Alaba special woreda

Alaba is a special woreda in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. It is named after the Halaba people, and covers part of their homeland. Located in the Great Rift Valley, Alaba is bordered on the south by an exclave of Hadiya Zone, on the southwest by the Kembata Tembaro Zone, on the west and north by Hadiya Zone, on the north east by Lake Shala, and on the east by Oromia Region; the Bilate River, which is its major body of water, defines its western boundary. The administrative center is Alaba Kulito.

Except for the portion that slopes down to the edge of Lake Shala, the elevation of this woreda ranges from 1700 to 2200 meters above sea level. High points include Mount Bubisa. The climate is characterized as temperate or locally called woinadega, the mean annual temperature is about 17.6 - 22.5 C and the mean annual rainfall falls between 601-1200mm. However, due to a long history of agriculture and population pressure, plant cover is minimal with only a few scattered trees, and the southern end of Alaba has numerous gullies, which have carried off much of the topsoil. Numerous attempts have been made in the last two decades of the 20th century to rehabilitate the land have been unsuccessful. Combined with an erratic rainfall, these factors prevent the inhabitants of this woreda from growing enough food to feed themselves.

The economy is largely based on subsistence agriculture in the form of dryland farming and raising livestock, with some apiculture. The main cash crops include pepper, maize, teff, sorghum, haricot beans and wheat. Alaba has 16 kilometers of asphalt roads, 15 kilometers of all-weather roads and 96 kilometers of dry-weather roads, for an average road density of 130 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers. One micro-finance institution operates in Alaba, the Omo Microfinance Institution SC (OMFI), established in 1997. OMFI, with three branch offices in Durame and a sub-branch in Alaba Kulito, has 945 clients in this woreda.

...
Wikipedia