Low agricultural productivity, land degradation and poverty are severe interrelated problems in the East African highlands. While the proximate causes of such problems are relatively well known, the underlying causes are many and complex, and depend upon many site-specific factors that vary greatly across the diverse circumstances of the region. In this paper, we argue that the appropriate strategy for sustainable development depends greatly upon the “pathways of development” that are feasible in a given location.

The United Nations declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming. Although many forms of production were once family-based, agriculture is now one of the few that are still dominated by families. Because family farms are so prevalent, making them more productive could help combat poverty and hunger in many rural areas around the world. Family farms are mostly small in scale, but they are highly diverse in other ways, and their pathways out of poverty will vary.

Sustainable agricultural intensification holds promise to play a
role in the broader effort to ensure food security while protecting our natural
resource base. But what would such a sustainable intensification look like in
practice? This chapter presents the results of an ex ante assessment of the yield
and food security potential of 11 technologies for the sustainable intensification
of the key staple crops of maize, rice, and wheat.

This paper investigates the patterns and determinants of change in livelihood strategies ("development pathways" ), land management practices, agricultural productivity, resource and human welfare conditions in Uganda since 1990, based upon a community- level survey conducted in 107 villages.

Las instituciones de acción colectiva y los sistemas de derechos de propiedad moldean la forma en que la gente usa los recursos naturales.A su vez, estos patrones de uso afectan los resultados de los sistemas de producción agrícola de la gente. Juntos, los mecanismos de acción colectiva y los sistemas de derechos de propiedad definen los incentivos a los que la gente accede por llevar a cabo estrategias de gestión sostenible y productiva, y afectan el nivel y distribución de los beneficios de los recursos naturales.

Low agricultural productivity, poverty, and land degradation are critical and closely related problems in the Ethiopian highlands. These problems are particularly severe in the highlands of Tigray in northern Ethiopia. Cereal yields average less than 1 ton per hectare in this region, and over half of the area of the Tigray highlands has been characterized as severely degraded, according to one study (Hurni 1988).1 The average farm size is only 1 hectare, and most households subsist on incomes of less than $1 per day (based on results of the survey discussed in this chapter).

Based on a survey of 48 communities in central Honduras, this paper identifies the major pathways of development that have been occurring in central Honduras since the mid-1970s, their causes and implications for agricultural productivity, natural resource sustainability, and poverty.

Research report

The government of Uganda is currently decentralizing many of its services including those directly related to agriculture and the environment. Non-government organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) are being asked to take the lead in the provision of government services such as agricultural extension during the transition to demand driven fee-for-service. This paper explores the role of government programs, NGOs and CBOs in the adoption of land management technologies.

This paper explores the patterns and determinants of empowerment, income generation, and environmental sustainability under varying degrees of woodlot management in Tigray, Ethiopia. Our analysis is based upon a survey of 120 collectively managed woodlots, devolved to varying degrees, and 66 households that have recently received small plots of community land for tree planting.

This study investigates the impacts of rural poverty on farmers’ land management decisions, crop production and incomes, based upon analysis of data from the 1999/2000 Uganda National Household Survey.

The determinants of local organizational density and the impacts of local and external organizations on collective and private natural resource management decisions are investigated based on a survey of 48 villages in central Honduras. Factors positively associated with local organizational development include the presence of external organizations, population level, moderate population growth, lower population density, the presence of immigrants, distance from the urban market, literacy and coffee production.