This ethnographic research explores the institutional engagement between farmers and government, as well as the discourse about the development process in Ethiopia. It shows how the public's opinion is altered by the government and national media in terms of the discourses on development, economic growth and farmers' changing lives. The discourses portray an unrealistic view of real, existing practices and engagements among the farmers and the agricultural bureau. Development knowledge and discourses are reworked, reformulated and multiplied to serve the purpose of the government in power within the nation.