Land redistribution, tenure insecurity, and intensity of production: a study of farm households in southern Ethiopia

"This study analyzes the determinants of land tenure insecurity and its impact on intensity of use of purchased farm inputs among households in Southern Ethiopia. Seventeen percent of the households stated that they were tenure insecure. The feeling of tenure insecurity could be caused by the land redistribution policy in Ethiopia where household size has been the main criterion used for land allocation after the land reform in 1975. This would imply that land rich households should be more tenure insecure. Alternatively, the local power structure may be strong enough to counter this and cause the land rich, who are also likely to be influential, to be able to protect their land rights. The analysis revealed that, in the overall sample, relative farm size was not significantly correlated with tenure insecurity. When testing for each site, however, we found that in four of the sites per capita farm size was positively associated with tenure insecurity, while in five other sites it had a significant negative association. This may be due to local historical, cultural, and demographic differences giving way to differences in the effects of the redistribution policy and the local power structure on tenure insecurity. We assessed the impact of tenure insecurity on the intensity of use of purchased farm inputs. The tenure insecurity variable was insignificant. Farmers in areas with a positive correlation between farm size and tenure insecurity were more likely to purchase farm inputs. Larger farms were more likely to use purchased inputs, but this effect was lower in areas with a positive correlation between farm size and tenure insecurity. Poverty and subsistence constraints may explain this absence of higher intensity of use of purchased inputs on small farms. By contrast, the land redistribution policy may have improved small farms' access to purchased farm inputs. (text of Abstract)Land tenure Ethiopia., Land use Ethiopia., Gender,

The Role of Land Certification in Reducing Gender Gaps in Productivity in Rural Ethiopia

The importance of providing secure land rights to smallholder farmers in developing countries is now widely recognized. In line with this, our paper analyzes the impact of land certification on boosting productivity of female-headed households in Ethiopia, which are believed to be systematically more tenure insecure than their male counterparts. Based on parametric and semi-parametric analyses, the impact of certification on plot-level productivity is positive and significant. However, certification has different impacts on male and female productivity: male-headed households gain significantly and women gain only modestly. Hence, the results indicate that, while certification is clearly beneficial to farm-level productivity, it does not necessarily lead to more gains for female-headed households.productivity, female-headed households, land certification

Parametric and Non-Parametric Estimation of Soil Conservation Impact on Productivity in the Northwestern Ethiopian Highlands

The impact of fanya juu bunds on productivity in a high rainfall area in the Ethiopian highlands is analyzed based on data from a cross section household survey with multiple plot observations per household. The results from parametric and non-parametric analysis indicated that productivity from conserved plots was lower than from non-conserved plots. The Oaxaca-Blinder productivity decomposition results showed that there was little difference in plot characteristics between conserved and non-conserved plots, however the returns to those characteristics were higher for non-conserved plots. The sensitivity analysis, increasing fodder grass production on bunds, suggests that there are possibilities to make conserved plots as productive as non-conserved ones. The findings imply that fanya juu bunds may be inappropriate to the local conditions under the existing condition. Farmers in the study area reported that these bunds h ave problem of water-logging, reduce land available for production, and create difficulties in turning the ox-drawn plough due to narrow bund sp acing. Apart from these, there is no attempt made to integrate these bunds with soil fertility management techniques. Overall, these results yield important lessons for future design of conservation technologies that have both physical and economic benefits as well as that are best suited to the local conditions.Yield decomposition, soil conservation, switching regression, stochastic dominance analysis, matching methods, Land Economics/Use, Productivity Analysis, C21, C23, Q12, Q15, Q16,

Tenure Insecurity, Transaction Costs in the Land Lease Market and their Implications for Gendered Productivity Differentials

This study sets out to assess the link between land leasing behavior and productivity differentials between male and female-headed households. A double-moral hazard model allows us to show that landlord's tenure insecurity leads to sub-optimal level of effort on tenant's part, via its impact on the likelihood of contract renewal. The landlord's enforcement ability is also shown to increase the optimal level of effort. The empirical findings support the hypothesis that female heads of households have higher tenant turnover and lower enforcement ability. The results, however, show that contract renewal is not strongly linked to productivity.productivity, female headed households, contract length, enforcement ability, Land Economics/Use, D2, Q12, Q15, C21, C7,

Policy analysis for sustainable land management and food security in Ethiopia: a bioeconomic model with market imperfections

"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.... Our analysis of the Andit Tid watershed community should be useful to policymakers and others seeking to reduce poverty and improve land management in Ethiopia and other countries where such problems are severe. Beyond this, the bioeconomic modeling approach used in this study can be usefully adapted and applied in many other settings." from TextBioeconomic modeling, Poverty alleviation,

Impact of Land Certification on Land Rental Market Participation in Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia

There is a renewed interest in whether land reforms can contribute to market development in Africa and whether land reforms can be pro-poor. This paper uses unique household panel data from Tigray region in Ethiopia to assess the impact of the 1998 low-cost land registration and certification reform on land rental market participation over a period of eight years after the reform, using random effects probit and tobit panel data models for land leased out and leased in, while correcting for unobservable heterogeneity and endogeneity of having certificate. The analysis revealed that the land reform contributed to increased land rental market participation. Female-headed households became more willing to rent out land and making land available for more efficient producers. Average areas leased out and leased in increased after certification. The land rental market remained characterised with significant and non-convex transaction costs also after the reform as evidenced by significant state dependence, a low response to own holding size and a high share of non-participation in the land market, leaving room for further improvement.Land certification; land rental market; panel data analysis; unobserved heterogeneity; household response; female-headed households

