Land policy in Ethiopia has been controversial since the fall of the military socialist derg regime in 1991. While the current Ethiopian government has implemented a land policy that is based on state ownership of land (where only usufruct rights are given to land holders), many agricultural economists and international donor agencies have propagated some form of privatized land ownership. This article traces the antagonistic arguments of the two schools of thought in the land reform debate and how their antagonistic principles ‐ fairness vs. efficiency ‐ are played out. It then goes on to explore how these different arguments have trickled down in the formulation of the federal and regional land policies with a particular view on the new Oromia regional land policy as it is considered the most progressive (with regards to tenure security). We provide some empirical material on ongoing practices of implementing the Rural Land Use and Administration Proclamation of Oromia Region. Our analysis suggests that while the laws are conceptual hybrids that accommodate both fairness and efficiency considerations, regional bureaucrats have selectively implemented those elements of the proclamation that are considered to strengthen the regime’s political support in the countryside.
Climate change is an unprecedented global threat to fundamental life-supporting systems and people's livelihoods and is expected to aggravate development challenges. Subsistence-oriented smallholder farmers of developing regions, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, are highly vulnerable to these changes given their lower adaptive capacity. In this context, building a climate-resilient agricultural society is an essential requirement to protect livelihoods. Hence, there is a need for spreading the climate-resilient sustainable agricultural (CRSA) practices by replicating the proven ones to larger areas (scaling-up). Fostering widespread adoption of such practices needs consideration of their social, ecological, economic, and institutional appropriateness in target areas. This article reports the application of a tool ''ScalA'' that generates information on a multitude of aspects and assesses the local suitability of CRSA practices among sub-Saharan smallholders. It also briefly presents other state-of-the-art tools that can be used for similar purposes. In the first case study, the tool is used to assess appropriateness of agroforestry, biochar application, and rainwater harvesting in Fulwe village of Morogoro, Tanzania, for enhancing resilience capacity. In another case study, the potential of fertilizer management is assessed for two different villages, i.e., Fulwe and Mlali. Analytically, appropriateness of interventions is assessed by the deviation of the actual factor constellation of the scaling-up process with an optimal constellation that will foster the wider adoption of the given practice.
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