The thin green line; farmers, experts, and the practice of agrarian development in Ethiopia (1930s-1950s)

The dissertation focuses on the history of agrarian development in Ethiopia from the 1930s to the 1950s. In particular, the dissertation concentrates on the agrarian development projects implemented during the fascist occupation of Ethiopia (1936-1941), the agricultural policies pursued by the British authorities and UNRRA following the restoration of Ethiopian independence, and the agrarian development projects of the FAO and the American Point Four program in the early post-war period. The dissertation is particularly interested in the “practice” of agrarian development in Ethiopia, i.e. how development ideas and projects were understood, experienced, and transformed by local actors “on the ground”. In this light, the analysis of the role of scientific experts is one of the essential pillars of the dissertation. Likewise, equally important is the analysis of farmers in their relationship with agrarian development and their local agents. The dissertation shows how Ethiopian farmers deeply influenced the evolution of fascist, international and American development projects. From this perspective, the dissertation also delves into the fundamental agency of non-human actors – from climates to crops, from seeds to plant diseases – in the history of agrarian development in Ethiopia. Moreover, the dissertation is essentially dedicated to analyzing the connections and continuities characterizing the planning and practice of agrarian development in Ethiopia. As the dissertation shows, albeit thin, and often concealed in plain sight, a "green line" of continuity run beneath and through the major political shifts, economic and social changes characterising the history of Ethiopia from the 1930s to the 1950s.