Chapter 2. Risky business

“Last year I had a very good harvest of sorghum so I can stop growing now”, “if we depend only on our most potential crop we will loose”. Meeting over sixty of farmers, allows me to have a glimpse into their world and logic; in so many ways different from mine. Let me welcome you in their world and let me try to explain some paradoxes for you to get a feel of my research and the small scale holder’s reality in a small rural area in Western Ethiopia, only linked to the rest of the world by this one crop: sesame.

Cash or food?
Every year the first rains prompt the farmer to strategise for the coming year. The farmer is confronted with the dilemma between growing food or cash crops. A food crop simply means it ends up in the farmer’s own stomach, a cash crop is sold at the market putting money into the farmer’s pocket. This yearly dilemma lies at the root of my research. A food crop is a safe bet as it is likely to be harvested and gives the basic assurance of at least having food on the table for the year to come. On the flipside, a cash crop like sesame is not locally consumed making its producer market dependent. Albeit the great risks involved in growing it, when harvested the money earned allows the household to make investments like building a house or buying cows; the local equivalent of our bank’s saving account. Interestingly, the choices farmer take change on a yearly basis, depending on household’s needs and capacity. For example when Gegacho got married this year he increased the number of crops grown as ‘marriage provided me with an extra labour force now’. Also the Karamo family’s wish for a sheet instead of a grass home pushes them into a cash crop strategy.

Risky Business
In theory, farmers are said to be risk-averse but hearing the risks involved in growing a cash crop like sesame is just jaw dropping. “Sesame is not like farming, it is a game. If you get the chance to harvest you win, otherwise you loose. It’s like 50/50”. While small holders do indeed try to minimize risks they are facing, at the same time they take risk beyond the risks you and me take on a daily basis. I met many farmer who saw their fear of growing sesame becoming realized not being able to harvest anything last harvest. Translated to daily reality: the farmer lost half of its income, being only left with the food from the other half of his land. Meaning: no clothes, animals or any investment in the house for this year. A gamble you and I would not be willing to take. But if, just if, it happens to be a good harvest that year, sesame offers a price double that of other crops. Although potentially further locking them into poverty, it is ironically their only way out. “Sesame is the only ticket I have to change my life.” “If I loose 1 yr, I dont give up I try again next yr.” shares Tesfa. Such boldness is not granted to all his collegeaus because each farmer has to strike a balance between how many mouths to feed the amount of risk this allows him to take. Some farmers are bold enough to try their luck again next year as the basic logic goes ‘If you loose this year, you will gain the next“, but the majority take their loss and are pushed back into their default strategy; growing food.

Farmers cant dream
The farmers I talk to completely internalized their insecure environment and are not surprised at another failed harvest. They take the risk as it comes their way and make no prediction on this year’s harvest. When I ask Hambeshee, the only female farmer I have the chance of interviewing, about her expectation of the coming harvest she humbly explains: “I don’t know, It is God to give us harvest, it is not me to expect”. This is just one of the question where my logic is not meeting theirs. I draw a piece of land on the ground and then hand over the stick and ask the farmer to make their ideal division of land if there would be no constraints. Without me saying so the farmer assumes a shortage of land and the land to be infertile, acting accordingly. Naively asking them to explain the difference between the actual and ideal crop allocation is met with confusion as there is not such a thing as ideal, there is only daily reality which is bound to be a limited one. Also the game is not just a game, it is configured within in the same reality mood. They take the decisions they make during the game overly serious and base them on real life experiences. A handful of farmers even fear of their failed sesame harvest in the game forecasting this year’s actual harvest.

Making the illogic seem logic
Further down the road some initial irrationalities as cultivating a high number of crops on just a small piece of land and being largely irresponsive to market incentives are starting to make some sense to me, although I realize that my world and theirs are still a ocean apart.

Unpeeling the onion
These are just some of the first reflections I have when looking back on the last weeks doing research in the field. I don’t feel I can pack my back with answers or having gained a real understanding of the famer’s world, I have just touches upon the surface of the matter, leaving the gist behind for another interested soul to find out. It is like seeing a beautiful women walking down the street, not being able to get to know her but leaving you with a feel of curiosity and interest. There is a saying that for you to understand an Ethiopian you have to separate the wax from the gold. Afework, which ironically means ‘goldmouth’, explain that people talk wax to polish an ugly truth, but when listened carefully one can dig the gold that is behind what somebody is saying. When I analyze my data I hope to dig some gold, but I have not yet fully understood which is which. In Shrek’s wording I think Ethiopia is like an onion; it has layers. I don’t know if I get to unpeel another layer once, but for now it has been a more than a rewarding experience. To close in Hambeshee’s spirit: ‘it is God who gives, it is not us to expect’.

Did-you-know-that:

* A locally brawn spirit here contains 80% alcohol. Farmers and my driver love it.

* A plate hanging outside a house means ‘restaurant’, a cup ‘thee-place, a empty jerry-can ‘we sell fuel’.

* Some women tattoo a sort of beard in their face

* The maps navigating us in the bush date back from 1990

* World cup is big in Ethiopia! I am everybody’s friend when mentioning my country of origin and an average knows to mention more world cup players than I do. It also makes for a great subject of conversation when meeting new person or just taking a taxi.

* I fly back this night, not being able to see the closing stage of tonight’s match:( fingers crossed the Dutch take an easy lead in the first half. From the Holland bar I go straight to the airport, arriving on time for the party in the Netherlands:)

All thanks again for taking interest in my blog. Till next time..