ABSTRACT
This chapter “Integrated Rural Development in Arssi: CADU-ARDU (1967–ca. 1984) aims at investigating the establishment, activities, impacts and legacies of Swedish-aided CADU-ARDU. This is because there is no work on the subject that historically investigates general aspects of CADU-ARDU in wholesome. CADU-ARDU reports and publications study particular aspects or activities at a time. So did a number of other works. Yet, numerous CADU-ARDU publications, reports, oral informants, CADU-ARDU former workers, peasants served by CADU-ARDU and those outside its tentacles were interviewed. Archives could also be obtained. But the main CADU-ARDU archival centre at Asallaa has been locked up and could not be opened for usage. Available sources were gathered and exposed to internal and external evaluation before the reconstruction of the institution’s duties and impacts. CADU was primarily founded out of admission that peasant agriculture could not be developed simultaneously throughout the country. Promising areas be selected for trial and spread best practices. But external experiences could not show successes of packaged, integrated rural development programmes. Primarily, CADU was founded with foreign initiative: World Bank and FAO–suggested package application for agricultural development of Ethiopia. Sweden played a leading role in the establishment of CADU and its operations. In total, twenty-two years of CADU-ARDU and SEAD (1967–1989) did a lot with the support of SIDA. Of its four objectives, this author argues that CADU achieved the two. The others were failed because of Ethiopian government’s failure to honour its part of the agreement, especially land reform. CADU had participated in a number of activities. Most of them were successful. But the government’s decline to introduce land reform compromised its full achievements. Above all else, CADU showed that Ethiopian peasants could help themselves when helped rightly. Thus, their income, agricultural experience, and above all else their awareness had increased. Later, the Därg declared what CADU already prepared for land reform policy at large. Its efforts supported peasants, its Ethiopian staff, the development of Asellaa, Cilaaloo awraja, Arssi and even later Bale. It successfully helped people help themselves. It is the conviction and the finding of this researcher that its awareness promotion among peasants about their rights, and the exposure of the imperial regime, one can say, contributed much to later developments including the declaration of Land Reform in March 1975. Thus, in general, the argument of this author is that CADU did not fail and could not fully succeed. It was between these two extremes.
