Towards an Analytical Framework for Assessing Property Rights to Natural Resources: A Case Study in the Communal Areas of Zimbabwe

A taxonomy for describing property rights to natural resources is described and applied in a Zimbabwean case study. The taxonomy allows: tenures to be systematically compared and contrasted; incentives for natural resource management to be identified; and the evolution of tenure to natural resources to be assessed. In the case study, we find: key differences between tenure types, all termed "communal"; a wide range of tenure arrangements that transcend concepts of "tree" and "land tenure"; information suggesting that the promotion of tree planting may work on some tenure types, but is likely to fail on others; and that the evolution of indigenous tenure to natural resources seems to have been somewhat immune from external changes in institutional systems. Prospects for further theoretical and empirical advances are discussed within the context of the property rights framework presented.incentives, natural resources, property rights framework/taxonomy, tenure, Zimbabwe, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Causes of Household Food Insecurity in Koredegaga Peasant Association, Oromiya Zone, Ethiopia

The main objective of the study is to examine the determinants of households food security using a logistic regression procedure. Initially the model was fitted with eleven factors of which six were found to be significant and all had the expected signs. These include farm land size, ox ownership, fertilizer application, education level of household heads, household size, and per capita production. The result obtained was further analyzed to compute partial effects and to conduct simulation studies on significant factors. Analysis of partial effects revealed that an introduction to fertilizer use and an improvement in the educational level of household heads give relatively higher changes in the probably of food security. On the other hand, simulations conducted on the basis of the base category of farmers, representing food secure households, revealed that both educational levels of household heads and fertilizer applications by farmers have relatively high potential to more than double the number of food secure households in the study area following improvements in these factors.Food Security and Poverty,

CREATING AGRIBUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR SMALL SCALE FARMERS IN THABA NCHU BY INTRODUCING WATER HARVESTING TECHNIQUES: A PROFITABILITY AND RISK ANALYSIS

Thaba Nchu is a semi-arid area with low and erratic annual rainfall not exceeding 600mm. Various dryland crops are produced with relatively low yields and high risk of failure. Lack of appropriate technology and other constraints has led to most of the arable land being unused thus restricting agribusiness opportunities in an area where unemployment and food insecurity are thriving. Rainwater harvesting has a huge potential to increase crop yields in Thaba Nchu and reduce the risk of losses, and thus improve food security and enhance sustainability. Different in-field rainwater harvesting (IRWH) techniques have been tested and applied at Glen and Thaba Nchu. This paper gives comparative results for three crops produced with regard to relative profitability and risk of failure. This is done by integrating crop enterprise budgets with crop yield simulations models to calculate per hectare profits over an 81-year period and developing and analyzing cumulative probability functions.Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty,

Causes of household food insecurity in Koredegaga Peasant Association, Oromiya Zone, Ethiopia

The main objective of the study was to examine the determinants of households' food security using a logistic regression procedure. The model was initially fitted with eleven factors, of which six were found to be significant, and all exhibited the expected signs. These include farmland size, ox ownership, fertilizer application, education level of household heads, household size, and per capita production. The result was analyzed further to compute partial effects and to conduct simulation studies on significant determinant factors. Analysis of partial effects revealed that an introduction to fertilizer use and an improvement in the educational levels of household heads lead to relatively greater probability of food security. On the other hand, simulations were conducted on the basis of the base category of farmers, representing food secure households, revealed that both educational levels of household heads and fertilizer application by farmers have relatively high potential to more than double the number of food secure households in the study area following improvements in these factors.Food Security and Poverty,

Enhancing food and livelihood security in the context of the food and financial crisis: challenges and opportunities for small scale rainwater harvesting and conservation

The world recently experienced the food and financial crisis. The food crisis was an indicator of the challenges towards sufficiently feeding an increasing world population. Food production through rainfed and irrigated agriculture account for the bulk of the freshwater used globally but the water is still sufficient to meet the MDG goal on hunger reduction. Agricultural water management is thus an important challenge for feeding humanity; creates the need to find sustainable methods of managing water that will include all water users. Some of these methods include rainwater harvesting which has great potential in increasing food production as compared to irrigation. This paper aims to identify challenges and opportunities for small scale rainwater harvesting in enhancing food and livelihoods security. Given the large array of practices that are classified as rainwater harvesting, infield rainwater harvesting (IRWH) developed and mainly practised in the Free State Province, South Africa is used. The technique has been in use in villages around Thaba Nchu for a couple of years. Previous studies have shown that the technique increased yield significantly, reduced risk and thus improved household food security. The paper traces the evolution of the technique based of previous studies and recent data, to identify the potential and challenges faced by adopting households. It is concluded that IRWH has great potential to improve household food security as well as contribute to sustainable rural livelihoods mainly as it can reduce dependence on market sourced food supplies.food security, livelihoods, rainwater harvesting, household, yield, Food Security and Poverty, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Towards an Analytical Framework for Assessing Property Rights to Natural Resources: A Case Study in the Communal Areas of Zimbabwe

