The Tigraians and assimilated Oromos on the escarpments and in the Raya graben are mainly engaged in smallholder agriculture, often using spate irrigation with floods from the escarpment. In recent years they have started dry season irrigation agriculture, stimulated by government-established groundwater pumps and by mimicking commercial farms that have been attracted. Settlements are mainly along roads and iron roofed. Tigraians and Amhara are dominantly Orthodox Christians, though some villages follow Islam, such as some villages in the Raya graben bottom.