Access to land and agricultural based livelihoods in Northwestern Ethiopia: Implications for land use

Abstract

Land has been curtail national asset and seen as central to economy, the social and political spheres ocommunity as well as the overall society. The objective of this paper has been to assess the implicationof accessing land and agricultural based livelihoods of smallholder on land use. The underpinningresearch involved both primary and secondary data. Primary data were generated using household surveys, focus group discussions and observations. The study revealed that unlike the northerncentral highlands and southern parts of Ethiopia, access to land in the northwestern lowlands hasemanated from traditional open access regimes. Here, increasing demand for land, formalizationprocess of rural land ownership and access occurring since 2003 combined with poor soil and water conservation practices have negatively affected the productivity of land. Long-standing traditions of agricultural extensification practices coupled with shifting cultivation and open grazing have failed toremain viable strategies of smallholder farmers. Consequently, smallholder farmers have experiencedunwise population induced agricultural intensification practices, resulting in decreasing landproductivity. Based on the evidences from this study, it is concluded that unless proper measures aretaken, the current agricultural based livelihood strategies are not in line with sustainable land usepractices.