A taxonomy for describing property rights to natural resources is described and applied in a Zimbabwean case study. The taxonomy allows: tenures to be systematically compared and contrasted; incentives for natural resource management to be identified; and the evolution of tenure to natural resources to be assessed. In the case study, we find: key differences between tenure types, all termed "communal"; a wide range of tenure arrangements that transcend concepts of "tree" and "land tenure"; information suggesting that the promotion of tree planting may work on some tenure types, but is likely to fail on others; and that the evolution of indigenous tenure to natural resources seems to have been somewhat immune from external changes in institutional systems. Prospects for further theoretical and empirical advances are discussed within the context of the property rights framework presented

Causes of household food insecurity in Koredegaga Peasant Association, Oromiya Zone, Ethiopia

The main objective of the study was to examine the determinants of households' food security using a logistic regression procedure. The model was initially fitted with eleven factors, of which six were found to be significant, and all exhibited the expected signs. These include farmland size, ox ownership, fertilizer application, education level of household heads, household size, and per capita production. The result was analyzed further to compute partial effects and to conduct simulation studies on significant determinant factors. Analysis of partial effects revealed that an introduction to fertilizer use and an improvement in the educational levels of household heads lead to relatively greater probability of food security. On the other hand, simulations were conducted on the basis of the base category of farmers, representing food secure households, revealed that both educational levels of household heads and fertilizer application by farmers have relatively high potential to more than double the number of food secure households in the study area following improvements in these factors

Causes of Household Food Insecurity in Koredegaga Peasant Association, Oromiya Zone, Ethiopia

The main objective of the study is to examine the determinants of households' food security using a logistic regression procedure. Initially the model was fitted with eleven factors of which six were found to be significant and all had the expected signs. These include farm land size, ox ownership, fertilizer application, education level of household heads, household size, and per capita production. The result obtained was further analyzed to compute partial effects and to conduct simulation studies on significant factors. Analysis of partial effects revealed that an introduction to fertilizer use and an improvement in the educational level of household heads give relatively higher changes in the probably of food security. On the other hand, simulations conducted on the basis of the base category of farmers, representing food secure households, revealed that both educational levels of household heads and fertilizer applications by farmers have relatively high potential to more than double the number of food secure households in the study area following improvements in these factors

CREATING AGRIBUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR SMALL SCALE FARMERS IN THABA NCHU BY INTRODUCING WATER HARVESTING TECHNIQUES: A PROFITABILITY AND RISK ANALYSIS

Thaba Nchu is a semi-arid area with low and erratic annual rainfall not exceeding 600mm. Various dryland crops are produced with relatively low yields and high risk of failure. Lack of appropriate technology and other constraints has led to most of the arable land being unused thus restricting agribusiness opportunities in an area where unemployment and food insecurity are thriving. Rainwater harvesting has a huge potential to increase crop yields in Thaba Nchu and reduce the risk of losses, and thus improve food security and enhance sustainability. Different in-field rainwater harvesting (IRWH) techniques have been tested and applied at Glen and Thaba Nchu. This paper gives comparative results for three crops produced with regard to relative profitability and risk of failure. This is done by integrating crop enterprise budgets with crop yield simulations models to calculate per hectare profits over an 81-year period and developing and analyzing cumulative probability functions

A Micro-Level Analysis of Vulnerability to Climate Change by Smallholder Farmers in Semi-Arid Areas of Zimbabwe

Using household survey data from a random sample of 180 households in Gweru and Lupane district, we found the distribution of vulnerability among households was skewed with mean 0.76. On average 89% of the households had a probability of more than 0.5 making them vulnerable to food insecurity and 11% were not vulnerable to food insecurity. The gender of household head, farming experience, household income, and livestock ownership had strong influence on household cereal production and hence their vulnerability to climate changes. In addition, social networks and use of hired labour positively influences crop productivity. Overally, development policies that increase household income, boost livestock ownership and enhance social capital improve crop production, which is critical to boost household adaptive capacity to climate change. There is need to link climate change policies to broader rural development policies especially in developing nations