Population Change and Economic Development: Case Studies and Reflections on the Ethiopian Demographic Transition

While population growth has a large negative effect on per capita income growth, this effect is counteracted by large positive effect from growth in the share of the population that is economically active. Thus, the effect of population growth on economic development depends largely on the proportions of the working age and the policy mixes used to encourage people to work, save and invest.    Accordingly, this paper assesses the experiences of representative countries in the world with respect to their population change, policy mixes used and how these impact on their economic developments. The paper is organized into four sections. The first section assesses how population change affects economic developments followed by section 2 presenting selected countries’ case studies to see how their demographic transitions have been proceeding and what policy mixes was used to reap the demographic dividends that the age structure offers.   The third section deals with the discussion of possible lessons learned from those case studies that Ethiopia may consider as benchmarking. The fourth section examines the Ethiopian demographic transitions, the associated policy mixes being implemented and apparent policy effects. The final section concludes the paper

The Impact of Farmer Field School Training on Net Crop Income: Evidence from Smallholder Maize Farmers in Oromia, Ethiopia

This study examines the impact of Farmer Field School (FFS) training program on the net crop income of the smallholder farmers. The FFS program was sponsored by the Ethiopian government and launched in 2010. The study aims to compare the impact of the training on net crop income of those FFS graduate and non-FFS graduate maize farmers in Oromia, Ethiopia. For this, panel data were collected in two rounds from 446 randomly selected households of three districts consisting of 218 FFS graduate farmers and 228 non-FFS graduate farmers. The analytical procedure has involved three stages: in the first stage, descriptive analyses were used to detect existence of difference in the outcome indicators between the two farmer groups. In the second stage, we have applied a semi-parametric impact evaluation method of propensity score matching with several matching algorithms. In the third stage, we have used Difference-in-Difference as robustness check in detecting causality between program intervention and the change in outcome indicators. The result of both PSM and DID estimates shows that net crop income of the FFS graduate farmers was not statistically different from those of non FFS graduates. Accordingly, a number of policy recommendations were also suggested. Keywords: impact evaluation, accounting income, economic income, propensity score matching, difference in differenc

Genetic Variability among Released Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] Varieties in West Hararghe Zone

The Experiment was conducted at Mechara Agricultural Research Center on station and Miesso sub-site during 2017 cropping season. The objective was to estimate the Phenotypic and genotypic variability among released sorghum varieties. Data was collected and analyzed based on  eight traits like: Days to flowering(days), Days to maturity(days), Grain filling period(days), Grain filling rate(%), Head weight(gram), Hundred seed weight(gram), Stand count at harvest(number) and Grain yield(ton/ha). These traits and variances were recorded on 22 genotypes of sorghum. Results of statistical analysis showed that all traits had higher phenotypic variance and phenotypic coefficient of variation than genotypic variance and genotypic coefficient of variation, which indicated the influence of environment was least, and can be exploited in breeding programs. The genotypes exhibited varying degrees ratios of heritability for most traits. Such traits were responded positively to selection due to high broad sense heritability estimates. These data demonstrated high diversity for the traits studied of genotypes used and finally Baji and Birmash was recommended for further demonstration on farmer’s field. Keywords: GCV, PCV, Sorghum, Variability, Yield. DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/9-1-0

The Impacts of Farmer Field School Training on Knowledge and Farm Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Maize Farmers in Oromia, Ethiopia

This study examines the impact of Farmer Field School (FFS) training program on farmers’ knowledge and farm technology adoption. The FFS program was sponsored by the Ethiopian government and launched in 2010. The study aims to compare the impact of the training on knowledge and agricultural technology adoption of those FFS graduate and non-FFS graduate maize farmers in Oromia, Ethiopia. For this, data was collected in 2013 from 446 randomly selected households of three districts consisting of 218 FFS graduate farmers and 228 non-FFS graduate farmers. The analytical procedure has involved two stages: in the first stage, descriptive analysis was used to detect existence of difference in the household and farm characteristics of the two groups of farmers. In the second stage, a semi-parametric impact evaluation method of propensity score matching with several matching algorithms was employed to estimate the program impacts. The result reveals that although FFS graduate farmers have relatively higher knowledge test score than the non-FFS gradate farmers, farm technology adoption index of the later farmer group exceeds the former groups. This finding suggests that there is no necessarily linear relationship between increased knowledge and increased technology adoption. This further implies that the mental attitude of the smallholder farmers in study area is not actually shaped by misconceptions of technology as claimed by the Ethiopian government, but rather because of their firm understanding of what works and does not work according to their own realities. The policy implication of this finding is that knowledge can be translated into practices if a set of enabling factors and conditions exist. These factors including farmers’ positive perception of the technology benefits, access to complementary inputs, availability of crop insurance scheme, arrangement of credit facilities and favorable output markets as incentive for adopting full technologies

Structure Determination of Compounds from the Bark of Ficus ingens (Miq.) Miq.

