of
expanding agricultural land under rain- fed practices are limited or are not very high. Additional
land that can be brought under rain fed is found in the area stretching from Gambella to Humerra
for some 100 kilometres of width occupying the western lowlands of the country. Moreover, this
area is drained by major rivers (Baro, Abbay & Tekkeze Rivers) and is potentially suitable for
irrigation.

8.5.3. Agriculture Systems in Ethiopia

Agricultural system is defined in terms of similar resource basis, enterprise patterns, household
livelihood and constraint; and thus, could have similar development strategies and interventions.
Thus, an agricultural system is a practice and a way of life carried by rural people who are
confined to relatively similar agro-physical resource basis and share more related socio-cultural,
economic and livelihood structures and patterns.

Ethiopia has contrasted (diverse) climatic and soil types which created an ideal condition for the
cultivation of different corps and rearing of animals. The farmers have developed complex
farming systems and cropping patterns in response to the diversified physical environment.

The agricultural systems of Ethiopia can be classified based on:

 The Agro-ecological patterns to which the practices have been confined.

 Dominant types of crops or animals reared or combinations.
 Farming methods and tools used for cultivation, which are a reflection of topographic
and climatic influence.
 Level of technological input and the disposal of output.
Based on the dominant corps cultivated or animals reared and the main implements used in
cultivation, the following major farming systems are identified:

1. Highland mixed farming system

2. Lowland mixed farming system
3. Pastoral system
 4. Shifting cultivation
5. Commercial agriculture
1. Highland mixed farming system
The highland areas of over 1500m.a.s.1 are characterized by „dega‟ and „woina dega‟ agro-
ecological zones. The major characteristic feature of the farming activity is the integration of
crop and livestock production. Sub components of the system include:

A. Grain-plough complex
It is practiced in the central and northern parts of the country. Farmers mainly depend on cereals
for subsistence which are grown along with pulses and oil corps for some commercial purposes.
Barley and wheat dominate in the grain-plough complex of Arsi and Bale, while „teff‟ is the
most important crop in the central and northern highlands of Shoa and Gojjam. Harvesting is
done using family labor or contributed labor from neighborhoods. Crop cultivation is mainly
based on crop rotation. The plough is the main agricultural implement; and oxen are principal
means of draft power and equines provide the means of transport.

Ploughing is practiced many times (2-6) before planting. Seeds are mainly broadcast on the soil
surface and then ploughed in. Livestock rearing is based on unimproved native pasture
supplemented by crop residues.

Sustainable agriculture in this system is adversely affected by drought, soil degradation and the
practice of removing crop residues for feeding animals and using animal dung for fuel. Since
little or no organic matter is added to the soil and conservation-based farming practices (e.g.
terracing…) are rare, declining soil fertility necessitates shifts in crop pattern and increased
application of fertilizer to obtain high yields.

B. The Horticulture-Hoe complex

This agricultural system is primarily found in the high rainfall humid regions of southern and
southwestern parts of the country. The land is cultivated with hoe (human power) for
horticultural crops. The major crops grown include „enset‟ (false banana), coffee, chat and
various other horticultural corps. In the „enset‟ growing areas, farmers make intensive use of
dung. Horticulture crops such as sweet potatoes/sugar beet, lemon, banana, mango, and avocados
are widely grown. In some areas draft animals are also used and cereals, pulses are cultivated.
Maize is the major cereal crop of the region grown; and production is favorable and less variable
than in the grain-plough complex. In large parts of the Horticulture – hoe complex areas an Agro
– forestry farming system using multiple cropping methods composed of coffee, Chat, Enset,
with some tree plants consisting both wood and fruit- trees which are grown inter – mixed on
small farm plots. The eastern highlands of Hararghe are also classified as part of the horticulture-
hoe complex and sorghum (staple food crop) is often intercropped with corps such as chat and
sweet potatoes.

Livestock, mostly cattle, form an integral part of the horticulture hoe system. With increasing
population pressure and farmland scarcity, stall-feeding has become a common practice.
However, in more humid areas, pests and diseases (e.g. tsetse fly) have threatened livestock
husbandry.

2. Lowland mixed agriculture

Lowland agriculture is practiced in the mountain foothills and the lower valleys below
1500m.a.s.1. The region is characterized by hot and dry conditions (450-800mm of rainfall) and
shallow soils with poor water retention.

Lowland agriculture is common in the Rift Valley and northern areas of Awash River. Drought-
tolerant varieties of sorghum, maize, wheat, teff, oil corps and lowland pulses are grown.
Livestock are also raised on common grazing land and crop residues. The plough is used in the
cultivation.

As a response to the shortage and variability of rainfall, farmers diversify their cropping patterns
by growing several crop varieties; shifting to early maturing crop varieties; and drought tolerant
ones. In times of serious drought livestock are relied up on for survival. Other sources of income
include sale of firewood and charcoal and off-farm employment opportunities.

3. Pastoral complex
This type of agriculture is practiced in the arid and semiarid lowlands of Ethiopia where average
annual rainfall is less than 500mm by nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples of Afar, Somali and
Borena zone of Oromia and lowlands of the Southern Region of southern Omo and Lake
Turkana area. Livestock rearing is the main economic activity in these sparsely populated dry
and vast areas. Cattle, camels, sheep and goats are important animals forming the livelihood of
the population. In some lowlands, crops are produced along flood plains and river banks.

