This paper aims to review the impacts of drought on agricultural land conversion (ALC) on the one hand and the impacts of ALC on intensifying drought on the other. The paper further investigates coping strategies at three levels; i.e., micro (local), meso (national), and macro (international), in order to mitigate drought impacts that are classified as economic, social, and environmental. This paper shows that ALC, drought and coping strategies are in a reciprocal relationship and can have either a positive or negative influence on each other. The paper concludes that the complex and multidimensional nature of drought requires the development of an integrated approach that focuses on the governments' collaboration with different stakeholders. Such an integrated approach can improve drought risk management implementations, decrease vulnerability and construct resilience and coping capacity at all levels in order to deal with droughts.
Due to the nature of available land as one of the main attractions for investment, land lease marketing in Sub-Saharan Africa is appearing on policy agenda. This paper describes critical land-related institutional and governmental frameworks that have shaped the contemporary land governance and land lease contracts in Ethiopia. It also examines the effectiveness of the land lease process regarding economic, social, and environmental expectations from agricultural outsourcing. Both qualitative and quantitative data analyses were used and results showed that the size of the land cultivated by investors is significantly lower than the agreed-upon size in the contract. Besides, the supply of land to large-scale commercial investors in Ethiopia is made without adequate land use planning, land valuation, and risk analysis. Furthermore, limitations in monitoring systems have contributed to meager socio-economic gains and led to deforestation. Accordingly, the study concludes that supplying vast tracts of farmland to large-scale agricultural investors requires integrated land use planning, land valuation and governance, monitoring systems, and a capacity to implement the various social and environmental laws in coordination with other sectors. Improving rural infrastructure, particularly road, is also indispensable to enhance the level of performance of commercial farms. Last but most importantly, the customary land holding rights of residents should be respected and institutionally recognized.
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.