This study was carried out to investigate chemical constituents on the bark of Ficus ingens (Miq.) Miq. Three compounds were isolated from methanol extract of the bark Ficus ingens (Miq.) Miq. and it were identified as compound-1 [tetrahydro-2-(hydroxymethyl)-6-(terahydro-3,4-dihydroxy-2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)fura-2-yloxy)-2H-pyran-3,4,5 triol], compound-2 [dihydroxy-2-(3, 4, 5) trihydroxyphenyl) chromenylium-2-4) methoxy-6-methyloxane-3, 4, 5 triol] and compound-3 [6- methoxycyclohexane-1,2,3,4,5-pentaol]. The structures of the compounds were elucidated by means of 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and DEPT-135 spectral data and comparison with literature reports. Keywords: Chemical constituents; Ficus ingens (Miq).Miq.; Methanol; DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/9-7-07 Publication date: April 30th 201

Sorghum Landrace Collections from Cooler Regions of the World Exhibit Magnificent Genetic Differentiation and Early Season Cold Tolerance

Citation: Maulana, F., Weerasooriya, D., & Tesso, T. (2017). Sorghum Landrace Collections from Cooler Regions of the World Exhibit Magnificent Genetic Differentiation and Early Season Cold Tolerance. Frontiers in Plant Science, 8, 12. doi:10.3389/fpls.2017.00756Cold temperature is an important abiotic stress affecting sorghum production in temperate regions. It reduces seed germination, seedling emergence and seedling vigor thus limiting the production of the crop both temporally and spatially. The objectives of this study were (1) to assess early season cold temperature stress response of sorghum germplasm from cooler environments and identify sources of tolerance for use in breeding programs, (2) to determine population structure and marker-trait association among these germplasms for eventual development of marker tools for improving cold tolerance. A total of 136 sorghum accessions from cooler regions of the world were phenotyped for seedling growth characteristics under cold temperature imposed through early planting. The accessions were genotyped using 67 simple sequence repeats markers spanning all ten linkage groups of sorghum, of which 50 highly polymorphic markers were used in the analysis. Genetic diversity and population structure analyses sorted the population into four subpopulations. Several accessions distributed in all subpopulations showed either better or comparable level of tolerance to the standard cold tolerance source, Shan qui red. Association analysis between the markers and seedling traits identified markers Xtxp34, Xtxp88, and Xtxp319 as associated with seedling emergence, Xtxp211 and Xtxp304 with seedling dry weight, and Xtxp20 with seedling height. The markers were detected on chromosomes previously found to harbor QTLs associated with cold tolerance in sorghum. Once validated these may serve as genomic tools in marker-assisted breeding or for screening larger pool of genotypes to identify additional sources of cold tolerance

Does Farmer Field School Training Improve Technical Efficiency? Evidence from Smallholder Maize Farmers in Oromia, Ethiopia

This study examines the impact of Farmer Field School (FFS) training program on technical efficiency of smallholder farmers. The FFS program was sponsored by the Ethiopian government and launched in 2010 to scale-up best agricultural practices in the country. The study aims to compare changes in the technical efficiency of those FFS graduate and non-FFS graduate maize farmers in Ethiopia. For this, panel data were collected in two rounds from 446 randomly selected households from three districts consisting of 218 FFS graduate farmers and 228 non-FFS graduate farmers. The analytical procedure has involved three stages: in the first stage, descriptive analyses were used to detect existence of difference in the outcome indicators between the two farmer groups. In the second stage, we applied a semi-parametric impact evaluation method of propensity score matching with several matching algorithms to estimate the program impact. In the third stage, we used Difference-in-Difference as robustness check in detecting causality between program intervention and the technical efficiency changes. Our result shows that although FFS graduate farmers were identified with statistically significant positive technical efficiency difference from non-FFS graduate farmers before the FFS training, this result was reversed two years after the training. This decreasing trend in the technical efficiency of the FFS graduate farmers is explained by their reduced family labour allocation per hectare of their farmland.  As the FFS graduate farmers allocate most of their time for numerous mandatory meetings, trainings, community mobilization, they tend to use more of hired labour than maximizing their own labour for the routine agricultural practices. In the contrary, the non-FFS graduate farmers have been increasing their labour allocation per hectare and use more of non-cash involving inputs since the time of the training. It seems that the FFS training program has put disproportionately higher burden on the FFS graduates in terms giving them additional assignments that compete with the time they need for agricultural activities as compared to non-FFS graduates. Thus, it is really important for the government to consider the timing of trainings, meetings and community works so that such activities should not coincide with the peak time of agricultural land preparation and harvesting times of the farmers. Keywords: Impact Evaluation, technical efficiency, propensity score matching, difference in differenc

Does the Declining Share of Agricultural Output in GDP Indicate Structural Transformation? The Case of Ethiopia

