Efficiency Impact of the Communal Land Distribution Program in Northern Ethiopia

A rapid increase in population in sub-Saharan Africa has caused a decrease in farm size, an increase in the number of landless farmers, and soil erosion in communal forests due to increasing utilization. Ethiopia has addressed this problem by introducing an epoch-making privatization policy for the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2020-06, Vol.12 (11), p.4436
Main Authors: Oniki, Shunji, Berhe, Melaku, Takenaka, Koichi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Agroforestry
Developing countries
Efficiency
Employment
Experimental methods
Farm income
Farmers
Farms
Forestry
Households
Labor shortages
Land conservation
Land degradation
Land use
LDCs
Mountainous areas
Natural resources
Population
Privatization
Registration
Rural areas
Soil erosion
Stochasticity
Sustainability
Towns
Trees
Urban areas
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Summary:A rapid increase in population in sub-Saharan Africa has caused a decrease in farm size, an increase in the number of landless farmers, and soil erosion in communal forests due to increasing utilization. Ethiopia has addressed this problem by introducing an epoch-making privatization policy for the allocation of communal land to landless farmers. This policy promotes the economic utilization of the communal land while protecting natural resources. Hitherto, few studies have evaluated the impact of the policy. We evaluate the effect of the communal land distribution policy for tree-planting using technical efficiency of farm production by estimating a stochastic production function model in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. We compare the technical efficiencies of farm production between both participating and nonparticipating farms in the program using a quasi-experimental method. The results reveal the improvement of technical efficiency through communal land distribution. Therefore, program activities could increase farm incomes while maintaining land conservation. Thus, the allocation of communal land promotes sustainable land utilization in the mountainous areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su12114436