Almost all the camels, about ¾ of the goats, ¼ of the sheep and about 20% of the cattle are raised
by pastoral communities. About 90% of the live animals exported come from pastoral areas.

A major constraint to animal husbandry in the pastoral areas is shortage of water especially
during the long dry season. Overgrazing has also reduced the quantity, quality, accessibility and
stability of the resource base. Tropical livestock diseases are also major predicaments to the
system. Encroachments by highlanders searching for farmland; and a shift to dry land cultivation
by the nomads themselves have restrained grazing opportunities. Range ecosystems are usually
fragile because of lower fertility and shallow top soil.

4. Shifting cultivation
This is the cut-and- burn cultivation system whereby a given plot of land is cultivated after
clearing until its natural fertility is exhausted to a level it cannot support plant life any longer and
then abandoned for another clearing. In Ethiopia shifting cultivation is practiced by some ethnic
groups living in western and south western fringes of the Ethiopian highlands and lowlands or
Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella and Southern Regions where population density is low and
livestock rearing is limited in some areas due to tsetsefly infestation (trypanosomiasis). The scale
of shifting cultivation in terms size of people living by the practice is presently on decline in the
country, due to government intervention and settlement (villagization) programs, and the
subsequent introduction and sorting the community to sedentary farming.

5. Commercial agriculture
Commercial agriculture is a modern farming practice involving the production of crops or animal
products for market by using some degree of mechanization and hired laborers.
It was introduced in the 1960s when the government decided to produce more commercial corps
to meet the growing demand for food in the urban areas and agricultural raw materials for
industries. Mechanized farms were concentrated in the Awash valley, Arsi, southern Shoa, and
Humera-Metema by the time many of which were nationalized (1975) and converted into state
farms. New coffee and tea farms were also created during the Dergue. The incumbent
government also introduced large-scale sugarcane plantations for the sugar industries.
Currently, the economic reform permitted the participation of the private sector in large scale
commercial farming. Investment permits are issued by the Ethiopian investment authority and
regional investment offices. However, the main problem faced by investors in agriculture is
access to land as it has to be free of other users to be leased to an investor by the regional
government. As a result investors need to go to low, hot, disease ridden areas of the south and
west to find „unoccupied‟ land. Lack of infrastructure is also a major barrier to the profit –
motivated commercial farmers. There have been also conflicts with local inhabitants who claim
that the land belongs to them that call for sound conflict resolution mechanisms and enhancing
livelihood conditions of local communities.

8.5.4. Major problems of Ethiopian agriculture

The Ethiopian agriculture has been characterized by low production and productivity. Despite
the existence of a huge agricultural population, the sector failed to satisfy the food needs of the
growing population. The major obstacles to the development of this sector include:

Land degradation: because of the rugged topography, about half of the cultivable land of
Ethiopia is exposed to various level of soil erosion. The soil in many areas has lost some
biological productivity and physical properties needed for optimal plant growth.

Variable rainfall: Ethiopian agriculture is heavily dependent upon unreliable rainfall which may
produce surplus only in years of favorable weather. The rain sometimes comes early or late; and
at other times it falls short of the required number of falls

Land fragmentation: The increasing population size of rural Ethiopia and the limited total land
area, especially, in the high land farming area has been the cause for declining percapita
landholding. Studies suggest that on the average, small land holding is less than 1 hectare per
household. As the land is too small to produce any marketable surplus under the prevailing
conditions, subsistence and survival are the overriding concern of the farmers. This resulted in
lack of cash for investment, purchase of commercial inputs and purchase of oxen for land
preparation.

Land tenure insecurity: Uncertainty about the possible communalization of land and continuing
land redistribution erodes the incentive to invest in permanent conservation and improvement on
individual holdings. Land remains under the state control in EPDRF. And, land is the collective
property of the Ethiopian people and is not subject to buying and selling deal.

Backward technology: In Ethiopia the smallholder farming is characterized by dependence on

traditional tools and farming practices. Land preparing, is done by oxen drown plough; planting
is performed by manual broadcasting; weeding and harvesting are performed manually; and
threshing is also carried out by animals trampling the harvested crop. Moreover, agricultural
produce in transported by primitive means like pack animals and human percentage. Low
application of modern inputs fertilizer pesticides, and improved seeds) poor animal breeds etc.
also characterize the Ethiopian small holder farming.

Poor rural infrastructure: transport and communication systems area poorly developed.
Agricultural output is usually carried long distance by traditional transport means like pack
animals or by humans, to sale place. The poor infrastructure has severely hampered
socioeconomic development particularly in the rural area.

Other problems that constrain Ethiopian agriculture include, overgrazing, nutrition stress and
diminished grazing land area; widespread prevalence of different diseases and parasites; poor
genetic structure and lower productivity in terms of growth, yield and reproduction; weak
agricultural research and extension; and capital constraints of peasants required for investment
in their farms among others

Review Questions

1. State the agricultural resource base of Ethiopia

2. List down the major farming systems of Ethiopia.
3. List the most important contributions of the agricultural sector in Ethiopia.
4. What are the major constraints facing small-scale farmers in earning their livelihood?
 8.6. Manufacturing Industry in Ethiopia
8.6.1. Introduction

Industrial development in Ethiopia is extremely backward. The contribution of the industrial

sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over recent periods is only 11.7 percent. The
backwardness of the industrial sector is an indication of the low-level development of the
Ethiopian economy. In the modern world development is equated with industrialization.

