At Welkite an extreme example of an attempt at eviction of tenants before the Ethiopian revolution is reported to have occurred. A retired colonel living in the area held title to 4,000 hectares, which some 500 tenants cultivated. Following a fertilizer demonstration by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization in 1969, the colonel decided to introduce modernized farming. At first he decided to modernize rapidly and announced that he was going to terminate the tenancy relationships with all of his tenants. The tenants, however, are said to have responded violently, attempting to stone their landlord one night as he left a bar in Welkite. The colonel then changed tactics, modernizing his lands piecemeal and evicting smaller numbers of tenants. By 1972, he had 160 hectares under tractor cultivation, and 140 tenant families were said to have been evicted. These people did not, however, leave the area, relying on the ensete cultivations around their houses for a minimum of food.