It is not uncommon that different government officials and practitioners infer the fallingagricultural share in GDP to the underpinning of structural transformation in an economy. By using variousstudies result and a time series of data spanning from 1981 up to 2017, this paper investigated, whetherthe declining share of agricultural output in GDP is indicating structural transformation or not in Ethiopianeconomy. The study showed that the service is the fastest-growing sector in Ethiopia, and it covers morethan 40% of GDP. The share of agriculture sector was 45% of GDP until 2011, while the industry sector hasbeen stagnating. Thus, it shows how the falling share of the agriculture sector in GDP is being supersededby the service sector. Empirical works also reveal that even though the share of the agricultural sector inGDP is falling, it is the primary source for the overall economic growth of Ethiopia. The share of the ruralpopulation has decreased from 89 percent in 1981 to 80% in the year 2017. So the vast population of thecountry is living in rural areas where agricultural-based activities are common. Lack of labor shift from theagricultural sector to the industrial sector can also be attributed to the insufficient expansion of themodern industrial sector to absorb the growing force labor. Furth more, the demographic transition alsoshowed a relative decline. Since structural transformation involves several interrelated processes, thedeclining share of agriculture output to GDP alone cannot explain the prevalence of structural change; theother processes like; industrialization, urbanization, and demographic transition need to be scrutinize

A critical survey of the development of charismatic influences in the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus

The onjective of the study is the consider how the charismatic movement has influenced the doctrine and life of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. The whole critical survey is constructed through a study of academic theological texts, chariamatic literature, numerous EECMY documentary reports and the writer's own personal experience. Following a study of the Biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit and a dicussion of the retrieval of its place in the life of the church, traditional pneumatological perspectives of the church are surveyed. The invisible personal work of the Holy Spirit is indicated, notably beyond the appointed liturgical means of grace. A critical examination follows of the worldwide roots of the charismatic movement; its emergence in Ethiopia, particuarly within the EECMY; the social and ecclesiastical reactions to that movement, and the tension between the traditional doctrine of the Spirit and its current experiential manifestations. This study shows that the chariamatic challenge has led the church to restate its teaching about the Holy Spirit within its congregations. The particular charismatic roots and sources of baptism in the Holy Spirit, with its charismatic interpretation and the needs and pattern of his empowerment, is then explored through its contemporary theological and pastoral aspects. Recognising varying views on the seond baptism or experience, the conclusion then discusses the place of further fillings with the Spirit subsequent to its initial reception. The substantive discussion indicates that the charismatic influences seem to provide the church with a reasonable challenge and also with opportunities to reappraise its traditional theology and liturgical practice in the light of a fresh understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit. This gives opportunities to involve many members in renewal, supporting such developemnt so that the whole spiritual status of members and their church life are enriched. There remains the likelihood that the process of charismatic renewal has yet to unite all members in a common understanding: further educational processes, both theological and experiential, are necessary in order to avoid harmful confusion

Contextualizing Church Planting among the Oromo Society: With particular Reference to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY)

This thesis aims to explore and analyse the success of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) strategy for Church Planting among the Oromo community in the wider social and cultural context of Ethiopia in general, and Oromia in particular. Since the 1970s the Church has made considerable efforts to effectively evangelize the diverse unevangelized peoples of Ethiopia and to create new Christian communities in their own cultural and religious contexts by developing what the EECMY calls ‘Church Planting strategies’. I argue that EECMY Church planting has been only partially successful in that, while the EECMY has approximately three million Oromo members, after one hundred and ten years of its evangelism in Ethiopia, the main reasons for this growth have been due to existing Church members having children and through members of other Christian denominations joining the EECMY. The expansion of the EECMY has mostly not been among Oromo people unacquainted with Christianity. This thesis, therefore, carefully examines and analyzes why and how EECMY Church Planting has been ineffective among the vast majority of Oromo people. Findings from my fieldwork demonstrate a number of reasons for the lack of success of Church planting among the Oromo people. Notable examples include: Oromos’ strong preservation of their culture and tradition, fear of the persistent Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC), persecution of evangelical Christians and the EECMY mission approach, EOC collaboration with the suppressive Abyssinian colonial system and the Western missionary cultural influence which was adopted and is still being practised by the EECMY. This study argues that a combination of a high regard for traditional Oromo culture and religion and widespread negative experiences of Christianity as a religion of repression and colonization has left many Oromo people feeling alienated from, and afraid of, Christianity. Recognizing the current ineffective nature of the EECMY’s Church planting strategies, this research then seeks to make a response by constructing alternative, contextually informed Church Planting approaches which do not disregard Oromo language, culture or tradition. In order to achieve this, the thesis develops contextual methods of mission, notably a ‘translation’ model of contextualization. A contextually appreciative approach to mission, it is argued, will in turn help to change perceptions of Christianity among the Oromo people and open up opportunities for a more successful mission praxis among Oromos.Ackroyd, Rut