Manufacturing is a process of changing commodities to consumable forms. In this process there

is an addition of value. In other words, the value of commodities is more after the undergone
manufacturing. Manufacturing is, therefore, a higher-level economic activity than the production
of primary materials.

Employment in Industries

The total number of persons employed by various manufacturing industries was reported as over
329,000 in 2015/16 (Figure 8.2). This represents a continually increasing trend in the number of
employees working in all industries over the last five years. But there is as yet no clear pattern to
the availability of jobs by industrial group. Textiles and garments increased from 2011/2012 to
2013/2014, but then declined. The number of persons engaged in machinery and equipment grew
tremendously from 2012/2013 to 2013/2014, but then contracted just as rapidly to 2014/2015.

Figure 8.2: Number of persons employed by major industrial Group-Public and private (2011/12-
2015/16)
The employment distribution of the different firm size within the manufacturing sector indicated
that micro enterprises employ 138,951 (51%); small enterprises employ 10,960 (3.9%); medium
enterprises employ 14, 757 (5.4%) and large enterprises employ 108,226 (39.7%) in 2007/08
alone.

The value of industrial production

Gross value of production by manufacturing sector worth about 113 billion Birr in 2012/13 and
value added generated is estimated to reach 32 billion Birr in the same year, which was about 4%
of the value addition to the entire economy in the same year. It was also indicated that, the largest
value addition came from the food and beverage subsector, which was around 8 billion birr in
2012/13, followed by non-metallic mineral subsector (4.3 billion Birr) and metal and engineering
subsector (3.9 billion Birr) while the smallest contribution came from textile and apparel industry
(396 million Birr). The Ethiopian large and medium size manufacturing sector is dominated by
food and beverages. It accounted for the largest proportion of the overall large and medium
manufacturing value added between 2000/01 and 2010/11.

8.6.2. Types and characteristics of manufacturing Types

of Manufacturing Industries

It is possible to identify two types of industries in Ethiopia. These are the traditional or cottage
industries and the modern manufacturing industries.

 The Cottage (traditional)industries

Cottage industries have a long-standing place in Ethiopian history. Though the time of their
inception is not clearly known, various kinds of weaving, woodcarving, pottery, metal works,
basketry etc. are known for a long time.

A peculiar feature of the cottage industries in Ethiopia is that they remain static; i.e., they
existed with little changes and refinement throughout their long period of existence. The major
factor for this phenomenon is the negative traditional attitudes towards such activities, which
prevailed among various Ethiopian communities. The activities were considered of low social
cast activities. People engaged in such activities were despised and were given various
pejoratives such as "buda" "faki" etc. The people were not encouraged to refine their products.
 This is probably the most important factor in retarding the pace of development of the cottage
industries.

Other than the aforementioned factor other factors include the limited availability of the factors
of industrialization such as minerals, market, agricultural raw materials and sources of power,
which are the basis for industrial development.

 Manufacturing Industries
The development of manufacturing activities is measure of the development stage of countries.
In Ethiopia manufacturing industries are at a low level of development. Most of the
manufacturing industries are light industries i.e. industries that process consumer goods like
textiles, food, tobacco etc. Heavy industries that manufacture capital goods are very small.

Industrial development in Ethiopia is extremely backward. The contribution of the industrial

sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is only 11.7 percent over the recent period
(Table.8.5). The major contribution to GDP of the country comes from agriculture and service
sector. Further, specifically looking at the performance of manufacturing remains a cause for
concern as its contribution to GDP not only remained low but also contracted slightly from
about 6% of GDP during 2000-04 to about 4% during the 2010-2014. Despite the attention
given to manufacturing in the GTP plans, the sector is not expanding as expected.

Table 8.4: Gross Domestic Product by Sector

Year Agriculture Industry Manufacturing Service

1980-84 55.8 9.6 4.7 34 .6

1985-89 52.8 10.7 4.9 36 .5
1990-94 59.5 8 4 .0 32.5
1995-99 53.6 11.7 6 .1 34 .6
2000-04 43.5 13.3 6 .1 43.2
2005-09 46.6 11.8 4.7 41.6
2010-14 44 .9 11.7 4 .0 43 .4
Average 51 11 4.9 38.1

Source: World Development Indicators (2015)

Note: The share of industry in GDP includes that of manufacturing.

The existing industrial establishments in Ethiopia are few in number and most of them lack
capital and have low productive and job creation capacity. Besides, most of the industries rely on
agriculture raw material for production.

8.6.3. The Spatial Distribution of Manufacturing Industries in Ethiopia

Historically, manufacturing establishments have been concentrated in a few large towns. In

1995/96 the top ten towns accounted for about 85 per cent of the total number of establishments
and 79 per cent employment; where in the same year Addis Ababa alone accounted for about 67
per cent and 60 per cent respectively. This concentration has shown a modest decline and in
2009/10 the top ten towns share reached 60 percent and 62 per cent of the total number of
MLSM establishments and employment respectively. The share of Addis Ababa also
correspondingly declined to 40 per cent and 46 per cent respectively in the same year. New
industrial towns such as Burayu, Sululta, Sebeta, Mojo, and Ambo are emerging around the
capital city. Four of these were among the top ten industrial towns in both 2003/04 and 2009/10.
This brings the concentration in Addis Ababa and the surrounding towns (in a 100 km radius),
for example in 2009/10, to above 48 per cent (number of establishments) and 52 per cent (in
terms of employment).

