Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:09:12.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Preferences for forms of land conservation investment in the Ethiopian Highlands: a household plot-level analysis of the roles of poverty, tenure security and market incentives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2015

Worku Genanew Bekele  and
Friedrich Georg Schneider
Worku Genanew Bekele
Affiliation:
Economics Department, University of Dubai College of Business Administration, P.O. Box 14143, Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971- 056 6055303. E-mail: [email protected] or; [email protected]
Friedrich Georg Schneider
Affiliation:
Economics Department, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study used the multinomial logistic model to examine the factors leading to differences in farm-households' preferences for various forms of land conservation measures. Using a survey of 4,795 household-plots in rural Ethiopia, the study demonstrates the inappropriateness of pooling different forms of land conservation investments in preference studies. The results suggest that poverty drives farm-households towards conservation measures which are more short term and which entail the expenditure of less skill. While tenure security has a mixed effect on such preferences, market access seems not to matter for preference decisions. Further, farm-households consider the characteristics of the plot in their preference, which also vary across villages. This study shows that a farm-household's preference is a complex decision. Major changes in conservation investments on the part of farm-households will require attention to many factors, since no single factor exerts enough control to be used solitarily as a major policy leverage instrument.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 78 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alemu, T. (1999), ‘Land tenure and soil conservation: evidence from Ethiopia’, PhD thesis, Department of Economics, University of Göteborg, Sweden.Google Scholar
Amemiya, T. (1985), Advanced Econometrics, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, J.A. (1984), ‘Regression and ordered categorical variables (with discussion)’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B 46: 1–30.Google Scholar
Borsch-Supan, A. (1990), ‘On the compatibility of nested logit models with utility maximization’, Journal of Econometrics 43: 373–388.Google Scholar
Clay, D.C., Kelly, V., Mpyisi, E., and Reardon, T. (2002), ‘Input use and conservation investments among farm households in Rwanda: patterns and determinants’, in Barrett, C.B., Place, F. and Aboud, A.A. (eds), Natural Resources Management in African Agriculture, Understanding and Improving Current Practices, Wallingford: CABI Publishing, pp. 103–115.Google Scholar
Africa, Farm (2001), Farmer participatory research in southern Ethiopia: the experiences of the Farmers Research Project, London: Farm Africa.Google Scholar
Feder, G., Onchan, T., Chalamwong, Y., and Hongladarom, C. (1988), Land Policies and Farm Productivity in Thailand, Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (2005), ‘Rural land administration and land use proclamation No. 456/2005’, Federal Negarit Gazeta 11(44), 15 July.Google Scholar
Gebremedhin, B. and Swinton, S.M. (2003), ‘Investment in soil conservation in Northern Ethiopia: the role of land tenure security and public programs’, Agricultural Economics 29(1): 69–84.Google Scholar
Genanew, B. and Alemu, M. (2012), ‘Investments in land conservation in the Ethiopian Highlands: a household plot-level analysis of the roles of poverty, tenure security, and market incentives’, International Journal of Economics and Finance 4(6): 32–50.Google Scholar
Godoy, R., Kirby, K., and Wilkie, D. (2001), ‘Tenure security, private time preference, and use of natural resources among Lowland Bolivian Amerindians’, Ecological Economics 38: 105–118.Google Scholar
Greene, W. (2011), Econometric Analysis, 7th edn, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Hagos, F. and Holden, S. (2006), ‘Tenure security, resource poverty, public programs, and household plot-level conservation investments in the highlands of Northern Ethiopia’, Agricultural Economics 34(2): 183–196.Google Scholar
Han, J. and Harrison, R. (2004), ‘A multinomial logit model of consumer perceptions for biotech food labeling’, Paper for presentation at the American Agricultural Economics Association (renamed in 2008 as the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association) in its Series 2004 Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, 1–4 August.Google Scholar
Holden, S. and Shiferaw, B. (2002), ‘Poverty and land degradation: peasants' willingness to pay to sustain land productivity’, in Barrett, C.B., Place, F. and Aboud, A.A. (eds), Natural Resources Management in African Agriculture, Understanding and Improving Current Practices, Wallingford: CABI Publishing, pp. 91–102.Google Scholar
Holden, S., Shiferaw, B., and Wik, M. (1998), ‘Poverty, market imperfections, and time preference: of relevance to environmental policy?’, Environment and Development Economics 3: 105–130.Google Scholar
Hurni, H. (1985), ‘Erosion-productivity-conservation systems in Ethiopia’, Paper presented at the 4th International Conference of Soil Conservation, Maracay, Venezuela, 3–9 November.Google Scholar
Hurni, H. (1988), ‘Degradation and conservation of the resources in the Ethiopian Highlands’, Mountain Research and Development, African Mountains and Highlands 8(2/3): 123–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivan, P. and Katarina, Z. (2003), ‘Multinomial logit models for the Austrian labor market’, Austrian Journal of Statistics 32(4): 267–282.Google Scholar
Long, J. (1997), Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Advanced Quantitative Techniques in the Social Sciences Series, London: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Long, J. and Freese, J. (2006), Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata, 2nd edn College Station, TX: Stata Press.Google Scholar
McFadden, D. (1974), ‘Conditional logit analysis of qualitative choice behaviour’, in Zarembka, P. (ed.), Frontiers in Econometrics, New York: Academic Press, pp. 105–142.Google Scholar
Shiferaw, B. and Holden, S. (1999), ‘Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the Highlands of Ethiopia’, World Development 27: 739–752.Google Scholar
Stahl, M. (1990), ‘Constraints to environmental rehabilitation through people's participation in the Northern Ethiopian Highlands’, Discussion Paper No. 13, UN Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Bekele and Schneider supplementary material

Online Appendices

Download Bekele and Schneider supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 774 KB