ethiopia | Agriculture

Sustainable land management practices improve agricultural productivity

The agriculture sector in Ethiopia is the most important sector for sustaining growth and reducing poverty. It accounts for 50% of GDP, 88% of export value, and is a source of employment for more than 85% of the country’s population of more than 70 million. However, lack of adequate nutrient supply, the depletion of soil organic matter, and soil erosion are major obstacles to sustained agricultural production.


In response, considerable public resources have been mobilized to develop soil and promote productivity enhancing and natural resource conserving technologies or practices to farmers.The current practice is to promote the same technology in all agro-ecology types as assuming one size fits all. It is not clearly known, however, which technology works where. The objective of the paper is to investigate the impact of different sustainable land management practices on crop productivity, with a particular focus on reduced tillage and stone bunds in two different agro-ecology zones, defined here with reference to rainfall abundance. This information would assist policymakers in their efforts to reduce poverty and promote natural resource management strategies. This brief is based on a study that used rural household survey data to analyze the impact of sustainable land management (SLM) practices on agricultural performance in the Ethiopian highlands.

EfD Authors

Keywords

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Centers

  • ethiopia

Type of publication

  • Policy brief

Reference

Menale Kassie, John Pender, Mahmud Yesuf, Gunnar Kohlin, Randall A. Bluffstone and Elias Mulugeta, Sustainable land management practices improve agricultural productivity, EfD Policy Brief 2008.

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