Some of the current regional capitals such as Hawassa in the south, Dire Dawa in the east,
Mekelle in the north, and Bahr Dar in the northwest are also among the top ten towns hosting a
substantial number of industrial establishments. The gap between the first and the next top-
ranking towns is, however, very large. For example, in 2009/10, the first top town (Addis Ababa)
hosted about eleven times more manufacturing establishments than the second largest industrial
concentration town (Hawassa).
Table 8.5: Geographical distribution of Manufacturing enterprises

Top 10 towns share (%) Top 10 towns share (%) Top 10 towns share (%)

1995/96 2003/04 2009/10

Top 10 towns # of est. Employment Top 10 # of est. Employment Top 10 towns # of est. Employment
towns
Addis Ababa 67.2 60.4 Addis Ababa 55.8 53.6 Addis Ababa 40.3 45.9
Dire Dawa 4.0 7.0 Hawassa 3.3 2.8 Hawassa 3.6 2.5
Bahr Dar 2.6 3.3 Mekelle 3.0 1.7 Dire Dawa 2.8 1.9
Awassa 2.4 3.2 Bahr Dar 2.3 2.6 Mekelle 2.8 1.9
Adama* 2.3 1.5 Burayu* 2.2 1.4 Adama* 2.4 3.1
Jimma 1.9 0.4 Dire Dawa 2.2 3.9 Bahr Dar 2.3 1.4
Mekelle 1.6 0.3 Adama* 2.2 1.7 Bisheftu* 1.7 2.5
Besheftu* 1.1 1.2 Besheftu * 1.9 2.8 Sebeta* 1.7 1.5
Harar 1.1 1.3 Sebeta* 1.7 1.7 Burayu* 1.6 1.3
Dessie 1.0 0.3 Dessie 1.5 0.4 Hosana 1.1 0.3
Top 10 towns 85.2 79.1 76.3 72.6 60.5 62
Sum (%)
Total 622 91,096 982 104,681 2,172 186,978

Source: Mulu Gebreeyesus, 2016Note: (*) Indicates towns fewer than 100 km from Addis Ababa.

Looking at the current spatial distribution of industries similar trends is observed over the recent
period where industrial distribution and activities concentrate in specific regions. The total
number of large and medium scale manufacturing industries reported in 2015/16 was 3,596.
About 37 percent of the manufacturing industries were located in Addis Ababa followed by
Oromia with more than 27 percent and Tigray with about 14 percent of the industries. Many of
the industries in Oromia are located around Addis Ababa.

There could be many reasons as to why industries concentrate in and around specific towns
and regions in the country. The agglomeration of industries in towns and specific regions
mentioned above is explained by the availability of infra-structural facilities. In the case of
the Addis Ababa-Adama industrial area, the Addis-Djibouti railway, proximity to the port
of Djibouti, and availability of social service facilities are important. The railway and the
development of infrastructure in the area explain the relatively higher concentration of
industries around DireDawa. Political decisions could also influence the spatial
distribution of manufacturing industries. The question of industrial location and regional
 equity requires a complex planning activity involving correct location policies and resource
availability, each of which must be based on thorough and interdisciplinary examination.

Industrial parks/zones in Ethiopia

The agro-processing industries, leather products and the textile and apparel sectors have been
designated as top priority manufacturing industries in the latest five-year development plan
(2015 to 2020). The main reasons include:

i. strong linkages with the agricultural sector as they use inputs from the livestock and
cotton sectors,
ii. they are also both labour intensive, thus absorbing labor from the agricultural sector, and
iii. they have major export potential and low entry barriers. To unleash these supportive
industries, the government established industrial parks across the country to cluster these
industries
The development and construction of industrial parks started in 2014 when the Ethiopian
Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) was established. It gained momentum in 2015
with the Industrial Parks proclamation 886/2015. Three mechanisms are in place for the
establishment of IPs/SEZs:

a. fully developed by the federal or regional government;

b. developed by PPPs with the IPDC and
c. by private developers only.
Industrial parks in Ethiopia can also be categorized based on their focus sector;
 Textile and garment;
 Leather and shoes
 Agro-processing,
 Pharmaceutical and IT park. (see the detail description on Table 8.6).
Table 8.6. Distribution of Industrial parks (IPs) and Zones in Ethiopia

No Name Location Main industry

Federal Development Park
1 Bole Lemi Industrial Park Addis Ababa Garment
2 Hawassa Industrial Park SNNPR Garment
 3 Mekele Industrial Park Tigray Garment
4 Kombolcha Industrial Park Amhara Garment
5 Jima Industrial Park Oromia Garment
6 Adama Industrial Park Oromia Assembling, garment, food
7 Bole Lami Industrial Park II Addis Ababa Garment
8 Kilinto Industrial Park Addis Ababa Pharmaceutical, medical equipment
9 Dire Dawa Industrial park Dire Dawa Assembling, garment, food
10 Bahir Dar Industrial park Amhara Garment
11 Arerti Industrial Park Amhara Construction products, home appliance
12 Debre Birhan Industrial Park Amhara -
13 Aysha Industrial Park Somali -
14 Airline and logistics parks 4 Addis Ababa Transportation
15 Addis Industrial Village 5 Addis Ababa
16 Modjo Leather City Oromia Leather
Regionally Developed parks
1 Bure Integrated Agro-Industrial Park Amhara Agro-processing
2 Bulbula Integrated Agro-Industrial Park Oromia Agro-processing
3 Yirgalem Integrated Agro-Industrial Park SNNPR Agro-processing
4 Baeker Integrated Agro-Industrial Park Tigray Agro-processing

