Climate and Agro-Ecological Zones
Ethiopian Crops and Farming Systems
Environmental Degradation and Food Security


Climate and Agro-Ecological Zones

From the sweltering dry deserts of Somali Ogaden in the east, Sudan in the west and the Danakil in the North, the land sweeps up, rising through semi-arid lowlands and pockets of tropical jungle, to montane forests and on to alpine pastures on the slopes of the Simien, Bale and Ghugi mountain ranges, all of which top 4000m, and all of which are home to numerous endemic species of flora and fauna.

Average temperatures in Ethiopia range from an annual of mean 34.5° C in the Danakil Depression, to below zero in the upper reaches of Mt Ras Degen (4,620 metres) where light snow falls most years. In between are vast areas of plateaux and marginal slopes where mean annual temperatures are between 10° and 20° C.

Rainfall too correlates with altitude, usually exceeding 900mm annually in areas over 1,500m above sea level. In the lowlands it is more erratic, usually below 600mm average. There is strong annual variation across the country, hampering agricultural planning and, in the absence of effective water resource management, threatening food security. Figure 3. Long term average annual rainfall (mm.) [Click to view picture]

Temperature and rainfall, together with topography and soil type, determine the moisture availability, vegetation type and agricultural productivity. The FAO has classified 50 percent of the land as having sufficient moisture for annual crops and another 16 percent as being reliable for perennial crops.

Natural vegetation in Ethiopia is influenced by five biomes: Savanna, Montane, Tropical Thickets, Wooded Steppe, and Desert biomes (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1996). The multitude of agro-ecological zones (AEZs) is traditionally classified into five categories based on altitude and temperature: bereha, kola, weinadega, dega and wurch. Inclusion of rainfall however is also important in classifying the common agro-ecological zones:
 

Ref: http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Counprof/Ethiopia/Ethiopia.htm#3.%20CLIMATE%20AND%20AGRO%20ECOLOGICAL

The South Westerly Monsoon, originating from the South Atlantic, is one of the country's three moisture-bearing wind systems. It brings the greatest amount of moisture during the main rainy season (May–October). The small rains (February-/May) originate from the Indian Ocean and feed the southern and eastern highland areas. The third rainfall system also originates from the Indian Ocean, and feeds the southern half of the country any time between October and January, and March to May. The mean annual rainfall is highest (above 2,700 mm) in the south-western highlands, gradually decreasing to below 100 mm in the eastern lowlands of the Afar. The mean annual temperature ranges from a high of 35°C in the Afar to 10°C or lower in the highlands above 2,500m. From November to January in the highlands above 1,500m, diurnal temperatures can range between below freezing at night, with frost, to over 25°C during the day. (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GEFSEP.php)

Ethiopian Crops and Farming Systems

When Russian plant geneticist N.I. Vavilov arrived to Ethiopia in the 1920s, he found so much genetic diversity that he included it in the great centres of crop plant diversity as The Abyssinian Gene Centre. Virtually the whole complex of seed crops from the South West Asian and Mediterranean centres of crop origin were found there. On wheat variation Vavilov says that "Abyssinia occupies the first place", on barley there is "an exceptional diversity of forms". But he also found impressive diversity of native crops (such as teff), sorghum, millets and grain legumes, oil crops, vegetables and spices. (http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=374)

The Ethiopian plateau is rolling uplands; immense cultivated expanses of deep rich soils. From June to September it is green. In December it is tan-yellow with ripe grain and stubble. In March the grey-black, ploughed fields of subsistence farms colour the land. A large variety of crops are grown; cereals (t’eff, corn, wheat, barley, sorghum, millet, oats, etc.); pulses (horse beans, chick-peas, haricot beans, field peas, lentils, soybean, and vetch);  oilseeds (linseed, nigerseed, fenugreek, noug, rapeseed, sunflower, castor bean, groundnuts, etc.), stimulants (coffee, tea, chat, tobacco, etc.) fibers (cotton, sisal, flax, etc.) fruits (banana, orange, grape, papaya, lemon, menderin, apple, pineapple, mango, avocado, etc.) vegetables (onion, tomato, carrot, cabbage, etc.), root and tuber (potato, enset, sweet-potatoes, beets, yams, etc.), sugarcane and Enset. (http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Counprof/Ethiopia/Ethiopia.htm#3.%20CLIMATE%20AND%20AGRO%20ECOLOGICAL)

