THE HISTORY OF AGARFA AGRICULTURAL TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION TRAINING CENTER (1993-2018)

Abstract

Although Agriculture is a backbone of the Ethiopian economy; the sector remained poor in production performance. Different Ethiopian governments have tried to improve this key sector for the national development and emphasize on the sector as a major source of economic growth. At the turn of the 20th century, Emperor Menelik II had conceived ideas to modernize this sector, and Emperor Haile Selassie I also expanded Menelik’s vision of modernization. However, both emperors were hindered by the lack of organizational, human, and other capacities. Similarly, the Derg government wanted to solve the sector’s problem and established Agarfa agricultural technical vocation and education training center to transfer agricultural knowledge and skills to the farmers. Most of the studies that had been conducted on Ethiopian history focus on political history with an emphasis on the state and its institutions; with less attention given to the institutional history of the kind that is related to economic, agriculture, labor, and environmental aspects. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the historical study of Agarfa Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training College, its large-scale farm, and its impact on the surrounding people. The thesis examines the roles that ATVETC played based on the data collected from various sources like Archives, oral interviews and many other sources. The finding reveals that three agro-pastoralist kebeles had been uprooted from their residence from its foundation. The College has provided short-term training of different durations to 16,332 farmers within ten years from its outset (1982-1991). It started with six different sectors of agriculture: craftwork, construction, spices, modern agriculture, health and tradition, and politics which had many subdivisions. Although this institution did not bring the needed development, the farming units and farmers' engagement were more active during the Dergue period and reduced, even some stopped after the downfall of the regime because many activities started in the derg period did not continued after the derg period. Since its establishment, conflict has been happening between the College and the surrounding farmers on the grazing land of the College.