Globalization and neo-liberalization: Challenges and opportunities to enset crop-based agricultural communities and their farming system in Ethiopia

Neo-liberal globalization has challenges and opportunities for rural agrarian communities. Creating alternate market outlet is one of the opportunities rendered by neo-liberal globalization. Furthermore, those that afford to buy agricultural inputs have benefited from scientific agricultural and technological innovations. The challenges include distributing to all farming communities the benefits from neo-liberal globalization. In chapter 2, the conceptual definitions of globalization, neo-liberalization, governance and other concepts and relevant literature are presented. The influence of those aforementioned factors on the socio-economic changes in the selected traditional farming communities in Ethiopia has been analyzed. In chapter 3, the influence of neo-liberal globalization on gender roles is examined. In chapter 4, linkages between the three phenomena: traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), culture and globalization and their influence on selected traditional rural farming communities is analyzed. The overall objective of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the current threats to food security in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is selected for this study because the country is unique in being able to provide information on the selected topic. Enset crop is elected because it plays a crucial role in the food security currently estimated for more than 15 million farming communities. A case of Gurage is selected, since Gurage ethnic group is one of the major ethnic groups that depend on enset crop as their staple food.;A qualitative method that includes observation, semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and field work has been followed. Some of the key findings reveal that: (1) Consensus among policy makers, researchers and agricultural offices heads and agricultural extension workers on the limited contribution of neo-liberal globalization of agriculture to enset crop development; (2) Gender role shift has been observed where a woman takes over the traditional men's role in agricultural production; and (3) recent transitions in enset crop production have been observed in response to globalization. In summary, this study reveals that despite the limited benefits by traditional rural farming communities from neo-liberal globalization of agriculture, there still are various opportunities that can be tapped through partnership among government agricultural offices, non-governmental organizations and farming communities that creates local-global linkages.