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Migration has become a cause of concern at the global, regional, and national levels. Like the case of many developing countries, Ethiopia has been facing increasing challenges related to rural out-migration. This study aimed to analyze factors that determine rural communities' decision to migrate to internal and international destinations in Habru district of Northeast Ethiopia. Stratified sampling technique has been employed to select a total of 200 household heads in three agroecologies of the study area. Structured questionnaires have been used as a principal primary data collection method and logistic regression has been employed for analysis. The results of the study showed that intravillage conflict, absence of relief assistant, livestock ownership, farm land size, access to information, and household and individual characteristics including family size, sex, and age of the migrants are the dominant determinant factors for rural out-migration. Migration can have a positive outcome in improving livelihoods if comprehensive and holistic policies and strategies are in place. There is also a need to strengthen the link between rural development policy and the disadvantaged groups by designing and implementing different livelihood alternatives including reducing pressure on scarce resources particularly land, integrating health and education services, and creating nonfarm employment opportunities.

Agriculture is a limiting factor for food security in Ethiopia as more than 80% of the population depends on it for livelihoods. In many parts of the country, the frequency and distribution of rainfall and the principal source of water for crop production are getting more unreliable and inadequate and frequent droughts, make irrigation farming indispensable. Despite the high potential for irrigation, the study area remained to be one of the food insecure districts in the region and currently it is supported by the productive safety net program. Information is also missing on the extent to which households who have access to irrigation produce more than those who depend on rainfed agriculture. The study contributes to a comparative analysis of the effect of small scale irrigation. The aim of the study was to analyze the effect of small scale irrigation on the food security of rural households. Data were collected from 185 randomly selected rural households in the Goncha-SisoEnesie district of northwest Ethiopia. Descriptive analysis, household food balance model and binary logit regression were employed as tools of data analysis. The result revealed that out of all sampled households, 74% were food secured and 26% were not. The gap in food calorie availability was high ranging from 753-6659 kcal/adult equivalent/day in the study area. Out of 84 irrigation users, 84.5% of them were food secured; whereas only 65.3% of the total 101 non-irrigation users were food secured. In this study, household size, farmland size, access to irrigation, access to credit services, and income from rainfed crop production were the determinant factors of household food security. Small scale irrigation had a direct and indirect positive effect on enhancing household food security status. Thus, the concerned development partners and policymakers should consider the promotion and expansion of irrigated farming in the area.

Church forests provide a safe habitat for plants and animals, sources of food and traditional medicine, seed bank for native tree species, reduce soil erosion and rich in biodiversity. But the economic values of these important benefits of church forests were not well documented. Therefore, this study was conducted to estimate the mean and total willingness to pay for church forest conservation using open-ended and double bounded contingent valuation formats. In doing so, both cash and labour contributions were used to measure the respondents’ willingness to pay. Primary data were collected from 300 randomly selected households and analyzed using descriptive statistics and bivariate probit model. The estimated mean willingness to pay from the double bounded format (239.79 Ethiopian Birr) is higher than from the open-ended format (178 Ethiopian Birr). Similarly, the estimated mean willingness to contribute labour was also 71.51 and 94.34 man-days for the open-ended and double bounded contingent valuation format, respectively. The comparison indicated that the mean and total willingness to pay from the double bounded format is higher than in the open-ended format. Therefore, researchers, policymakers, and forestry experts should give special attention to the double bounded format rather than to the open-ended format to elicit respondents’ willingness to pay for the conservation of church forests.

Church forests provide secured habitat for plants and animals, seed banks for native plants, source of food and medicines, income source and reduce soil erosion. They are threatened by livestock grazing, harvesting of timber and nontimber forest products, conversion to farmlands and the replacement of indigenous trees by economically important tree species. So, this study aimed to estimate households' willingness to pay for the conservation of church forests using doublebounded contingent valuation method followed by open-ended questions. The study specifically aimed to assess the households' willingness to pay decision, to elicit households' willingness to pay in terms of cash and labor and to analyze factors affecting households' maximum willingness to pay. A total of 300 households was selected using a multistage sampling technique followed by a probability proportional to sample size. The result indicated that the mean willingness to pay of the respondents in cash and labor is 178 ETB and 71.51 man-days per year, respectively. On the other hand, the model result indicated that annual income, social position, membership to mahiber/senbete and size of the land near to church

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The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of khat cultivation on rural households’ income in the Bahir Dar Zuria district using cross-sectional data collected from 180 randomly selected respondents, and supported by focus group discussions in two districts of northwest Ethiopia. The data were analyzed by simple descriptive statistics and beta regression. Results from descriptive statistics show that khat contributes the largest (51%) of farmers’ income, followed by crop sale (33%), sale of livestock and their products (9%), and off-farm and non-farm activities (7%), Empirical findings from the Beta regression model also show that farming experience, education status, the proportion of land allocated for khat cultivation, total working capital of the household, the density of khat trees planted per hectare, and participation in off-farm and non-farm activity have a significant and positive effect on the proportion of khat income of the households. On the contrary, livestock holding, total asset ownership, and access to mobile phones have a significant and negative influence on the proportion of annual khat income of the households. Hence, the cultivation of khat can have a significant effect on the improvement of rural households’ income and standard of living in the districts. However, increased khat production have also serious implications on the market, water resources, and human health. Thus, policymakers need to come up together to understand and devise proper running mechanisms for these controversies of khat production in association with economic, social, and health implications.