The dynamics of farmer migration and resettlement in the Dhidhessa River Basin, Ethiopia

Teweldebrihan, Meseret Dawit; Pande, Saket; McClain, Michael E.

doi:10.1080/02626667.2020.1789145

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The evolution of population size was found to be coincident with periods of relief and intensification of water stress, which partially supports the speculation that long lasting drought played a main role in the collapse of the Maya civilization (Evans et al, 2018). Other examples of natural disasters contributing to population migration include those experienced in Ethiopia (Teweldebrihan et al, 2020) and Bangladesh (Gray & Mueller, 2012).…”

Section: Water Resources Researchsupporting

confidence: 61%

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Long‐Term Coevolution of an Urban Human‐Water System Under Climate Change: Critical Role of Human Adaptive Actions

Sivapalan

2020

Water Resources Research

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The impacts of climate change and human activities are challenging water sustainability in many cities around the world. Advanced understanding of the future long‐term coevolution of coupled urban human‐water systems is of considerable interest in this context. This study uses a previously developed sociohydrologic model to explore the coevolutionary trajectories of Beijing City's human‐water system over the 2015–2099 period under possible climate changes. The effects of multiple human adaptive actions under alternative climate scenarios are investigated in particular. Results show that there might be a recurrent competition for water between humans and the natural environment (e.g., groundwater aquifer) in the long‐term future, indicating that effective water management needs to ensure that this competition remains within a safe operating space. Three regimes of the human‐environment competition are revealed, including a sustainable development regime in which human society and groundwater aquifer are both safe throughout their coevolutionary trajectories, a regime that may lead to severe population loss due to overaggressive population control actions, and a regime that may cause aquifer depletion due to under‐perception of the drawdown of groundwater table. Results also show that relying too much on interbasin water diversion project might slacken human water conservation measures and eventually cause more severe aquifer depletion in the long run. Maintaining a high community sensitivity to drawdown of groundwater table and moderate measures to control population growth are keys to avoid unintended, negative consequences.

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Section: Water Resources Researchsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…Other examples of natural disasters contributing to population migration include those experienced in Ethiopia (Teweldebrihan et al, 2020) and Bangladesh (Gray & Mueller, 2012).…”

Section: Water Resources Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐Term Coevolution of an Urban Human‐Water System Under Climate Change: Critical Role of Human Adaptive Actions

Sivapalan

2020

Water Resources Research

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“…When the pushing force in the emigration area is greater than the pulling force, and the pulling force of the immigrating area is greater than the pushing force, population migration will occur [53]. When considering the relocation behavior of rural households, the possible thrust of the relocation area is primarily reflected in the occurrence of natural disasters, poor living conditions, lack of infrastructure, and information blockage in the relocation area [54][55][56]. Possible pulling factors in migration include many employment opportunities, a high level of education and medical care, sound infrastructure, and diverse information [57,58].…”

Section: Theoretical Basismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study explored the factors that were important in influencing the intention of peasant households relating to the spatial reconstruction of rural settlements and determined the major driving forces. Regarding the measurement method and index selection of previous studies [54,56,65,[67][68][69], and with consideration of the practical situation of the study area, five driving forces were selected. These formed the latent variables to measure household intention (Table 1) and were as follows: (1) External attractions (A1-A5): enough employment opportunities, education opportunities, a high-quality living environment, and good public infrastructure.…”

Section: Selection Of Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Driving Forces for the Spatial Reconstruction of Rural Settlements in Mountainous Areas Based on Structural Equation Models: A Case Study in Western China

Zhong

Huang

et al. 2021

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Rural settlement development in mountainous areas is the key to eliminating global hunger and poverty. The spatial reconstruction of rural settlements in mountainous areas can promote rural development in mountainous areas. In this study, the Panxi area—a typical mountainous area in China—was chosen as the study area. The driving forces for the spatial reconstruction of rural settlements in mountainous areas were explored from the perspective of peasant households by combining participatory rural appraisal (PRA) with structural equation modeling (SEM). Results showed that: (1) 62.03% of the 266 peasant households included were willing to have spatial reconstruction, indicating that most peasant households in mountainous areas have a very strong intention towards the spatial reconstruction of rural settlements. (2) Infrastructure, medical conditions, living environment, farming culture, and dietary habits significantly influenced the reconstruction intention of peasant households. In contrast, development opportunities, place attachment, language, and living mode each had a slight influence. (3) Geological disasters were the main driving force for the spatial reconstruction of rural settlements in mountainous areas, whilst the driving force of living cohesion was the smallest. This study provides insights for future planning and construction of rural settlements in the Panxi area and spatial reconstruction practices. It has important practical significance for overcoming poverty and realizing rural revitalization in mountainous areas.

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“…If such farmers mostly depend on rainfall, the key is to understand how they adapt to its variability. Here migration is often suggested as one adaptive response to climate variability (Andersson, 2014;Teweldebrihan et al, 2020). Yet smallholders are known to be efficient and resilient producers, with novel traditions to sustain their livelihoods under adversity (Debela et al, 2015;Belay et al, 2017;Dechassa et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smallholder Farmer's Adaptability to Anthropogenic and Climate-Induced Variability in the Dhidhessa River Sub-basin, Ethiopia

et al. 2021

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Ethiopia depends on rain-fed agriculture with limited use of irrigation for agricultural production. More than 90% of the food supply in the country comes from low productivity rain-fed smallholder agriculture. Since the livelihoods of many farmers depend on rainfed agriculture, this paper investigates how smallholders adapt to climate variability. Dhidhessa sub-basin of the Blue Nile river basin is home to many vulnerable immigrant smallholders from other parts of Ethiopia. Our study focuses on this sub-basin to understand how crop production and patterns have depended on rainfall. Secondary data on land cover and croplands, the number of households growing crops, crop yields, crop prices and area covered by three major crops (teff, maize, and sorghum) are analyzed over a period 2000–2019 and interpreted in light of a primary household survey of 135 farmers in the basin. Results show that almost 40% of the basin is under crop cultivation, and the area under cultivation has been growing 8.6‰ per year. Irrespective of rainfall variability, the number of households practicing crop cultivation has also been growing over the years. This means that more farmers are moving into the basin to cultivate. Analysis reveals that adaptation strategies are at play. Farmer decisions to grow which crops are sensitive to rainfall and their expectations of crop prices resulting from rainfall variability. Their decisions and crop prices are endogenous to the smallholder sociohydrology of the basin, leading more farmers to grow Teff relative to other crops in years of lower rainfall. These decisions are due to the lower sensitivity of Teff prices to rainfall variability and farmers' expectations of higher Teff prices relative to other crops as rainfall decreases. Such behavior also induces climate resilience, enabling farmers to respond to climate variability rather than migrating out of the basin. Moreover, it allows more farmers to migrate in and engage in crop cultivation within the basin. Such an adaptive strategy based on past experiences offers a way forward to incorporating adaptation mechanisms in sociohydrological models to simulate and assess water futures for similar basins worldwide.

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The dynamics of farmer migration and resettlement in the Dhidhessa River Basin, Ethiopia

Cited by 7 publications

References 33 publications

Long‐Term Coevolution of an Urban Human‐Water System Under Climate Change: Critical Role of Human Adaptive Actions

Long‐Term Coevolution of an Urban Human‐Water System Under Climate Change: Critical Role of Human Adaptive Actions

Driving Forces for the Spatial Reconstruction of Rural Settlements in Mountainous Areas Based on Structural Equation Models: A Case Study in Western China

Smallholder Farmer's Adaptability to Anthropogenic and Climate-Induced Variability in the Dhidhessa River Sub-basin, Ethiopia

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