Introduction
In Africa, land allocation is
pivotal in bringing desirable improvements on the livelihoods of rural people
(Bezu & Holden, 2014; Colin, 2013). This practice has been considered as an
effective mechanism of development due to its tremendous contributions in
supporting rural living (Boone, 2019). In
this respect, land allocation to landless poor is supposed to address the
problems of food insecurity, resource disparity and poverty, since it helps the
poor to engage in wealth creation (Colin, 2013; Greco, 2016).
Across governments, this has been
received keen attention due to the fact that availability of land has
equivalently been regarded as the main source of rural living (Bezu &
Holden, 2014). Hence, this has instigated policymakers and political leaders to
undertake land allocation across many African countries. Particularly in
Sub-Saharan Africa, it is evident that access to land has helped farm households
improve their livelihoods via generating income, maintaining natural capital,
creating physical assets and building human capital.
However, provision of farmland to
landless people has recently became diminishing as the result of environmental
and socioeconomic challenges (Shackleton, 2018). This is partly because there
have been stressing pressures that largely compel numerous rural people to live
without land possession (Boone, 2019). These
include an increase in population size, scarcity of the land resource, land
fragmentation owing to frequent redistribution, growth in urbanization and
emergence of small towns (Bilsborrow & DeLargy, 1990).
Likewise in Ethiopia, land
resource has remained as the main economic pillar and the country’s growth is
highly dependent on the performance of the agricultural sector (Boone, 2019).
It accounts for 42 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a major source
of foreign exchange earnings and means of livelihood directly or indirectly for
85 per cent of the population (Central Statistical Authority (CSA), 2016;
Ministry of Finance and Economic
Development [MoFED], 2016).
In the rural areas of Ethiopia,
the major livelihood alternatives of the youth are dominated by farming
activities (Boone, 2019). However, due to shortage of suitable arable land,
farming activities are made on degraded lands in the highland of Ethiopia
(Meaza, Tsegaye, & Nyssen, 2016). It is observed by Holden and Bezu (2013)
that landless households in Southern Ethiopia relied more on non-agricultural
livelihoods and the literature also highlighted that there is significant
rural–urban migration among the youth and especially in areas with severe
agricultural land scarcity. The
constitution of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia provides all rural
residents whose age is 18 and above years the right to get arable land free of
charge (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia [FDRE], 2005).
Nevertheless, nowadays the country is facing land scarcity, mainly in
the highland areas where population densities and growth are very high.
Consequently, the constitution fails to provide land to all rural landless
households as the source of income. Thus, the problem of landlessness has been
emerging as the major challenge for the regional government (Boone, 2019).
Furthermore, the problem of landlessness is a indicator of poverty, indebtedness and
powerlessness in rural areas where the majority depends on land to generate
means of livelihood.
The growing number of rural landless households
and limited availability of cultivable land made the regional administration to
cease redistribution of arable land since 1991 to avoid further land
fragmentation. Now, regional government initiated to handle the scarcity of
cultivable land through distribution of communal land to the rural landless
households.
Subsequently, the specific
objectives of this study are, to analyze the livelihood sources and dependence
level of the rural landless households on the allocated communal land by the
government.
Click here to read the complete research!
—Taken from Dependence
Level of Rural Landless Households on Allocated Communal Land: Evidences from
Kilte Awlaelo and Atsbi Wenberta Districts, Tigrai Region Northern Ethiopia
in Journal of Land and Rural
Studies
Comments
Post a Comment