Two of the main staple crops, the cereal teff (Eragrostis tef) and the root crop enset (Ensete ventricosa), are endemic, and many non endemic crops, like durum wheat (Triticum durum), have their highest genetic diversity in Ethiopia. (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GEFSEP.php) Other crops with high genetic diversity in Ethiopia include cereals— barley (Hordeum vulgare), finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolour); pulses— faba bean (Vicia faba), field pea (Pisum sativum - including the endemic var. abyssinicum), chick pea (Cicer arietinum) and grass pea (Lathyrus sativus); oil crops—linseed (Linum sativum), niger seed (Guizotia abyssinca), safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) and sesame (Sesamum indicum); and root crops— anchote (Coccinia abyssinica), ‘Oromo or Wollaita dinich' (Plectranthus edulis), and yams (Dioscorea spp.). Over 100 plant species used as crops have been identified in Ehtiopia. (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GEFSEP.php)

According to Westphal (1975) there are four major agricultural systems in Ethiopia: pastoralism, shifting cultivation, grain-based cultivation, and ensetbased cultivation. However we can add to this the agro-forestry systems of coffee and non-timber forest products which occur in some areas [http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/enset/descrip.shtml].

Grain based Agricutlural Systems in Ethiopia

An estimated 16.5 million hectares are under cultivation. The principal grains are teff, wheat and barley in the highlands (optimally at altitudes from 1800m to 2200m) and corn, sorghum, and millet in the lowlands. T’eff occupies the largest area (1.4 million hectares). Indigenous to Ethiopia it forms the staple diet of the highlands and urban centres, furnishing flour to make an unlevenned bread called injera. It is a delicate crop, with a high labour requirement, yields very poorly compared to other cereal crops. Barley is grown mostly between 2,000 and 3,500 meters. It is used in the production of t’ella, a local beer.

Common warm weather crops; corn, sorghum, and millet are cultivated mostly at lower altitudes along the western, south-western, and eastern peripheries of the country. These three grains are the staple foods for a large part of the population, including pastoralists. Sorghum and millet are drought resistant and grow well at low elevations where rainfall is less reliable.  Sorghum is particularly important in northern Ethiopia, including in the highland areas of western Tigray. Corn is grown chiefly between elevations of l500m and 2200m requiring large amounts of rainfall for good harvests. https://www.fas.usda.gov/pecad2/highlights/2002/10/ethiopia/baseline/Eth_Crop_Production.htm

Warm Weather Crop Regions

Pulses
Pulses occupy 13 percent of the croplands, providing the principal protein source and important dietary supplement to cereal consumption. Pulses are used for making wot (stew), often served as a main dish (especially during Christian fasting times). 

https://www.fas.usda.gov/pecad2/highlights/2002/10/ethiopia/baseline/Eth_Crop_Production.htm

Enset based Agricultural Systems

Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is the main crop of a sustainable indigenous Ethiopian system that ensures food security for more than 10 million people in the southern highlands. Enset is related to the banana plant and is produced primarily for the large quantity of carbohydrate-rich food found in the base of it stem and underground corm but also provides fiber, animal forage, construction materials, and medicines. The main enset products are kocho, a fermented bread-like staple; bulla, a lightly fermented flower, used to make a thick porridge called gunfo; and amicho, the boiled corm.

(http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/enset/enset.pdf )

Enset looks like a large, thick, single-stemmed banana plant. Like the banana it has an underground corm, a bundle of leaf sheaths that form the “pseudo-stem” and the large leaves. Enset, however, is larger than banana, reaching up to 10m tall, with a pseudo-stem up to one meter in diameter. The leaves are more erect than those of a banana plant and can be five meters long and nearly one meter wide. Banana plants normally form suckers (clusters baby plants at the base) but enset does not. It belongs to the order Scitamineae, the family Musaceae, (as does the banana)and the genus Ensete (banana is in the genus Musa).

 

Within the enset agricultural system, four sub-systems can be recognized, based on environmental and cultural criteria, and the extent of depence upon the plant as a staple crop.

The first sub-system uses enset as the staple food and main crop. The Sidama and Gurage peoples grow enset (Figure 2.2) in dense plantations, dependent upon cattle to produce manure for fertilizing them. Population densities in these communities are commonly 200-400 persons/km² or more.