Market imperfections and land productivity in the Ethiopian Highlands:

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. Female-headed households achieved much lower land productivity than male- headed households. Old age of household heads was also correlated with lower land productivity. Imperfections in the rental market for oxen appeared to cause overstocking of oxen by some households. Conservation technologies had no significant positive short-run effect on land productivity. The main results were consistent across the different econometric models. .Livestock productivity Ethiopia., Cereal crops., Labor productivity., Markets.,

High discount rates : an artifact caused by poorly framed experiments or a result of people being poor and vulnerable?

This study revisits the issue whether poverty and shocks are associated with high discount rates by using an incentive compatible Multiple Price List approach in a poor rural population in Africa where a substantial share of the population had been affected by drought in the recent rainy season. Randomized treatments included tests for present bias, magnitude effects and time horizon effects. While the study revealed significant present bias, magnitude and time horizon effects, exposure to drought increased the average rates of time preference by 24-26% and present bias increased discount rates by 9-12% compared to one week delay.CIMMY

FOOD-FOR-WORK FOR POVERTY REDUCTION AND THE PROMOTION OF SUSTAINABLE LAND USE: CAN IT WORK?

Food-for-work (FFW) programs are commonly used both for short-term relief and long-term development purposes. In the latter capacity, they are increasingly used for natural resources management projects. Barrett, Holden and Clay (forthcoming) assess the suitability of FFW programs as insurance to cushion the poor against short-term, adverse shocks that could, in the absence of a safety net, have permanent repercussions. In this paper we explore the complementary question of FFW programs' potential to reduce poverty and promote sustainable land use in the longer run through induced changes in investment patterns. FFW programs commonly aim to produce or maintain potentially valuable public goods necessary to stimulate productivity and thus income growth. Among the most common projects are road building, reforestation, and the installation of terracing or irrigation. In the abstract, public goods such as these are unambiguously good. There is a danger, however, that such programs could discourage private soil and water conservation and crowd out private investment. How important are such effects and when are these effects small or large and when and how can they be reduced? How do market characteristics, timing and design of FFW programs affect this? When, where and how can FFW programs more efficiently reduce poverty and promote more sustainable land management? The paper aims to answer these questions. Much recent empirical research has focused on the shorter-term targeting issue of whether FFW and related workfare programs efficiently target the poor (Dev 1995, Von Braun 1995, Webb 1995, Subbarao 1997, Clay et al. 1998, Devereux 1999, Jayne et al. 1999, Ravallion 1999, Teklu and Asefa 1999, Atwood et al. 2000, Gebremedhin and Swinton 2000, Haddad and Adato 2001, Jalan and Ravallion 2001). Much less research has been focused on the longer-term effects of FFW. Yet the large share of hunger worldwide arises due to chronic deprivation and vulnerability, not short-term shocks (Speth 1993, Barrett 2002). Also most of the FFW programs in Ethiopia have long-term development goals and are formally distinguished from the disaster relief FFW programs (Aas and Mellemstrand 2002). It is therefore appropriate to evaluate these programs based on their long-term goals and not only on the basis of short-term targeting. In a case study in Tigray Aas and Mellemstrand (2002) found that the FFW recipients considered the long-term benefits of FFW as more important than the short-term benefits of food provision. FFW programs may produce valuable public goods. For example, Von Braun et al. (1999) report multiplier effects of a FFW-built road in the Ethiopian lowlands. Public provision of public goods may be socially desirable because private investment in soil and water conservation and tree planting may be well below socially optimal levels due to poverty and market imperfections (Holden, Shiferaw and Wik 1998, Holden and Shiferaw 2002, Holden and Yohannes 2002, Pender and Kerr 1998), tenure insecurity (Gebremedhin and Swinton 2000, Holden, Benin, Shiferaw and Pender 2003), lack of technical knowledge and coordination problems across farms (Hagos and Holden 2002). There is, however, also a danger that FFW programs crowd out private investments (Gebremedhin and Swinton 2000). We analyze these issues using multiple methods. First, section II introduces a simple theoretical framework for understanding the analytically ambiguous effects of FFW programs on sustainable land use patterns. We first present the basic intuition in a static framework to illustrate the selection, crowding out and targeting issues, before generalizing it to a dynamic model to illustrate the possible insurance and crowding in effects of FFW. Section III then uses an applied, dynamic bio-economic farm household model applied to a less-favoured area in Ethiopia to investigate via numerical simulation how household welfare and land use patterns vary with changes in environmental and FFW program design parameters. Section IV presents econometric evidence based on survey panel data from northern Ethiopia to assess the relationship between FFW and private investment in conservation. Section V discusses our findings and fleshes them out a bit with further empirical evidence. Section VI concludes.Food Security and Poverty, Q18, O1, Q2, I1,

Can Food-for-Work Programmes Reduce Vulnerability?

Famine, Food aid, Poverty, Public employment programmes, Transfers