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

Summary, in English

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

• Author: Emelie Rohne Till; Martin Andersson
• Department/s: Department of Economic History; Economic development of the Global South; LU Profile Area: Human rights
• Publishing year: 2025
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Land
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 12
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land14122406
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Topic: Economic History
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 2073-445X