IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v11y2022i6p838-d831142.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants of Decision Making by Smallholder Farmers on Land Allocation for Small-Scale Forest Management in Northwestern Ethiopian Highlands

Author

Listed:
  • Solomon Mulu

    (Department of General Forestry, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar P.O. Box 196, Ethiopia
    Department of Forestry, College of Agriculture, Wollo University, Dessie P.O. Box 1145, Ethiopia)

  • Zebene Asfaw

    (Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources, Hawassa University, Shashemene P.O. Box 128, Ethiopia)

  • Asmamaw Alemu

    (Department of General Forestry, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar P.O. Box 196, Ethiopia)

  • Demel Teketay

    (Department of Range and Forest Resources (RFR), Faculty of Natural Resources, Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN), Private Bag 0027, Gaborone P.O. Box 47204, Botswana)

Abstract

Smallholder farmers in the northwestern Ethiopian Highlands are highly engaged in small-scale forest management. Participation in this activity can provide a key source of income for the farmers as well as wider benefits to the environment. To gain a better understanding of how spatial and socio-ecological factors determine farmers’ engagements in small-scale forest management, we conducted a comparative study in three Districts of northwestern Ethiopia. We used a mixed method approach including both quantitative ( n = 375) and qualitative ( n = 45) surveys to understand farmers’ motivations and decisions in three Districts of northwestern Ethiopia. We found that there were a number of factors motivating farmers’ decisions to participate, including land degradation and decline in crop productivity (in Fagta Lekoma District); adverse impact of adjacent woodlots (in North Mecha District); and increasing demand of wood products (in Guna Begemidir District). Further analysis on the extent of farmer engagement revealed that their decision to increase or decrease the share of land allocated to woodlots is heavily dependent on the comparative socio-economic benefits of woodlots and distance to markets. Other key (District-specific) determinant factors included wealth status, soil fertility status, gender, adult equivalent value, total land holding size, and annual crop production risk perception. Our findings suggest that to increase the uptake of woodlots, we would need to adopt a demand-driven forestry extension approach, which considers the heterogeneity of farmers and farm characteristics. Further research is required to quantify the optimal level of land allocation for small-scale forest management.

Suggested Citation

  • Solomon Mulu & Zebene Asfaw & Asmamaw Alemu & Demel Teketay, 2022. "Determinants of Decision Making by Smallholder Farmers on Land Allocation for Small-Scale Forest Management in Northwestern Ethiopian Highlands," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:6:p:838-:d:831142
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/6/838/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/6/838/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nigussie, Zerihun & Tsunekawa, Atsushi & Haregeweyn, Nigussie & Adgo, Enyew & Tsubo, Mitsuru & Ayalew, Zemen & Abele, Steffen, 2020. "Economic and financial sustainability of an Acacia decurrens-based Taungya system for farmers in the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Joseph Henrich & Richard McElreath, 2002. "Are peasants risk-averse decision makers?," Artefactual Field Experiments 00066, The Field Experiments Website.
    3. Christopher F Baum, 2008. "Stata tip 63: Modeling proportions," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 8(2), pages 299-303, June.
    4. Papke, Leslie E & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M, 1996. "Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables with an Application to 401(K) Plan Participation Rates," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 619-632, Nov.-Dec..
    5. Diogo, V. & Koomen, E. & Kuhlman, T., 2015. "An economic theory-based explanatory model of agricultural land-use patterns: The Netherlands as a case study," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1-16.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abed Al Kareem Yehya & Thanh Thi Nguyen & Martin Wiehle & Rami Zurayk & Andreas Buerkert, 2025. "Six Decades of Rural Landscape Transformation in Five Lebanese Villages," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-26, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Renata Baborska & Emilio Hernandez & Emiliano Magrini & Cristian Morales-Opazo, 2020. "The impact of financial inclusion on rural food security experience: A perspective from low-and middle-income countries," Review of Development Finance Journal, Chartered Institute of Development Finance, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18.
    2. Reboul, E. & Guérin, I. & Nordman, C.J., 2021. "The gender of debt and credit: Insights from rural Tamil Nadu," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    3. Chegere, Martin Julius, 2018. "Post-harvest losses reduction by small-scale maize farmers: The role of handling practices," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 103-115.
    4. Zakaryan, Arusyak, 2023. "Organizational knowledge networks, search and exploratory invention," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    5. Pradhan, Jaya Prakash & Zohair, Mohammad, 2014. "Subnational Export Performance and Determinants: Evidence from Two Indian States," MPRA Paper 60029, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Nicola Orsini & Matteo Bottai, 2011. "Logistic quantile regression in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 11(3), pages 327-344, September.
    7. Suzuki, Mao, 2020. "Profits before patients? Analyzing donors’ economic motives for foreign aid in the health sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    8. Kurt B. Waldman & David L. Ortega & Robert B. Richardson & Daniel C. Clay & Sieglinde Snapp, 2016. "Preferences for legume attributes in maize-legume cropping systems in Malawi," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(6), pages 1087-1099, December.
    9. Baranzini, Andrea & Borzykowski, Nicolas & Carattini, Stefano, 2018. "Carbon offsets out of the woods? Acceptability of domestic vs. international reforestation programmes in the lab," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 1-12.
    10. Hatton, Timothy J., 2023. "Asylum recognition rates in Europe: Policies and performance," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    11. Roy, Jayjit, 2017. "On the environmental consequences of intra-industry trade," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 50-67.
    12. Mr. Emre Alper & Michal Miktus, 2019. "Digital Connectivity in sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparative Perspective," IMF Working Papers 2019/210, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Wu, Xiaojuan & Dluhošová, Dana & Zmeškal, Zdeněk, 2023. "The moderating role of a corporate life cycle with the impact of economic value-added on corporate social responsibility: Evidence from China's listed companies," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    14. Miftha Beshir & Menfese Tadesse & Fantaw Yimer & Nicolas Brüggemann, 2022. "Factors Affecting Adoption and Intensity of Use of Tef- Acacia decurrens -Charcoal Production Agroforestry System in Northwestern Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-15, April.
    15. Getinet Astatike Haile, 2021. "Men, women and unions," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 201-217, May.
    16. Apostolov Mico & Scagnelli Simone Domenico, 2019. "Foreign-Versus Domestic-Owned firms in the Predicament ‘Cui bono?’," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 10(2), pages 18-36, September.
    17. Spitzer, Sonja & Hammer, Bernhard, 2016. "The Division of Labour Within Households: Fractional Logit Estimates based on the Austrian Time Use Survey," MPRA Paper 81791, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Viroj Jienwatcharamongkhol, 2014. "Distance Sensitivity of Export: A Firm-Product Level Approach," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 531-554, December.
    19. Jesper N Wulff & Anders R Villadsen, 2020. "Keeping it within bounds: Regression analysis of proportions in international business," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(2), pages 244-262, March.
    20. Berg, Nathan & Preston, Kate L., 2017. "Willingness to pay for local food?: Consumer preferences and shopping behavior at Otago Farmers Market," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 343-361.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:6:p:838-:d:831142. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.