Isolated highland areas accounted for as much as 80,000 acres under cannabis production in 1987. Throughout West Africa, farmers are given seed as well as paid to set land aside for cannabis. The fall in the world price of basic commodities has encouraged this shift to drug production. Two-thirds of farmers interviewed said they started growing cannabis after the cocoa price collapse. Now, 0.1 acre devoted to cannabis can yield the same as 30 to 40 acres devoted to cocoa.
Qaat production is now crucial to the Ethiopian economy, ranking third after coffee.
This tendency has developed in the last three or four years. An Ethiopian newspaper warned that if the government implemented its proposed crackdown on the trade, then it should be prepared for major famine relief.