Martin Andersson

Universitetslektor

From Intensification to Sustainability? Political Leadership and Agricultural Transformation in Ethiopia

Författare

Emelie Rohne Till
Martin Andersson

Summary, in Swedish

Ethiopia achieved a remarkable episode of agricultural intensification from the mid-1990s to the late-2010s, yet the political mechanisms that enabled this transformation—and the distributional and environmental consequences that followed—remain insufficiently understood. This article ex- amines how political leadership, understood in institutional rather than personalistic terms, shaped both the drivers of large-scale intensification and the inclusiveness and sustainability of its out- comes. Using a five-dimension analytical framework of vision, commitment, timeframe, inclusion, and sustainability, and an analytical narrative approach, the study shows that the political leadership played a decisive role in enabling the agricultural intensification. It did so by articulating an agri- culture-first reform vision, demonstrating commitment to sectoral investment, and maintaining a long policy horizon. However, uneven inclusion and limited progress in sustainable land and water management pose risks to long-term outcomes. The Ethiopian case illustrates that capable, long- horizon leadership can mobilize the public apparatus to produce substantial agricultural gains, but that enduring transformation requires deliberate policies for broad-based inclusion and environ- mental sustainability

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