Livelihood options of landless households and land contracts in north-west Ethiopia

Agricultural land scarcity and increasing landlessness are becoming serious livelihood challenges in rural areas of highland Ethiopia. Land contracts give access to land for landless households through sharecropping and rent. The paper examines the demand for land, livelihood options of landless households, and the role of land contracts in mitigating land shortages among the rural communities. Its specific objectives are intended to examine the: (1) land demand and livelihood options of landless households and (2) role of land contracts in mitigation of land shortages and the implication of this on sustainable management of land resources. The study was conducted in Dangila district in the north-western highlands of Ethiopia. Data were gathered from a survey of 201 rural households from April 2011 to October 2012. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and independent samples t test were used to analyse the data. Results indicate that over 14 % of the studied households were landless and demanding farmlands. Sharecropping, daily labour, selling wood and charcoal, and rearing livestock were major livelihood options and strategies practiced by landless households next to crop farming. Sharecropping contracts were found to minimize the land demand of over 95 % of the landless households. However, most of the sharecropping contracts (58 %) were managed through informal customary practices. Old age, having many dependent family members, and owning large farm plots were found to encourage the practice of the sharing-out of land. Conversely, youth, higher education level, and ownership of many livestock initiated the sharing-in of land. Shared and contracted plots were, however, observed not to have been treated with proper sustainable soil and water conservation technologies. Allocating grazing lands and accessing credit facilities were actions taken by local governments to stabilize land shortages. It is concluded that making credit accessible to landless households and promoting the development of small-scale enterprises in rural areas can help to engage the idle agricultural labour and ease the pressure on land resources. Preconditions should be set to sustainably use and manage contracted lands and shared plots and to avoid the wasteful use of agricultural lands. There should be a focus on promoting small-scale enterprises (i.e. expanding the non-farming sector) in rural areas and minimizing informal land contracts. Liberalizing the land market by lifting the land contract restrictions can enhance the exchange of land among the rural households.