Livestock have diverse functions for the livelihood of farmers in mixed croplivestock systems in the highlands of East Africa. Livestock provide food in the form of meat and milk, nonfood items such as draft power, manure, and transport services as inputs into food crop production, and fuel for cooking. Livestock are also a source of cash income through sale of the above items, animals, hides, and skins. Furthermore, they act as a store of wealth and determine social status within the community.

Land degradation is a severe problem in the densely populated highlands of East Africa and elsewhere on the African continent. Soil erosion resulting from cultivation on steeply sloping terrain, mining of soil fertility due to continuous cultivation with limited application of inorganic or organic sources of soil nutrients, and deforestation and overgrazing of rangelands are among the key factors causing low agricultural productivity, widespread poverty, and food insecurity in the region.

This book includes a series of studies of income strategies, land use, and agricultural dynamics and their impacts on welfare and natural resources in the highlands of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. There are several reasons for focusing on the highlands. First, the complex problems of severe poverty, low productivity, and poor natural resource management seem to be the rule rather than the exception. This is critical because the highlands support the majority of rural populations in the region. Second, within the highlands are some of the most densely populated areas in all of Africa.

In the recent past, the image of agricultural and environmental crises in Sub- Saharan Africa (SSA) has become increasingly common. Soil erosion and soil fertility loss are considered to be negatively affecting the productive capacity of the agricultural systems (Giller et al. 1997; Sanchez et al. 1997; Smaling, Nandwa, and Janssen 1997).

Low agricultural productivity, poverty, and land degradation are critical and closely related problems in the Ethiopian highlands. These problems are particularly severe in the highlands of Tigray in northern Ethiopia. Cereal yields average less than 1 ton per hectare in this region, and over half of the area of the Tigray highlands has been characterized as severely degraded, according to one study (Hurni 1988).1 The average farm size is only 1 hectare, and most households subsist on incomes of less than $1 per day (based on results of the survey discussed in this chapter).

Contents: 

• The Seikatsu Club Consumers Cooperative: A Unique Producer-Consumer Relationship in Japan
• PDAP’s Push for Organic Rice: Enhancing the Survival of Filipino Rice Farmers in a Liberalized Economic
• Setting Green Net: A Trailblazer in Organic Marketing in Southeast Asia
• The Fair Trade System: Focus on the Oxfam-GB Model
• Emergency or Expediency?: A Study of Emergency Rice Reserve Schemes in Asia 

Se desarrollan aspectos de la diferenciación socioagraria de la Argentina a partir del manejo del agua. Se muestra que la articulación del conocimiento geográfico de las variables ambientales con el análisis de la estructuración social permite desarrollar esta problemática particular y explorar algunas de las consecuencias que la misma tendría actualmente sobre las estructuras agrarias.

Over the last 25 years civil disturbances, drought, population increases and global market pressures have all contributed in direct and indirect ways to a modification of Sub saharan African land cover. 

This report contributes to the aim of the International Union of Soil Sciences to put sustainable land management higher on the global agenda. The report is divided into three distinct sections:Part I discusses the global soils agenda and outlines experiences and strategies for sustainable land management. It also highlights challenges related to implementing this agenda globallyPart II presents summaries of papers on the development of international mechanisms and instruments for sustainable land management (SLM).

Sharp inequalities in the distribution of land remains a major cause of extreme poverty in many developing countries. Some instances are the result of ownership patterns inherited from colonial administrations, others are linked to the struggle for economic prosperity in the post-independence era.Landlessness is therefore a significant problem for the rural poor. Most remedies that have been undertaken previously have not yielded positive results, as can be witnessed in Southern Africa today.

By Samuel Gebreselassie
Land and land tenure is a hot policy issue in Ethiopia. Three key issues are raised – farm size and fragmentation and the question of what is a ‘viable’ farm unit; tenure security and whether lack of land registration/certification or titling undermines investment in productivity improvements; and finally the issue land markets and whether imperfectly functioning markets constrain opportunities for land consolidation, investment and agricultural growth.

The promotion of forestry activities is seen as a means by which to reduce poverty while protecting the environment. But if clearing of forests for agricultural activities can prove more profitable, will such efforts be effective?