Another enset sub-system used by ethnic groups such as the Gamo, Hadiya, Wolayta, and Ari uses enset as a co-staple with cereals and tubers. Within ethnic groups there may be differences between households too, depending on wealth or variation in climates between localities. Richer houses tend to use cereals more than enset. Cattle are again important for manure to fertilize enset fields and oxen are used to plow cereal fields. Both kocho and amicho (boiled corm) are eaten. Population density among these groups is high, sometimes over 200 persons/km².

A third enset sub-system relies upon cereals as the major crop, with enset and root crops as secondary. The Oromo farmers of south-western Ethiopia exemplify this system. Both the hoe and plow are used to grow cereals and Enset is used to guarantee food security if cereal crops fail. It is eaten in the form of kocho and amicho. Livestock are important for transport and plowing, but far less so for producing manure as enset fertilizer.

The fourth enset sub-system uses tubers as the primary crops, with cereals and enset and cattle-herding of minor importance. Groups such as the Sheko in the south-west practice hoe-based shifting cultivation, in which yams and taro are most important. Enset is processed by cutting the corm into pieces and cooking over hot stones. Population densities are low in these groups, settlements are small and dispersed.

(http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/enset/enset.pdf)

Pastoralism

Pastoralism is a subsistence pattern in which people make their living by tending herds of large animals. The species of animals vary with the region of the world, but all are domesticated herbivores that live in herds. Horses are the preferred species of Mongols. In East Africa, it is primarily cattle. In Southwest Asia, it is mainly sheep and goats. In the more arid lowland areas of the Southwest Asia and North and East Africa it is often camels. Among the Saami people (or Lapps) of northern Scandinavia, it is reindeer.

Pastoralism is often an adaptation to semi-arid open country where farming cannot be sustained without importing water for irrigation. It is usually the optimal subsistence pattern in these areas, allowing independence from any particular local environment. When there is a drought, pastoralists disperse their herds or move them to new areas.

The Ethiopian lowlands are the home of a diverse array of peoples made up of 29 ethnic groups, of which more than 90 percent are pastoralists. Livestock provide subsistence and income for over 10 million people and meat, milk and fibre for two dozen major towns and cities within or adjacent to the lowlands. Afar, Somali and Borana are the major pastoral groups in the north, east and south respectively. Grazing land in the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid zones cover 61 - 65 percent of Ethiopia. Diverse modes of crop and animal production are seen.

The arid zone altitude ranges from 126 metres below sea level to 1,200m asl; annual rainfall averages 100-600mm. Mean temperatures exceed 27ºC. Crops are irrigated. For example in the Rift Valley and escarpments most areas are wooded grassland. Crop production is only along rivers, in state farms. Cotton, maize and sorghum are the dominant annual crops, perennials include are citrus, banana, and mango. Nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralism (goat, sheep, camel and cattle) is the major land use. Dominant trees and shrubs include: Prosopis juliflora, Balanites aegypitiaca, Rumex nervosus, Acacia spp., Tamarindus indica, and Euclea schimepri. Among wildlife wild-ass, zebra, leopard and ostrich are known to exist.

The semiarid zone (400 – 2,200m) has 300 – 800mm mean annual rainfall. Hilly areas and stony terrain are under wooded or bush grassland and flat land is under rain-fed crops. Extensive grazing is the major land use and cattle, goats, sheep, and donkeys are the major stock.

https://www.fas.usda.gov/pecad2/highlights/2002/10/ethiopia/baseline/Eth_Crop_Production.htm 

Coffee Agriculture

Ethiopia is the only African country with traditional coffee drinking culture, reflected in the coffee ceremony, a daily ritual performed by women. Village women gather in a neighbor's home to share news and nourish friendships. More than just a coffee break, the ceremony is an expression of respect to elders and represents a spiritual time of day to give thanks for the blessings of life.

Legend traces the discovery of coffee back to the 3rd century when Kaldi, an Ethiopian goatherd, noticed his goats, having eaten red cherries growing wild on shrubs, were bleating and kicking their heels with charged levels of energy. Kaldi shared his discovery with monks, who soon found that consuming the berries helped them stay awake during long hours of prayer. Although the discovery date is clouded in mystery, connoisseur and historians agree that Ethiopia comprises the soul for coffee production throughout the world. Chosen by nature, Arabica coffee has been growing wild in the Ethiopian forests for thousands of years. Man came into the picture as a cultivator approximately in the 15th century. Arabica coffee was distributed to the rest of the world by nomads, who wrapped the beans in fat, chewing them for energy and sustenance on their adventures throughout Africa and the Middle East.

