Resource information
This paper analyses the impacts of the Ethiopian Land Certification Program on productivity. It aims to identify how “technological gains” would measure up against the benefits from a resultant improvements in “technical efficiency”. Based on its results, the paper concludes that farms belonging to the group without land use certificate are less productive than those certified plots. However, it suggests that this is not due to so much lack of internal technical efficiency. Rather, the paper finds the reason is down to a technological disadvantage. The reverse explanation holds true for those farms with titled land where they are more productive than those without land certificate. The paper points that this is only because they enjoy a technological advantage than their counterparts without land use certificate.Accordingly, it may not be an ill-advised direction or strategy if the government intensifies the formalisation of land use rights. Still, the paper indicates that the titling program by itself may not guarantee the benefit to a desired level unless it is complemented by improvement in the provision of agricultural extension services. In this sense, the paper reveals that farm plots with land use certificate, like those without land use certificates, seem to catch-up poorly with their own best-practice frontier.
