The agriculture sector is the backbone of Ethiopia’s economy and livelihoods. Yet, heavy reliance on rain-fed systems has made the sector particularly vulnerable to variability in rainfall and temperature. Climate change may decrease national gross domestic product (GDP) by 8–10% by 2050, but…

Our goal is to provide the scientific basis for development investments and policies that promote more productive, profitable agriculture, and healthier diets at no environmental cost. Low-income, smallholder farmers face significant challenges across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). High population…

This study develops a methodology to identify hot spots of critical forage supply in nomadic pastoralist areas, using the Afar Region, Ethiopia, as a special case. It addresses two main problems. First, it makes a spatially explicit assessment of fodder supply and demand extracted from a data…

This study utilizes land registry data from the First and Second Stage Land Registration Reforms that took place in 1998 and 2016 in sampled districts and communities in Tigray region of Ethiopia. Tigray was the first region to implement low-cost land registration and certification in Ethiopia…

Youth unemployment and migration are growing challenges that need more political attention in many countries, particularly countries with rapid population growth and economic transformation. Proactively mobilizing the youth as a resource in the creation of sustainable livelihoods can potentially…

We use four waves of panel data from Northern Ethiopia to investigate the link between Food for Work (FFW) participation and the diversity of food consumption and production. Food-based transfer programs have become a standard tool for addressing the problem of chronic food insecurity in…

We analyzed lab-in-the-field trust and risk experiment with 1125 youth in 119 youth groups established as primary cooperatives to develop a joint business. The experiments were implemented using classrooms in local schools as field labs. The standard trust game was used with all youth…

Although development intervention programs can have far-reaching impacts beyond their stated objective, there have been few careful studies of unintended outcomes of such programs. This study assesses the impact of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on household size and dependency…

The paper utilizes household panel data to investigate whether the land rental market can facilitate improved access to land for land-poor tenant households over time and thereby facilitate expansion of their farming activity. The paper utilizes data 8-17 years after land certification to assess…

markdownabstractThe aim of the thesis is to understand the impact of large-scale foreign land acquisitions on rural households. The rapid expansion of large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) by foreign investors in developing countries over the past 10 years has precipitated a heated debate over the…

Land provides crucial ecosystem services for human existence and human well-being, including provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services. Those services provide among others the production of fresh air, food, feed, fuel and fibre. They regulate the risks of natural hazards and…