(http://www.treecrops.org/country/ethiopia.htm)

Ethiopian highland coffees are the best in the world.  It is the arabica type coffee which is native to Ethiopia, but also introduced and produced by Latin American countries. Other African coffees are the robusta type which bears flowers and fruits simultaneously through most of the year. Arabica coffee in contrast has a short harvesting season. Preferring altitudes of l000m to 2000m, it grows wild in many areas of the country. Most production is in the southern regions of Kefa, Sidamo, Ilubabor, Gamo Gofa, as well as Walega in the east and Harerge in the west. 98% of production is on peasants smallholdings of less than 1ha. The remaining 2% comes from commercial (state and private) farms. Total production area is estimated at half million hectares. Different rainfall distribution patterns in southern, eastern and western Ethiopia means harvest occurs at different times of the year giving a year-round supply of fresh coffee.

(https://www.fas.usda.gov/pecad2/highlights/2002/10/ethiopia/baseline/Eth_Crop_Production.htm)

There are four types of production system in Ethiopia: forest coffee, semi-forest coffee, garden coffee and plantation coffee. Ninety-five per cent of the coffee produced under these systems is organic. Forest coffee is found in south and south-western Ethiopia.

Forest coffee is self-sown and grown under the full coverage of natural forest trees, and has a wide diversity for selection and breeding for disease resistance. It offers high yields and top-quality aroma and flavour. Forest coffee accounts for about 10 per cent of Ethiopia's total coffee production.

Semi-Forest Coffee. This production system is also found in the south and south-western parts of the country. Farmers acquire forest land for coffee farms, and then thin and select the forest trees to ensure both adequate sunlight and proper shade for the coffee trees. They slash the weeds once a year to facilitate the coffee bean harvest. Semi-forest coffee accounts for about 35 per cent of Ethiopia's total coffee production.

Garden coffee is grown in the vicinity of farmer's residences, mainly in the southern and eastern parts of the country. The coffee is planted at low densities, ranging from 1,000 to 1,800 trees per hectare, is mostly fertilized with organic waste and is intercropped with other crops. Currently, garden coffee accounts for about 35 per cent of Ethiopia's total coffee production but this is set to increase with the introduction of the sy    stem into south-west Ethiopia.

Plantation coffee includes that grown on plantations owned by the former state and some well-managed smallholder coffee farms. In this production system, recommended seedlings are used, and proper spacing, mulching, manuring, weeding, shade-regulation and pruning are practiced. Only state-owned plantations use chemical fertilizers and herbicides and this accounts for only about five per cent of total production. Well-managed smallholder coffee farms account for about 15 per cent of Ethiopia's total production. (http://www.treecrops.org/country/ethiopia.htm)

More info on forest coffee production, fair trade and organic certification:

http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/news.cfm?id=ethiopian_farmers 

Ch’at

Ch’at (Catha edulis), or Qat in Somali and Arabic, is Ethiopia’s the second major export. Growing in similar ecological conditions to Coffee, it’s cultivation is in direct competition with coffee. The fresh leaves of the shrub are chewed as a stimulant, popular in Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, Yemen and Somalia. It is a major source of domestic revenue in southern and eastern Ethiopia. Much of the crop is ferried daily by air and truck to Djibouti and Somaliland via Harar and Dire Dawa. For farmers it offers far quicker returns on investment than coffee, although much of the sale price accrues to the merchants and distributors.

(https://www.fas.usda.gov/pecad2/highlights/2002/10/ethiopia/baseline/Eth_Crop_Production.htm)

Environmental Degradation and Food Security

 

Eighty five percent of the Ethiopian population is rural and dependant on agricultural livelihoods. Agriculture accounts for 50% of GDP and 85% of national foreign exchange earnings. The productivity and growth of the economy is being seriously eroded by unsustainable land management practices in both cropping and grazing lands. The Abyssinian Highlands should be one of the most productive regions in the world, blessed with high rainfall, a comfortable range of temperatures and rich soils. Yet, Ethiopia is among the poorest of countries and with poverty and land resource degradation feeding off each other the situation continues to deteriorate. Direct losses of productivity from land degradation are estimated at a minimum 3% of the agricultural GDP (or 1.5% of total GDP) At the same time population growth is increasing pressure on the land.

