Agriculture - Sustainable land management
Land degradation threatens food security and the sustainability of agricultural production in many developing countries. In response, government and development agencies have invested substantial resources in promoting sustainable land management technologies (SLMTs). In spite of the great efforts to promote bunds, SLMTs have not been widely adopted by smallholders in many developing countries.
• Why are promoted resource conserving measures not widely adopted by land users?
• Why is there limited success in promoting resource conserving measures?
The research activities on SLM in each EfD center, which depend on the agricultural policy of the specific country, were developed to answer these critical policy questions. So far, research has been conducted on soil conservation adoption, the impacts of the land rental market on productivity and input use, and the impacts of market imperfection on technology adoption. Please see the EfD website for details on the completed research on these issues.
The on-going research activities in this area include a comparative study (of Ethiopia and Kenya in particular) on the impacts of production and consumption risks on sustainable land management technologies (SLMTs) adoption; the impacts of SLMTs on production risk and agricultural productivity; and the impacts of migration and social capital on agricultural investment. In addition, we will assess the impacts of land tenure (land certification) on long term investment and the impacts of gender on productivity in Ethiopia. As part of this research theme, the impact of Sida’s Amhara (Ethiopia) rural development interventions will be assessed using program evaluation methods.
