This chapter compares factors explaining the inter- (interspecific) and intracrop (infraspecific diversity) of cereals grown by villages in Peasant Associations (PAs) of the northern Ethiopian highlands of Amhara and Tigray, building on the household-level analysis presented for the same sites in Chapter 6 [Explaining the diversity of cereal crops and varieties grown on household farms in the highlands of northern Ethiopia by S. Benin, M. Smale and J. Pender, pp. 78-96]. The village is the smallest social unit for policy interventions targeted at sustainable management of crop biodiversity on farms. Villages have the capacity to govern the utilization and conservation of genetic resources, reconciling private and social objectives. Econometric analysis indicates that a combination of factors related to the agroecology of a village, proximity to markets and the characteristics of households and farms within the village influence the level of inter- and intracrop diversity of cereals. Determinants differ between Amhara and Tigray regions. There are no apparent trade-offs between policies seeking to enhance the richness or the equitability among cereal crops or within any single crop grown in villages. Trade-offs may occur among crops, however. Growing modern varieties of maize has a positive effect on the evenness of maize types grown within communities, although modern varieties of wheat have no observable effect. At the village level, markets appear to introduce cereal crop diversity in some cases, while in others, they reduce it. Ambiguity of market effects could reflect local demand relative to local seed supply, or different phases of seed and product market development.
The search for a sustainable land management has become a universal issue. It is especially necessary to discuss sustainable land management and to secure a site with enough feed supply to improve the lives of the farmers in the Ethiopian Highlands. This research studied the Adi Zaboy watershed in Tigray in order to reveal the changes in land management, assess how the different forms of land management affected the vegetation through unsupervised classification and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) analysis with geographic information system (GIS) 10.5 using a WorldView-2 satellite image taken in September 2016 and field investigation, and consider how to allow both environmental preservation and sustainable use of feed resources. The land management types at the research site were classified as "seasonally-closed grazing land", "prohibited grazing and protected forest land", and "free grazing land". On comparing the NDVI of each type of land management, it was found that the seasonally-closed grazing land makes it highly possible to secure and supply feed resources by limiting the grazing period. The expansion of the prohibited grazing and protected forest land is likely to tighten the restriction on the use of resources. Therefore, sustainable land management to secure feed resources may be possible by securing and actively using seasonally-closed grazing land, securing feed by a cut-and-carry, and using satellite images and GIS.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.