 (www.fao.org/landandwater/swlwpnr/reports/y_lm/z_mx/mx_doc/mxtx511.doc).

 

The most visible physical impacts of land degradation are the formation of gullies. The recovery of vegetation is prevented by free-range grazing and unregulated felling of trees for firewood and other purposes. (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GEFSEP.php) One study (EHRS- FAO 1986) study concluded that water erosion had significantly degraded 27 million ha in mid 1980’s (almost half of the highland area), of which 14 million ha was severely eroded and over 2 million ha beyond reclamation.  Erosion rates were estimated at 130 tons/ha/yr for cropland and 35 tons/ha/yr average for all land in the highlands.

(www.fao.org/landandwater/swlwpnr/reports/y_lm/z_mx/mx_doc/mxtx511.doc)

 

Map 1 illustrates the regional extent and intensity of soil degradation.

                       

Causes of land degradation in Ethiopia are

Deforestation

Unsustainable arable farming techniques

Use of dung and crop residues for fuel

Pollution of land with chemicals

Overstocking of grazing lands

 

Deforestation

Forestation has fallen from 65% of the country and 90% of the highlands in the 18^th century to 2.2% and 5.6% respectively in the year 2000. Deforestation continues at a rate of at least 62,000 ha per year. Woodland is mostly converted to cropland. Reduced vegetative cover accelerates soil erosion and the change in land use changes the hydrological pattern, reducing infiltration and increasing stream flow during and after rain.

 

Estimate levels of forestation:

	Natural	1950’s	1990	2000
All Ethiopia	65%	16%	2.7%	2.2%
Highlands	90%	20%	?%	5.6%

(www.fao.org/landandwater/swlwpnr/reports/y_lm/z_mx/mx_doc/mxtx511.doc)

 

Arable Land Management

Most arable land (70%) in the highland is in cereals which leave bare areas of soil during some or all of the growing season. 20% of the cultivated area is in perennial crops including coffee, enset, oil seeds, fruit trees and cotton. Pulses occupy the remaining ten percent. Enset however provides good ground cover, needs manure, and is a good crop to maintain fertility.

 

The annual crops are mainly planted after the rains begin, allowing early rains to directly impact the soil contributing to high erosion levels. Additionally, as population pressure increases, cultivation spreads onto more fragile marginal lands and fallow periods are reduced, hastening the degradation.

(www.fao.org/landandwater/swlwpnr/reports/y_lm/z_mx/mx_doc/mxtx511.doc)

 

Dung and Crop Residues

As woodland is converted to cultivation, dung and crop residues are use increasingly for fuel. A 1989-90 study suggests that dung and crop residues supply 18% of rural energy consumption nationally. Studies in two upland villages showed maize and sorghum stalks providing 69% of fuel in one and dung providing 50% of fuel the other. With fuel wood increasing in scarcity these figures can only have increased since.

 

Energy use is perhaps the most critical land degradation issue in Ethiopia. Current demand for fuel wood is estimated at 55million m³/annum, but sustainable production is only around 13million m³/annum. Even if per capita is reduced and tree-planting programs meet some of the gap, population growth and increasing use of crop residues and dung for fuel will increase pressure on soil productivity.

(www.fao.org/landandwater/swlwpnr/reports/y_lm/z_mx/mx_doc/mxtx511.doc)

 

Artificual Fertilisers

The Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG-2000) programme was started by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1995 to boost food crop production through a focused campaign to get farmers to use chemical fertilizer along with high yielding varieties (HYVs) and pesticides through credit schemes and subsidized prices. Prior to 1995, Ethiopia had one of the lowest per capita uses of fertilizer in the world. But since 1998, the subsidy on fertilizer has been withdrawn while the price of fertilizer has risen. In 2002, many farmers were heavily in debt and withdrew from the fertilizer schemes. Many parts of the country were also hit by drought with the result that yields declined, or crops failed completely and the government requested food aid for more than 14 million people, nearly a quarter of the total population.

 

The expanding horticultural production is making increasing use of chemical inputs, often with little or no understanding of how to use them correctly. A survey by the PAN-UK (Pesticides Action Network, UK) found malathion being sprayed on the leaves of the local stimulant, chat (Catha edulis), in order to make them shiny and more attractive to purchasers. The use of agrochemicals in smallholder agriculture is rapidly increasing and misuse of pesticides and fertilizers is damaging human health and polluting the surrounding environment.

