"Khat is a psychoactive shrub, produced and marketed in the province of Harerge, Ethiopia, and widely consumed throughout North East Africa. It is now easily available in the large cities of the West." "In the late nineteenth century the main cash crop of Harerge was coffee. Today khat is the fastest-growing and the most profitable regional industry, involving millions of farmers, traders and other service providers. This study examines why farming families shifted from cultivating coffee and food crops to growing khat." "Demographic, market and political factors facilitated the emergence of khat as Harerge's leading agricultural commodity. This development increased the scale of unofficial cross-border trade in consumer goods." "The study also explores the consequences of the new cash crop for the regional economy as a whole, for farmer-state relations, for the nature and balance of local social relations, as well as for Harerge's physical, socioeconomic and political landscapes."--BOOK JACKET.