Private parks
1 Eastern Industrial park Oromia Various
2 Huajian Light Industry City Addis Ababa Shoes, garment
3 Modjo George Shoe Industrial Park Oromia Leather
4 Kingdom Linen Industry Zone Dire Dawa Linen
Source: UNIDO, 2018 NB: some of the parks are under construction

Contributions of Industrial Parks in Ethiopia

 Stimulating investment and creating employment
 Facilitating export growth and foreign exchange earnings
 Developing industrial clusters through forward/backward linkages
 Eliciting knowledge transfer and technology spill over
 Establishing connections to global value chain
 Fostering Sustainable Growth and social equality
 Enforcing implementation of national industrialization strategy
The Sugar Sector Mega Projects in Ethiopia

Sugar Industry is one of the industries which contribute immensely for the industrial
transformation of our country. The country has huge labor and resources like water, suitable
climate and ideal landscape to expand this export-oriented manufacturing industry. Ethiopia has
favorable climate for sugarcane development. It also has more than 500 thousand hectares of
irrigable land suitable for the sector. Moreover, it has abundant untapped water resource. These
make the sector seek more attention and a coordinated effort

Until recently, Ethiopia has been a net importer of sugar as the two old sugar factories (Wonji
and Metehara) have limited capacity to meet domestic demand. Cognizant of the existing limited
capacity observed in the two factories, the government of Ethiopia is heavily investing in sugar
production. One of the targets of the first Growth and Transformation Program (GTP I) was to
expand the sugar sector with the ambition for Ethiopia to become one of the top ten sugar
exporters in the world. This plan involved the construction of ten large sugar plantations and
factories like Omo-Kuraz Sugar Factory II, Kessem , Arjo Dediessa, Tendaho, Finchaa,
Metehara, Wolqayet Sugar development project, Tana-belese Sugar Factory II etc. However,
work on the construction of the major sugar factories is delayed and yet to be completed.

8.6.4. Industrial development in Ethiopia: Challenges and Opportunities

Ethiopia has adopted different policies for the development of industry over the past century.
The industrial policies have distinctive features when looking at the guiding vision (policy),
ownership structure, and market orientation. Broadly, they can be characterized as the import
substitution and private sector-led (from early 1950s to 1974); the import substitution and state-
led (from 1974 to 1991), and the export-orientated and private sector-led from 1991.

Challenges of the Manufacturing Sector

Ethiopian‟s industrial base and economic development are the lowest even by African standard.
There are various constraints to the country‟s industrial development. However, the potential for
industrial development is also enormous. The constraints and opportunities for industrial
development are indicated as follows:
Challenges and opportunities of industrial development in Ethiopia

Challenges Opportunities

Relatively cheap electricity charge in comparison to

High logistics and transportation cost other African countries
Limited research/study and action on export incentives Macroeconomic stability and rapidly growing
and market economy
Low labor productivity Relatively cheap labor force & increasing number of
trained employees
High cost of imported raw materials Access to wide market ( large domestic market,
COMESA, AGOA, EBA opportunities, China
market etc.)
Limited compliance to the international requirements Competitive incentive packages which include
and market export incentives

Underdeveloped rural infrastructure in the potential Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks (one stop shopping
areas for all the services, economies of scale, extension
services, development of common infrastructure)
Weak supply chain integration, market institutions and Global attention due to its remarkable economic
information system growth and credit worthiness

Low level of technology

Review Questions
1. What is manufacturing?
2. How important is manufacturing to the development of Ethiopia?
3. What are the major constrients of the development of the manufacturing sector in
Ethiopia?
4. How important are the industrial parks to the development of manufacturing
industries in Ethiopia?
8.7. The Service Sector in Ethiopia
8.7.1. Introduction

Tertiary economic activity involves the distribution and provision of goods and rendering
services. Tertiary institutions include wholesale and retail outlets, banking and other financial
services, governmental and educational services, medical facilities, and much other business and
service functions upon which we depend daily. Security services, transportation, information and
telecommunication services, tourism, health services, education institutions and research centers
all are vital tertiary economic activities. In this section, discussion will be made on the three of
the service activities in Ethiopia: transportation and communication, trade and tourism.

8.7.2. Transportation and communication in Ethiopia: types, roles and characteristics

8.7.2.1. Transportation
Transportation is a service or facility by which persons, manufactured goods, and property are
physically carried from one location to another. Transportation is fundamental to civilization.
Transportation, it is usually said, is the lifeline or the blood vessel of an economy. This is why
we invariably see a well-developed transportation network in well-developed economies.The
role of transportation in socio-economic development is that it allows for: division of labor and
labor specialization, procurement of raw materials from various sources, dispatch of goods to
market places and personal mobility etc.

