Pitfalls of Tourism Development in Ethiopia: A Case of Bahir Dar Town and Its Surroundings, a Historical Perspective (Published)
The history of tourism is one of the neglected themes in Ethiopian history which has received less scholarly attention. In Ethiopia, the development of modern tourism as an important economic sector traced back to the imperial regime. This was when the Ethiopian Tourist Organization (ETO) was founded in 1961. Since that period, until the overthrow of the regime in 1974, the development of tourism has shown a remarkable and smooth upward trend in the arrival of tourists. However, shortly after the military government assumed power in 1974, the growth of tourism was highly subjected to adverse political and socio-economic crises. This became evident when the tourism sector experienced a downward trend in its history, whereby the number of tourists steadily decreased from 1,267 in 1974 to 141 in 1977 in Bahir Dar and its surroundings and from 50,220 to 28,984 in 1977 at the national level. However, the seizure of power by a new government in 1991 brought about a relatively conducive environment for the growth of tourism which is evident in the adoption of free market, relative stability, and infrastructural development. Thus, this paper sheds light on the history of tourism and its challenges throughout the three consecutive Ethiopian regimes: the imperial, Derg, and EPRDF. This was done in the context of the changing political regimes in light of the political, economic, and ideological shifts. In order to realize the intended objectives, primary sources of information were collected through interviews and focus group discussions with tourists, experts, hotel managers, and tour guides. In addition, government reports from published and un-published sources were also consulted.
Keywords: Bahir Dar, Challenges, Ethiopia, Tourism, history
THOUGHTS ON FOOD-PRODUCING PLANT BIODIVERSITY OF NIGERIA (Review Completed - Accepted)
The paper is based on the United Nations theme for World Environment Day for year 2013, which is “Think. Eat. Save.” This paper focuses on the first issue of the theme: “Think.” The thoughts in the paper are devoted to how Nigeria can effectively manage the food-production potentials of the country’s plant biodiversity to assure sustainable feeding of the people and contribute to sustainable development of the country. The paper discusses the diversity of food-producing plants of Nigeria, the challenges facing them and the strategies that could be adopted to curb these challenges and ameliorate them. The diverse food-producing plants highlighted in the paper, include root crops, stem tubers, cereals and legumes. Others include vegetables, condiments, edible oils and spices. Mention is also made of fruit drinks, beverages and sugar. There are also comments on wines and beer got from plant products, and the edible fruits and seeds. The paper also considers the foods of livestock and farm animals, in forms such as live foods, browse plants, animal feedstuffs and food left-overs. The paper highlights the challenges facing food-producing plants of Nigeria to include over-exploitation, natural enemies, anthropogenic influences, natural disasters and climate change. Other man-made challenges facing food-producing plants of Nigeria, include the dwindling food-producing population, the ever-increasing populations of human and animal food consumers, that of food insecurity and that of in-appropriate policies on agricultural development in the country. Suggested strategies to curb the challenges facing the food-producing plants and ameliorate the challenges include encouraging large scale agriculture in the country, adopting the best practices in agriculture noticeable in all other countries across the globe and encouraging the youths to take to agriculture. Others include intensification of researches in crop producing, diseases and pest control, among others
Keywords: Challenges, Food-producing plants, Man-made Problems, Nigeria, Plant biodiversity, Strategies.