ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to examine the relationship between land use, ecology, and agriculture at the community level in an area under drought stress in northeastern Ethiopia, and to place these factors in an historical context. It discusses field experience in the Ankober region of northern Shawa province and broader research on the historical basis for highland farming systems in Ethiopia. The chapter considers the question of food production, ecology, and land use in the social context of household and community patterns of property and production relations. It explores the role of the state in affecting the terms of adaptation. The nature of crisis and adaptation on a national or regional scale is the aggregate of many responses at the household, community, and regional level. Women’s marginal status in agricultural process and the social constraints on their labour provide an effective example of the system of distribution of social benefit and explains their relative vulnerability during economic crises.
