State and Agriculture in Tana Area: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

In Lake Tana and its environs, people are dominantly agrarian society with subsistence and self-sufficient way of living. They mainly make their livelihood by tilling and herding. Food production, animal herding and fishery have been the most important activity of the peasants. Agriculture has remained more or less static for long period. Though important it is, in the Ethiopian academics, peasant agriculture has never been recognized as an important development issue until the recent times. No attempt has been made to bring internal transformation in the nature and feature of it. This paper, based on published and unpublished sources, discusses the essential characteristics of agriculture in Tana area and its environs.