Impacts of the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia on livestock

eeu sweden ethiopia | Agriculture Forestry

Impacts of the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia on livestock

We evaluated the impacts of the Ethiopian Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on rural households' holdings of livestock and forest assets/trees. We found no indication that participation in PSNP induces households to disinvest in livestock or trees. In fact, households that participated in the program increased the number of trees planted, but there was no increase in their livestock holdings.

We found no strong evidence that the PSNP protects livestock in times of shock. Shocks appear to lead households to disinvest in livestock, but not in trees. Our results suggest that there is increased forestry activity as a result of PSNP, and that improved credit access encourages households to increase their livestock holdings.

EfD Authors

Assistant Professor Alemu Mekonnen Coordinator and Senior Research Fellow
Professor Jesper Stage Research Fellow

Keywords

Files

Link to related discussion paper 305.4 kB

Centers

eeu sweden
ethiopia

Type of publication

Peer reviewed

Reference

Andersson, Camilla, Alemu Mekonnen, and Jesper Stage, 2011, "Impacts of the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia on livestock and tree holdings of rural households", Journal of Development Economics 94 (1): 119 - 126.

Environment for Development

Environment for Development