(http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GreeningEthiopia.php),

 

Overgrazing Of Pasturelands

An estimated 20% of total soil erosion is from pasturelands (Melese 1992) and livestock density data show that current stocking rates are well above optimum rates.

Table 5. Current And Optimum Livestock Stocking Densities (hectares/TLU)

Zone	Stocking Rates
	Current	Optimum
HPP (Highlands)	1.49	1.45
HPC (Highlands)	1.28	1.51
LPC (Highlands)	1.51	3.21
Lowlands	5.44	4.07

Source: Adapted from the EFAP (Ethiopia 1993, p. 49).

 

 

Among the interacting root causes of land degradation in Ethiopia are:

 

 (www.fao.org/landandwater/swlwpnr/reports/y_lm/z_mx/mx_doc/mxtx511.doc)

 

 

These causes follow on from an interaction of the following factors

Erratic climactic conditions; periodic droughts, worsened by global climate change

Population growth (human and livestock) without changes in agricultural practise

Patterns of land tenure

Institutional overlap, duplication of effort and shortage of financial resources

Lack of rural infrastructure and markets

Lack of stakeholder participation in management decisions, especially at the local level

Weak extension services

Low agricultural productivity due to poor practise leading to risk aversion and reliance on livestock as wealth

 

Erratic Climactic Conditions

There is strong inter-annual variability of rainfall all over the country. (FAO, 1984b). http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Counprof/Ethiopia/Ethiopia.htm Sequences of drier years reduce vegetation cover. These may be followed by wetter years with heavy rainfall, conducive to high levels of soil loss.

 

Population Growth

In 1994 the nationa population was 53.48 million, of which 86.3 percent was rural. It grew at the rate of 2.9% annually from 1984 to 1994; by 2003, it exceeded 67 million and could reach 94.5 million by 2015. The population has an average age of just 21.8 years, with 44% under 15 years and the group 15 to 25 years making up more than 20%. (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GreeningEthiopia.php)  But the pattern of agriculture is still essentially small holder, relying on expanding the cultivated area into marginal land, rather than intensification of current usage. There is alsa a continuing tendency to hold wealth as livestock, often cattle, further impacting grazing resources. www.fao.org/landandwater/swlwpnr/reports/y_lm/z_mx/mx_doc/mxtx511.doc

 

Land Ownership

According to Edwards (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GreeningEthiopia.php), the most serious ultimate causes of land degradation is the removal of self-governance from local communities which starting from the 1850s. This undermined the traditional systems of land management, as farmers were only able to exercise some control over their land when it was growing a crop. The central control of local farming communities continued under the military government (1974-1991) and did nothing to restore the farmers' confidence in controlling their own affairs and investing in their land.

 

These negative trends are now being reversed through the present government's emphasis on the decentralization of power down to the wereda (district), the lowest level of official government intervention, and their constituent kebeles (boroughs). Each wereda is also the seat in the Federal House of Representatives – the Parliament. Elected officials of the kebele run the day-to-day affairs of the local communities.

(http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GreeningEthiopia.php)

 

Institutional Issues

While a number of institutions are charged with responsibility for dealing with land degradation (Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization, Regional Agricultural Bureaus, the Environment Authority, etc.) budgets for these organizations are inadequate and with the decentralization programme to zone and woreda levels institutional capacity has been further stressed. Institutional responsibilities are not always well defined and donor programmes are not always well integrated with national efforts.

 

Rural Markets

An important part of moving to sustainable land management is the development of an appropriate rural infrastructure to encourage alternative livelihoods and to develop local and regional markets. This infrastructure is lacking in Ethiopia greatly restricting the economic movement of produce from areas of surplus to areas of need.

 

Participation and Extension

Because of the weak infrastructure, the shortages of funding and lack of motivation, extension services are weak and serve only a small part of rural areas. There is a poor historical record of local participation in finding approaches to dealing with the local problems of unsustainable land management. Understanding local and regional issues on the basis of indigenous knowledge is a key component of successful programmes. (www.fao.org/landandwater/swlwpnr/reports/y_lm/z_mx/mx_doc/mxtx511.doc)

 

“Soil degradation is thus the most immediate environmental problem facing Ethiopia. The loss of soil and the deterioration in fertility, moisture storage capacity, and structure of the remaining soils, all reduce the country's agricultural productivity. ” http://www.etff.org/Oldwebsite/badeg_def.htm