The major goal of this study is to reconstruct the economic history of Dale District, 1941-1991. To achieve this goal, an attempt was made to collect qualitative data source from local elders, officer and archives of the administration office. The written documents which have relation with the study also examined and cross checked. The Dale District practices different economic activities like Agriculture which is based on cereal crop farming and cash crop farming. Coffee is mainly grown under the shade of tree (shade or forest coffee), either within forest or forest like environments, or in farming systems that in corporate specific shade plants usually indigenous (native) trees, time fruit trees and other crop plants. The high profitability of chat has also motivated farmers to hire labor for chat production in the district. Other economic activities like animal husbandry, hand craft technology and trade are common in the District. However agriculture was based on traditional farming system. The infrastructural development in dale District is a recent phenomenon. Un proportional service facilities and infrastructures compared with the high number of population found in the District. The main basic infrastructure like road, school, health centers, electric service, water supply has been established in the District before three decades but did not showed rapid economic development in the District.
Keywords: Dale Wereda, Development, Economy, Infrastructure, history
