INVESTMENT IN SOIL CONSERVATION IN NORTHERN ETHIOPIA: THE ROLE OF LAND TENURE SECURITY AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Soil erosion seriously threatens the future agricultural productivity of Ethiopia's highlands. In analyzing the determinants of soil conservation investments there, this study goes beyond the conventional physical factors to examine institutional, social capital and public program effects. The double hurdle statistical analysis from 250 farms in the Tigray region reveals different causal factors for soil conservation adoption versus intensity of use. The determinants of adoption of soil conservation measures vary sharply between stone terraces and soil bunds. Physical propensity toward erosion (e.g., slope, slope shape and soil texture) and land suitability for conservation helped determine conservation investments in all cases. But institutional and social determinants of investment differed importantly between bunds and terraces. Long-term investments in stone terraces were associated with secure land tenure, labor availability, proximity to the farmstead, and learning opportunities via the availability of food-for-work projects. By contrast, short-term investments in soil bunds were strongly linked to insecure land tenure and the absence of food-for-work projects. Farm beneficiaries of public soil conservation programs were less likely to invest privately in either type of conservation practice. Social capital, as measured by farmer perception of community pressure to curb soil erosion, did not contribute significantly to either kind of conservation investment. The intensity of stone terrace adoption (measured as meters of terrace per hectare) was determined by expected returns but not by capacity to invest. Higher intensity of stone terrace construction was favored by fertile-but-erodible silty soils in (rainy) highland settings that offered valuable yield benefits from soil conservation. Intensity of terracing was also greater in remote villages where limited off-farm employment opportunities made construction costs relatively low. Previous research has highlighted the need for public policy interventions to supplement private incentives to make soil conservation investments in erosion-prone mountain areas. Our results highlight the importance of the right kind of public interventions. Direct public involvement in constructing soil conservation structures on private lands appears to undermine incentives for private conservation investments. When done on public lands, however, public conservation activities may encourage private soil conservation by example. Secure land tenure rights clearly reinforce private incentives to make long-term investments in soil conservation.Land Economics/Use,

SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF PRIVATE AND COMMUNAL LANDS IN NORTHERN ETHIOPIA

Land degradation in sub-Saharan Africa reduces the land's potential productivity through soil erosion, nutrient depletion, soil moisture stress, deforestation and overgrazing. Efforts to reverse land degradation require an understanding of why it takes place and what factors govern farmers' willingness to invest in land conservation. These factors differ importantly between private and public lands. This study synthesizes results from analyses of the technological and institutional factors determining the adoption of natural resource conservation at both the household and the community levels in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray. Using 1995-96 data from 250 Tigray farm household interviews, it first examines private land management, focusing on 1) What factors determine farmer perceptions of the severity and yield impact of soil erosion? 2) Is soil conservation profitable, and if so, then under what conditions? 3) What determines farmers' illingness to invest in soil conservation? Using 1998-99 data from a survey of 100 Tigray villages, it proceeds to examine the management of communal lands (grazing lands and woodlots), focusing on 4) What makes communities engage in collective NRM activities? 5) What determines the ffectiveness of collective NRM? At the household level, results highlight the importance of (1) the physical characteristics of plots and villages in shaping farmer perceptions, (2) the land tenure horizon and access to capital in determining willingness to invest in soil conservation. At the community level, they highlight the importance of population density, agricultural potential, as well as access to markets and external rganizations in determining community collective action and its effectiveness in establishing and managing protected grazing areas and woodlots.Land Economics/Use,

RECONCILING FOOD-FOR-WORK OBJECTIVES: RESOURCE CONSERVATION VS. FOOD AID TARGETING IN TIGRAY, ETHIOPIA

Food-for-work (FFW) projects face the challenge of addressing three kinds of objectives: to feed hungry people, to build public works where needed, and to be feasible for prompt project implementation. In the debate over how to target FFW to the poorest of the poor, the last two program objectives are often overlooked. This research examines FFW afforestation and erosion-control programs in central Tigray, Ethiopia, during 1992-95 in order to examine how these sometimes conflicting objectives were reconciled. The study decomposes the factors determining a household's FFW participation into three decision stages. First, at the regional level, project planners choose where to locate a FFW resource conservation project. Second, at the village level, a committee decides which villagers will be eligible to participate. Finally, the eligible households may decide whether and how much to participate. Using probit and truncated regression methods, the study finds that project implementation feasibility most influenced the probability that FFW projects would be available in the 25 villages surveyed. Among the 129 households in villages with FFW available, FFW eligibility was inversely related to household land area per capita and household size, results which are consistent with anti-poverty targeting. However, the model performed poorly at predicting non-eligibility for FFW, which suggests that anti-poverty targeting was not efficient. Among households eligible for FFW, those with greater resources (larger families that did not lease out land) tended to participate and supply more days of FFW labor than poorer households. The only households eligible for FFW which did not participate were unable (rather than unwilling) to do so, being comprised mostly of elderly women. Overall, anti-poverty targeting was sub-optimal but reasonable, given the feasibility constraint that these resource conservation projects to be sited in where labor and materials could be made available.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Policies for sustainable land management in the highlands of Tigray, northern Ethiopia

The papers presented at this workshop dealt with a wide array of topics related to land management in the highlands of Tigray. The papers reported results on the causes and implications of agricultural change and land management; the status and determinants of soil fertility; land use; land transactions and impact of tenure security on land investment; policies and institutions for livestock development and sustainable land use; community woodlot and grazing land management; comparative analysis of community and private tree plantations; the economic return to and impacts of policies affecting land management; and the role of extension in sustainable land management in the region. This project characterises the problems of land management; identifies dominant pathways of development in the region and their causes; determines the past and current impacts of different factors on land management; strengthens the capacity of collaborating organisations in Tigray to conduct policy research and analysis related to land management; and helps facilitate adoption and implementation of policy and institutional strategies to improve land management in the highlands of Tigray

Smallholder dairy farming systems in the highlands of Ethiopia: System-specific constraints and intervention options

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