Agricultural systems in Ethiopia— A review article

Amare Getahun's (1978) paper on agricultural systems in Ethiopia is one of the few attempts to classify agricultural systems in Ethiopia into (a) the highland mixed farming system, (b) low plateaux and valley mixed agriculture, (c) pastoral livestock production of the arid and semi-arid zones and (d) commercial agriculture, and to describe the main characteristics of each system. However, it is not clear what criteria have been used to classify the different agricultural regions into the four general categories developed by Amare Getahun. This review paper discusses agricultural systems by applying the ecological systems approach to agricultural development within the framework of a political economy analysis as a means of evaluating agricultural development strategies.