Agriculture

76% of arable land is cultivated. 96% of the population depend predominantly on agriculture (including handicrafts, beekeeping and livestock)

Konso Agriculture is not a complex combination of technologies but the result of the applications of different survival strategies and feats of social organisation. There are parallels between they systems of the Nyanga in Zimbabwe and the Engaryka of Tanzania. Technologies are not used in isolation, but overlapping. Informal technologies are useful because of the degrees of flexibility available to the user.

The social organisation and control over resources are central to understanding Konso agriculture.

Konso is a particularly harsh and unreliable area. Normal crop years and meagre production have alternated from the beginning of the century.

Konso people have made the soil with manure and biomass. NGOs as well as GOs have previously funded exchanges for farmers to pass on their significant knowledge to others.


Agricultural System

January                                  Land preparation
February – Mid March            Sowing
March – May                          Weeding and Tending
May – Mid July                        Harvest
July – September                   Transport Home of crops
September 1st – 21st             MASAANA (rest time and roof thatching and construction)
September 21st – October     HAKAYTA  (short cropping rains)
November and December       Attending second crop and harvest

Other duties = animal husbandry, beehives and community work

Intercropping = crops grown together to ensure against failure

Double Cropping = the main season is from April to July but roots of sorghum and millet are left in the ground for a second harvest, this also protects against erosion. Also pigeon peas provide a second crop.

If a field is suffering from soil exhaustion and labour is available they are occasionally completely turned over by BAYYRA (2 pronged hoe) during the dry season.

The agricultural system is very labour intensive and can be viewed as a form of landscape capital.


CROPS               COMMON                                           UNCOMMON
CEREALS    Sorghum, millet, maize, wheat, barley      T’eff
OIL                Sunflower, castor                                   Linseed
TUBER                Pakaana                                             Taro, yam, sweet potato, cassava, potato
PULSES           Common bean, various peas                Mung bean, lentil, horse bean, pea
VEGETABLE    Moringa, pumpkin, wild tomato             Cabbage, onions
FRUIT               Lime, citron, papaya, banana, mango
SPICE                    Chilli    
STIMULANT    Coffee, chat                                           Tobacco
OTHER                 Cotton    

TREES
Oypatta (terminalia browni) – provides shade for younger plants
                                             -    Leaves used as fodder after young plants are establishes
                                             -    Logs sold during drought
Moringa
Juniperus
Eucalyptus

Coffee, Cotton and Chat are cash crops.

24 different varieties of millet are grown as well as wheat, barley, sorghum, maize, peas, beans, potatoes, banana, cotton and coffee.

Wheat and Barley are grown at altitudes over 1800m. Drought resistant crops (sorghum, millet and cow peas) are relied heavily on in the lower areas
Cotton = lower areas
Coffee = most of the highlands
Maize = most of the highlands if there is enough rain


Ethnobotany

Due to different agro-ecological features and cultivation practices different areas have different preferences for food, medicinal, cultural and other practices

Food           main crops, leafy veg, tubers, forage
Medicine     malaria, tapeworm, diarrohea, livestock
Cultural       wizards, witches, spirits, rituals, ceremonies, protection
Other          fuel, fencing, construction, fragrance, adornment, repellent, detergent, gum, cleaning water, stimulant, toothbrush etc.
Fire Risk     Densely built, finger euphorbia for fighting uuu/uu/uu! Apitaa Apitaa is the call


Irrigation

MONA or KORAYITA are earth ridges 10-20cm high dividing terraces into small square basins (KOLBA) and are covered with sorghum stalks to capture rainfall and maximise infiltration.

Irrigation using small ridges and terrace walls are made to redirect runoff on to nearby fields

Stone dams are built across small streams to raise the level and enable water to be taken to the fields.

When the heavy rains come there is damage to these dams and with few perennial streams irrigation is opportunistic rainwater harvesting.


Livestock

ANIMALS     – 1 cow for milk and 1 bull for fattening
                    -  2 – 4 sheep for sale and nutrition
                    -  2 – 3 goats for milk and fattening
                    -  Chickens previously not used for food, now used quite widely

Livestock are kept in the lowlands where one family member will stay to look after it. Mostly they are kept in the house compound and fodder is collected daily (often twice a day) from the owners fields. Trees are kept for this purpose but also weeds and overplanted crops are used.

Animals are kept for their milk, meat and for income but the main reason is for fertilizer. The farms are zero grazed and manured by women collecting and spreading by hand, particularly in January and February but also throughout the year.

Sometimes manure is left to ripen and sometimes not. Need for fertilizer is so high that dried human faeces used to be used, now this is very uncommon.