Changing farm sizes and farmers’ demographics in Ethiopia

Changing farm sizes and farmers’ demographics in Ethiopia
Author: Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 15
Release: 2023-05-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Important changes in farms and farm demographics are noted in Ethiopia since 2004/05. These changes have important implications on discussions of the future of Ethiopian agriculture. Comparing the national agricultural sample survey of the Ethiopian Statistical Services (ESS) data between 2004/05 and 2016/17, we find that: (1) Average farm sizes of smallholders declined by more than 10 percent over the decade, from 1.2 to 0.9 hectares; the decline in farm sizes of female headed households is more pronounced at over 21 percent, (2) Farmers are becoming older: the share of Ethiopian farmers under 35 declined from 36 to 30 percent, (3) The youth have smaller and declining farm sizes, declining from 0.9 to 0.8 hectares, (4) Rental markets are becoming more important, with 12 percent of crop land being rented in at the end of the period; especially the youth rely more on rental markets to access land, with 20 percent of their land rented in, and (5) Education levels are rapidly increasing, with the share of illiterate youth farmers declining from 56 to 30 percent. This has important implications for the future of Ethiopian agriculture and the overall economy.

An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?

An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?
Author: Diao, Xinshen, ed.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 548
Release: 2020-12-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0896293807

Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.

Innovations as Key to the Green Revolution in Africa

Innovations as Key to the Green Revolution in Africa
Author: Andre Bationo
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 1339
Release: 2011-08-30
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 904812543X

Africa can achieve self sufficiency in food production through adoption of innovations in the agriculture sector. Numerous soil fertility and crop production technologies have been generated through research, however, wide adoption has been low. African farmers need better technologies, more sustainable practices, and fertilizers to improve and sustain their crop productivity and to prevent further degradation of agricultural lands. The agricultural sector also needs to be supported by functional institutions and policies that will be able to respond to emerging challenges of globalization and climate change.

Farming Systems and Poverty

Farming Systems and Poverty
Author: John A. Dixon
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2001
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9789251046272

A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.

Globalization and Poverty

Globalization and Poverty
Author: Ann Harrison
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 674
Release: 2007-11-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226318001

Over the past two decades, the percentage of the world’s population living on less than a dollar a day has been cut in half. How much of that improvement is because of—or in spite of—globalization? While anti-globalization activists mount loud critiques and the media report breathlessly on globalization’s perils and promises, economists have largely remained silent, in part because of an entrenched institutional divide between those who study poverty and those who study trade and finance. Globalization and Poverty bridges that gap, bringing together experts on both international trade and poverty to provide a detailed view of the effects of globalization on the poor in developing nations, answering such questions as: Do lower import tariffs improve the lives of the poor? Has increased financial integration led to more or less poverty? How have the poor fared during various currency crises? Does food aid hurt or help the poor? Poverty, the contributors show here, has been used as a popular and convenient catchphrase by parties on both sides of the globalization debate to further their respective arguments. Globalization and Poverty provides the more nuanced understanding necessary to move that debate beyond the slogans.

Assessing the Functioning of Land Rental Markets in Ethiopia

Assessing the Functioning of Land Rental Markets in Ethiopia
Author: Klaus Deininger
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN:

Although a large theoretical literature discusses the possible inefficiency of sharecropping contracts, the empirical evidence on this phenomenon has been ambiguous at best. Household-level fixed-effect estimates from about 8,500 plots operated by households that own and sharecrop land in the Ethiopian highlands provide support for the hypothesis of Marshallian inefficiency. At the same time, a factor adjustment model suggests that the extent to which rental markets allow households to attain their desired operational holding size is extremely limited. Our analysis points towards factor market imperfections (no rental for oxen), lack of alternative employment opportunities, and tenure insecurity as possible reasons underlying such behavior, suggesting that, rather than worrying almost exclusively about Marshallian inefficiency, it is equally warranted to give due attention to the policy framework within which land rental markets operate.

Farewell to Farms

Farewell to Farms
Author: Deborah Fahy Bryceson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2019-05-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0429809786

First published in 1997, this volume asks whether Africa’s future is necessarily rooted in peasant agriculture. The title of this book, Farewell to Farms, is deliberately intended to challenge the widely held view that Africa is the world’s reserve for peasant farming. African rural populations are themselves moving away from a reliance on agriculture. ‘De-agrarianisation’ takes the form of urban migration as well as the expansion of non-agricultural activities in rural areas providing new income sources, occupations and social identities for rural dwellers. Using recent continent-wide case study evidence, the authors assess the impact of de-agrarianisation on household welfare, business performance and national development. Their findings, which reveal new economic trajectories and social patterns emerging from a period of accelerated change, call into question assumptions about Africa’s future place in the world division of labour.

Strategies for Sustainable Land Management in the East African Highlands

Strategies for Sustainable Land Management in the East African Highlands
Author: J. Pender
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 502
Release: 2006
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0896297578

Deforestation, overgrazing, and unsustainable methods of cultivation are threatening agriculture and food security in the highlands of East Africa. In response, economists and other development professionals have turned their attention to combating the pr

A Survey of Agriculture in Ethiopia

A Survey of Agriculture in Ethiopia
Author: Omero Sabatini
Publisher:
Total Pages: 48
Release: 1969
Genre: Agriculture
ISBN:

Report on agriculture in Ethiopia - covers the physical environment, cultivation techniques, rural workers, rural cooperatives, credit cooperatives, agricultural policy, farm equipment and agricultural machinery, foreign trade in agricultural products, etc. Bibliography, maps and statistical tables.

The Conditions of Agricultural Growth

The Conditions of Agricultural Growth
Author: Ester Boserup
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2017-07-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351484532

This book sets out to investigate the process of agrarian change from new angles and with new results. It starts on firm ground rather than from abstract economic theory. Upon its initial appearance, it was heralded as "a small masterpiece, which economic historians should read--and not simply quote"--Giovanni Frederico, Economic History Services. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth remains a breakthrough in the theory of agricultural development. In linking ethnography with economy, developmental studies reached new heights. Whereas "development" had been seen previously as the transformation of traditional communities by the introduction (or imposition) of new technologies, Ester Boserup argues that changes and improvements occur from within agricultural communities, and that improvements are governed not simply by external interference, but by those communities themselves Using extensive analyses of the costs and productivity of the main systems of traditional agriculture, Ester Boserup concludes that technical, economic, and social changes are unlikely to take place unless the community concerned is exposed to the pressure of population growth.