Resource information
Soil fertility and the lack of fertilizer use in Africa are frequently discussed topics. Theproblems of land degradation and low agricultural productivity, which result in foodinsecurity and poverty, are particularly severe in the rural highlands of Ethiopia. Inmany areas, a downward spiral of land degradation and poverty appears to be occurring. Findingsolutions to these problems requires identifying effective entry points for farmers, governments,and civil society organizations, and understanding the potential impacts and tradeoffsthat are likely to arise from alternative interventions. This report seeks to improve thatunderstanding, using a bioeconomic model of land management and agricultural productiondeveloped for a community that is fairly typical of the situation in the Ethiopian highlands.The report assesses the potential impacts of several policy options on small farmers’ landmanagement, productivity, food security, and poverty—including increased access to fertilizercredit, food-for-work programs, other off-farm employment opportunities, and promotion oftree planting on uncultivated land. The authors find that increased use of fertilizer credit couldhelp to increase agricultural productivity, food security, and income, but could underminefarmers’ incentives to invest in soil and water conservation, leading to greater land degradation.Increased employment opportunities through food-for-work or other measures can helpto substantially increase household incomes, but would likely reduce food production and soilconservation, unless such measures are linked to conservation requirements. Promotion of treeplanting on degraded land could increase incomes significantly without compromising foodproduction or soil conservation, and, if combined with conservation incentives through food-for-work or other programs, could result in improved land management as well as increasedincomes and food security.These findings should be useful to policymakers and others seeking to improve land managementand reduce poverty in Ethiopia and other countries where such problems are severe.Beyond this, the modeling approach developed by Stein Holden, Bekele Shiferaw, and JohnPender can be usefully adapted and applied in many other African settings.
