Land- Use Among The Gurage And Jille Farmers Of Dugda District South Shewa

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Dugda district is found in South Shewa Administra ti vernRegion, in the northern part of Adamitulu A,,,raja. The districtrnis lying within the floor of the South Central Rift Valleyrnsystem and 1.S a typical example of the lowland zone ofrnEthiopia. The ethnic structure of the rural population of thernDugda is dominated by two ethnic groups: the Gurage and Jillernaroma. According to 1 oca 1 legend, each group has its ownrncentre of origion, culture and way of life which are partlyrnref 1 ected 1.n thei~' present settl ement. Today the Gurage ofrnDugda live mainly on the undulating plains and uplands of thernwoinadeqa agro-eco1ogica1 zone of the nothwestern and westernrnparts of the district. On the other hand, the Jillc arerninhabiting the extensive moist Kalla agro-eco1ogical zone thatrnconstitutes the North - South stretches of the eastern side ofrnDugda district. Therefore, the main objectives of this studyrnhave been to assess the land use pattern of the Gurage andrnJill e farmers of Dugda and their atti tude towards differnetrnland uses (e.g. cultivation and animal husband~'Y)'rnThe necessary data for these objectives were collectedrnmainly through field survey of 90 Gurage and 110 Ji1lernfarmers . These have involved a two level of samplingrntechniques. For a detail study of land use history and fieldrnvisits a total of 41 farmers (19 from the Gurage and 22 fromrnthe Ji 11 e), or 3% of the members of the se1 ected PAS of eachrnsocial group were visited by the writer. Beside this, a tota Irnof 161 farmers 189 from the Jille and 72 from the Gurage) , orrn.12 ~; of the farmers of the selected PAS 'verI" surveyed by thernr-numerator.c;. In order to analyse Ihe data percentages ,coefficient of variation, C/u square, standard devi a ti on,rnSimple correlation and regress~on, and analysis of var~ancerntechniques have been employed.rnThe research revealed that the Gurage farmers have arnlarger hol dings than the Jill e farmers, the average ho1 dingrnper farmer for each group being 2.86 ha and 2.26 ha,rnrespectively, The finding also indicated greater disparitiesrn~n farm size among the Jille than the Gurage farmers. Thernstudy revealed that fragmentation is greater among the Gurag('rnthan among the Jil1e farmers, the average number of fields perrnfarmer being 4.51 and 3.08, respecti vely. The land-use surveyrnof the Gurage and Ji11e farmers indicated thr> existence ofrndistinct pattern of crop zonation around the homesteads of thernfarmers. In the writer's v~e'" it ~s the type and spatialrndistribution of soils, whatever their distance from thernhome stead, thaI" determines the zonation of crops around thernsettlement of the Gurage and the Jille farmers of Dudga. Thisrnfinding vindicated Ruthenberg's finding of land usc z onationrn~n tropical Africa. The assessement of the atti tudes of thernGurage and Ji1le farmers revealed that both farmers of therngroups seem to support the policy that emphasizes more animalrnhusbandry than crop cultivation, because of the risk involvedrnin crop damage due to climate. The study recommended that thernfuture land-use policy of the MOA in Dugda should take intornaccount the experiences and desires of the farmers as well asrnthe prevailing environmental constraints in the district.

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Land- Use Among The Gurage And Jille Farmers Of Dugda District  South Shewa

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