There are five different types of transport in Ethiopia. These are:

a. Traditional Transport:

This includes the use of pack animals (donkeys, mules, horses, camel) and goods carried by
humans. The contribution of these means of transport to the national economy is not known in
statistical terms. In rural Ethiopia where modern transport systems are very few, it is obvious
that they make immense contributions. Even in urban areas like Addis Ababa, modern meansof
transport has not totally done away with the traditional means.

b. Road Transport
 Today most passengers and goods in Ethiopia are transported by road transport. In Ethiopia
road transportation is relatively a recent phenomenon. Italians basically started it during their
period of occupation. These roads were essentially built for military movement purposes. In
other words, they were not built for the purpose of economic integration of the country. Later
on, with Addis Ababa growing as the political center of the country, the roads built in
subsequent periods were constructed for administrative connections. The radial patterns of
network development with the center being Addis Ababa, exhibits administrative integration
rather than economic integration. This, however, does not mean that the roads were not used
for economic purposes.

i. Road Network

Data obtained from the Ethiopian Roads Authority showed that during 2004/05 classified road
network in Ethiopia was 37,018 km while the total road network increased rapidly and reached
126,773 km during 2017/18 (this includes 35,958 km rural road (28.3%). (seeTable 8.7)

Table 8.7: Length of all-Weather Roads by Type(2004-2017)

Federal Road
Year Rural road Total**
Asphalt Gravel
2004/05 4,972 13,640 18,406 37,018
2005/06 5,002 14,311 20,164 39,477
2006/07 5,452 14,628 22,349 42,429
2007/08 6,066 14,363 23,930 44,359
2008/09 6,938 14,234 25,640 46,812
2009/10 7,476 14,373 26,944 48,793
2010/11 8,295 14,136 30,712 53,997
2011/12 9,875 14,675 31,550 63,083
2012/13 11,301 14,455 32,582 85,966
2013/14 12,640 14,217 33,609 99,522
2014/15 13,551 14,055 30,641 110,414
2015/16 14,632 13,400 31,620 113,066
2016/17 15,886 12,813 33,367 120,171
2017/18 15,886 12,813 35,985 126,773
Source: National Bank of Ethiopia,2017/1
ii. Road Density

The rugged terrain in Ethiopia makes road construction difficult and expensive. If we compare
the length of roads to the total area of the country, we observe that it serves a small area. One-
km road serves an area of about 66 km2. If we generously assume a distance 10 kms on either
side of a road as being accessible only about 370, 000, km 2 area or 30 percent of the country is
accessible. In many cases roads assume the purpose of connecting nodes or places forgetting the
people and the economy in the hinterland or in between the nods. The road density/1000 persons
was 0.5 in 2004/5 that increased to 1.27 in 2017/18. Likewise the road density/1000square
kilometer was 33.7 in 2004/5 that improved in a way to 115.2 in 2017/18.

Although the road network has shown an increasing trend, the progress so far is still far below
the need compared to the large land area and population of the country. Network distribution per
thousand sq. km and per million people is only 115.2 km and 1.3 km, respectively. This makes
the country one of the least accessible in Sub-Sahara Africa.

iii. Road accessibility

In 2016/17, annual average distance from all-weather roads declined by 6.5 percent from 4.6 km
in 2015/16 to 4.6 km. Similarly, the proportion of area more than 5 km from all-weather roads
dropped to 33.5 percent from 31.6 percent last year. By 2019/20, it is envisaged to narrow the
proportion of area more than 5 Km from all-weather road to 13.5 percent (Table 8.10).

c. Railway

The major advantage of rail transport is that it helps transport bulky products. For more than a
century, Ethiopia was served by an international meter gauge railway, from Addis Ababa
to Djibouti City in Djibouti. The railway was built from 1897–1917 and was about 781 km
long primarily served to move export- imports for a long time. Compared to those of the
developed countries the railway was backward. It was also a single lane track. Eventually the
Ethio-Djibouti Railway and its decades old rolling stock was lacking spare parts and
forced to closed down over a number of years.

Recently a new railway line of 750 km length connecting Addis Ababa to Djibouti, was officially
inaugurated in Djibouti in 2018. The Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway is a new standard gauge
international railway that serves as the backbone of the new Ethiopian National Railway
Network. It provides Ethiopia with access to the sea, linking Addis Ababa with Djibouti and its
Port of Doraleh. More than 95% of Ethiopia's trade passes through Djibouti, accounting for 70%
of the activity at the Port of Djibouti.
The other important railway is Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit. It is the first light rail and rapid
transit in eastern and sub-Saharan Africa. The total length of both lines (north-south and east-
west) of the rail is 31.6 kilometres (19.6 mi), with 39 stations. The rail project was constructed
by China Railway Engineering Corporation Limited (CREC) and is currently operated by
Chinese firm Shenzhen Metro Group Company. It is estimated that AALRT currently transports
about 60,000 people daily, significantly reducing traffic congestion in the capital, Addis Ababa.

d. Waterways
Waterways are two types. These are seaways and inland waterways. When we talk of seaways
we are talking about open areas. Ethiopia being a landlocked country does not have direct
access to such areas. Presently, the Red Sea through the port of Djibouti is very important for
Ethiopia's external trade. Inland waterways are classified in to two i.e., rivers and lakes.
Because of the nature of the topography over which Ethiopian rivers flow, Ethiopian rivers
with the exception of Baro and Omo in their lower courses, cannot be used for transportation.
On some of the lakes like Tana and Abaya there is small-scale transportation. The contribution
of inland waterways to the Ethiopian economy is very small.

e. Airways
The other transportation mode, fairly recent in appearance and modern in its constitution, is air
transport. Air transport is the fastest means of transportation from one place to the other. It has
reduced distances by minimizing the travel time. It is very essential for a country like Ethiopia,
where the topography is difficult for communication. There is no problem of laying the track for
airways. The problem with air transportation is that they are expensive and cannot be used for
transporting bulky products. EAL serve some forty-five cities and towns in the country. The
reputed Ethiopian Airlines also gives impressive international service.

