This study analyzes how market imperfections affect land productivity in a degraded low-potential cereal- livestock economy in the Ethiopian highlands. A wide array of variables is used to control for land quality in the analysis. Results of three different selection models were compared with least squares models using the HC3 heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimator. Market imperfections in labor and land markets were found to affect land productivity. Land productivity was positively correlated with household male and female labor force per unit of land.

The studies in this book sought to understand the factors affecting rural households’ choice of income strategies and land management practices and the implications of these decisions and of policy- and program-relevant factors for agricultural production, household welfare, and land degradation. We noted at the outset that the factors influencing these decisions and outcomes are many and complex and that their effects may be very context-dependent in a region as diverse as the East African highlands. The findings in the preceding chapters amply support this hypothesis.

La acción colectiva ocurre cuando se requiere que más de una persona contribuya con un esfuerzo para lograr un resultado.

Institutions of collective action and systems of property rights shape how people use natural resources, and these patterns of use in turn affect the outcomes of people’s agricultural production systems. Together, mechanisms of collective action and property rights define the incentives people face for undertaking sustainable and productive management strategies, and they affect the level and distribution of benefits from natural resources.

Barbier and Bergeron explore several hypotheses about the dynamics of natural resource management in the hillsides of La Lima and further explore the causes and consequences of the transition to vegetable production. To fully integrate agroecological factors, such as forest,

In this chapter we introduce the conceptual framework that underlies the case studies presented in this book and discuss hypotheses about the effects of key factors on community and household decisions concerning income strategies and land management. We also discuss the influence of such decisions on outcomes such as agricultural production, household income, and land degradation (or improvement). This chapter is adapted from Scherr et al. (1996); Pender, Place, and Ehui (1999); Pender, Scherr, and Durón (2001); and Nkonya et al. (2004).

En el mundo entero, los gobiernos buscan cada vez más gestionar sus bosques con la colaboración de la gente que vive cerca de ellos. Por lo general, los ministerios forestales o sus equivalentes lo hacen ofreciendo a la población local acceso a productos forestales seleccionados o a tierras de bosques, ingresos provenientes de los recursos forestales u oportunidades de comunicarse con las autoridades forestales gubernamentales.

As population density increases and agriculture intensifies in Africa in the future, policymakers, development practitioners, and farmers may
find useful lessons in the experiences of the East African high-lands. The highlands of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda face complex problems of severe poverty, low productivity, and poor natural resource management. These highlands contain some of the most densely populated areas in all of Africa.

The National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) program of Uganda is an innovative public-private extension service delivery approach, with the goal of increasing market oriented agricultural production by empowering farmers to demand and control agricultural advisory services. Although initial evaluations of NAADS have been quite favourable, these evaluations have been primary qualitative in nature. This study quantifies the initial impacts of NAADS in the districts and sub-counties where the program was operating by 2005.

Land tenure institutions in customary land areas of Sub-Saharan Africa have been evolving towards individualized ownership. Communal land tenure institutions aim to achieve and preserve the equitable distribution of land (and hence, income) among community members. Uncultivated forestland is owned by the community or village, and as long as forest land is available, forest clearance of forest is easily approved by the village chief.

Common property resources1 are important sources of timber, fuelwood, and grazing land in developing countries. When community members have unrestricted access to the resource, or when use regulations are ineffective, these resources are exploited on a first-come, first-served basis. Each individual user of the resource will tend to continue to use the resource until her average revenue is equal to the marginal cost of using the resource (Gordon 1954).

Policy Analysis for Sustainable Land Management and Food Security in Ethiopia presents a bioeconomic model of this less- favored area in the Ethiopian highlands. The main reason for selecting this case study area is the unique availability of both biophysical and socioeconomic data covering a period of 15 to 20 years.The data provides a valuable opportunity to analyze the relationships between population pressure, poverty, and land degradation and to test policies for reducing vulnerability and improving sustainable management of the resource base....