8.7.2.2. Communications

Communication is the process of conveying messages to others. An effective communication

system plays a vital role to: accelerate the pace of development, enhance closer social
integration, and to promote the basic aim of economic activities. Some of the communication
services that are commonly used in Ethiopia include radio, television, internet, satellite, print
publications, fixed and mobile telephones, and post offices. Microwave radio; open-wire; HF,
 VHF, UHF radio communication services; and satellite contribute to the domestic telecom-
munications system.

The Contribution of Transportation and communication to Socio-Economic Development

The contribution of transportation to a country‟s development is high. Its share of contribution

to the GDP of a country is incontrovertible, though the nature and extent of the contribution
varies from country to country. Transportation plays important economic, social and political
roles some of which are indicated hereunder:

 It creates job opportunity

 It promotes investment sector - on infrastructure development.
 Transportation plays a big role for both national and international trade.
 It serves as a source of income generation both for governments and the public;
 It contributes to the maintaining a country‟s peace, political wellbeing and stability;
 Plays the role of linking rural areas and rural products to urban centers and helps in
increasing and interconnecting market outlets;
 Makes big contribution to the development of tourism, entertainment, sports and peaceful
relationship among people.
Although the expansion of the transport sector is of tremendous economic, social and political
benefit, there are nevertheless some negative aspects to it. The fact that its energy consumption is
high, that it is foremost among the factors that contribute to environmental pollution, that it has
been classified among the world's killer diseases with regard to traffic accidents, and that it
has become a source of anxiety in terms of congestion constitute the negative side of the
transport sector.

8.7.3. Trade in Ethiopia

Trade is a process of exchange of products involving change in ownership of commodities. The

development of trade in a country depends on the development of production activities. Trade
basically arises when regions or persons complement one another with their products. A country
carries out two types of trade. These are internal trade and external trade.
 Internal trade: This refers to the exchange of goods and services within the country. It can be
done between regions or within a region.

External Trade: External trade refers to the exchange conducted between countries. In other
words, it is concerned with import-export trade.

Foreign Trade

The main reason that necessitates trade with one another rather than running completely
independent economies is that, the earth‟s resources are not equally distributed across its surface.
That means different countries have different factor endowments, and the international mobility
of these factors is severely limited. Some countries are rich in capital resources, others are rich in
labor resources, and still others are rich in natural resources. Hence, every country must trade
with others to acquire what it lacks.

Structure of Commodity Export of Ethiopia

As the Ethiopian economy is an agrarian economy its merchandise (visible) export is determined
by agricultural products. According to the data from National Bank of Ethiopia/NBE/, for all
study periods the export structure of Ethiopia has been characterized by greater concentration of
few traditional exports such as coffee, oil seeds, and pulses and chat. Coffee dominates the total
merchandise export item of the country and accounts for 29.5% of visible export earnings.
Oilseeds accounting for 14.9 % take the second position followed by pulses 9.5 %, and chat 9.5
% (Table 8.9).
Table 8.9: The share of export items in the total merchandise export value

Particulars 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18

%share %share %share
Coffee 25.2 30.4 29.5
Oilseeds 16.6 12.1 14.9
Leather and Leather products 4 3.9 4.7
Pulses 8.1 9.6 9.5
Meat & Meat Products 3.4 3.4 3.6
Fruits & Vegetables 1.9 1.9 2.2
Live Animals 5.2 2.3 2.2
Chat 9.2 9.4 9.3
Gold 10.1 7.2 3.5
Flower 7.9 7.5 8
Electricity 1.1 2.5 3
Others 7.4 9.7 9.7
Total Export 100 100 100
Source: National Bank of Ethiopia, 2018

The Geographic Structure of Exports

Alike the commodity structure, the country‟s exports has been concentrated geographically with
largest proportion of exports destined to limited markets. The major export destinations for
Ethiopian goods show that Asia accounted for 39.8 % of Ethiopia‟s export earnings followed by
Europe (28.7%). On the other hand, about 20.9 % of Ethiopia‟s export earnings originated from
markets in Africa. (Figure 8.3)
 Figure 8.3.Export by destination, 2017/18
0.80

20.90
39.80

28.70

9.90

Africa Europe USAAsiaOceanina

Source: Author Compilation

Looking at the direction of trade by individual country, five countries (China, USA, Netherlands,
Saudi Arabia and Djibouti) are important which account for 39% of the Ethiopia‟s export
between in 2015/2016.

With regard to imports of goods, during 2017/18, Asia accounted for 64.2 percent of the total
imports of Ethiopia followed by Europe (19.3 %).Ethiopia‟s total imports with the U.S.A
accounted for 9.4 percent of the total import bill. About 51% of Ethiopian‟s merchandise import
originated from china, U.S.A, Japan, Italy, and USA (Figure 8.4).
 Figure 8.4.Import by Origin% 2017/18
Yugoslavia Djibouti Kenya Russia Sudan U.K.
France Netherlands Germany
U.A.E
Saudi Arabia
Italy Japan U.S.A.
China, P. Rep. Rest of the World
0.00010.00020.00030.00040.00050.000

Source: Author compilation

8.7.4. Tourism in Ethiopia: Types, major tourist attraction sites, challenges and prospects

UNWTO (2002) defined tourism as

"Tourism comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places

outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure,
business and other purposes. “

Tourism is one of the largest and most important industries in the world in terms of employment
creation and generation of foreign revenue. As a worldwide export category, tourism ranked
fourth in 2013, after fuels, chemicals, food, and ahead of automotive products

As one of the developing countries, Ethiopia and its tourism is becoming an important sector
contributing a great deal towards the social, cultural, and economic development aspects of the
country. Though tourism development is still unsatisfactory, international tourist arrivals in
 Ethiopia have shown a considerable growth. Likewise, the contributions of tourism income to
GDP as well as export earnings are growing in recent years.

Types of Tourism

Ethiopia is endowed with unique landscape, paleontological, archaeological, historical and living
cultural tourism attractions. Based on these attractions diverse types of tourism are there in the
country. The common tourism forms in the country include living culture tourism, history
tourism, archaeology tourism, palaeontology tourism, park tourism, geo-tourism, agro-
biodiversity and coffee tourism, rural tourism, conference tourism and sport tourism are

Major Tourist attraction sites of Ethiopia

Historic Attraction sites

i. The Obelisk of Axum: preserves an ancient history of the era of the Axumite powerful
empire having trade links as far as India and China. Visitors will enjoy the sites of these
monolithic obelisks and many more wonders surrounding their history, notably the Bath
of the Legendary Queen of Sheba and archeological findings that depict the way of life of
the Axumite period that reigned from pre-Christ times up until the 11th century AD.
ii. The Churches of Lalibela- the UNESCO has named the rock-hewn churches of
Lalibela as the 8th wonders of the world. Lalibela presents the site of a chain of rock
carved out 11th century churches with astonishing architectural designs and interior
decorations. Ahistorical myth narrates King Lalibela; on his own (with the help of angels)
completed the construction of the churches. After his death the king has been designated
as an Ethiopian saint.
iii. The Castles of Gondar- built in the mid- 17th century together with the surrounding
centuries-old churches depict yet another sophisticated architectural wonders. The Castles
are found in the city of Gondar, which has been the seat of government following Axum
and Lalibela.
iv. The Walls of Harar- built in the early 16th century, the walls are designated after the city
of Harar. The Walls have 5 arched gates inviting to the city's popular basketworks,
 variety of fruits and colourfully decorated costumes of Hararie women.The city of Harar
is considered as the 4th holy city of Islam.

Natural Attraction sites

i. The Blue Nile Falls- locally known as Tississat, meaning 'water that smokes' presents
a spectacular water fall with an intense gash from more than forty-five meters
(150feet) peak, producing rainbows across the gorge. The area is also inhabited with
fascinating wild lives and birds.

ii. Simien Mountains- Simien mountains are home of Ethiopia's highest peak Ras
Dashen with the height of 4,620 meters above sea level. With the assistance of a
professional guide, the area is ideal for mountain trekking. The endemic Walia Ibex
and the Gelada baboon are also found here.

iii. The Rift Valley Lakes- Ethiopia is one of the countries that the Great Rift Valley
system traverses. The Valley embraces the beautiful chains of lakes with abundant
wildlife and variety of birds. The Rift Valley comprises famous natural parks known
as Abijatta-Shalla, Nechisar, Mago and Omo national parks. Each national park
presents a unique feature for bird-watching, trekking and wild life scenery.

iv. The National Parks: Being a land of diverse geographic settings and rich natural
resources, National Parks in Ethiopia, present spectacular visiting opportunities for
tourists that are keen on admiring and enjoying nature.

The Role of Tourism in the Economy of Ethiopia

The direct export earnings generated by tourism in Ethiopia are increasing, and tourism seems to
be the third source of export revenue after agriculture and industry.

International tourist arrivals have been on a growth trajectory since the 1990s rising from 64,000
in 1990 to 681,249 in 2013. This has been matched by growth in the contribution of the travel
and tourism sector‟s direct contribution to the country‟s GDP which in 2017 was 2.7%, and is
expected to grow by 6.7% per annum reaching 6.1% of GDP by 2028.
 Further, the industry is now an important source of employment accounting for 2.4% of total
employment in 2017 representing 604,000 jobs directly and this is forecast to grow by 1.9%
per annum in 2028 to 742,000 jobs (2.1% of total employment). Such performance has seen
the tourism industry increasingly becoming an important economic sector in the country.

Challenges of the sector to be addressed

Ethiopia‟s possession of varied attractions is regarded as an opportunity for the sector.

However, at present, the following major challenges are also confronting the sector:

 Weak institutional framework and implementation capacity, skilled human resources

and financing
 Very limited accommodating capacity of international standards for leisure tourism,
with investment concentrated in main cities and business-type hotels
 Lack of basic and IT infrastructure present challenges for tourism businesses
 Narrow product range offered to the market by incoming operators
 Weak private sector associations
 Unplanned destination development
 Poor visitor management in natural and heritage sites puts sites at risk
 Poor tourism statistics

Ethiopia has a wealth of natural and cultural resources, with some unique cultural and natural
features that set it apart from other African destinations. Current international trends in world
markets present opportunities to diversify the product portfolio and attract more visitors, and
international markets were prioritized by the Marketing and Branding Strategy as being
among the „core‟ markets with high revenue potential and high affinity for leisure travel to
Ethiopia, as well as among the „steady markets‟ that are easier to penetrate.

Review Questions

 Identify main transportation systems of Ethiopia.

 Describe the contributions and challenges of transport to the Ethiopian economy
 What are the reasons for poor development of water transport in Ethiopia?
 List down tourist attraction sites recognized by UNISCO.
 Explain briefly the contributions and challenges of tourism in Ethiopia.