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Land Fragmentation, Technical Efficiency, and Adaptation to Climate Change by Farmers in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia

Author

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  • Tesfaye C. Cholo

    (Department of Development Economics, Ethiopian Civil Service University, Addis Ababa 5648, Ethiopia
    Department of Environmental Sciences, Soil Physics and Land Management Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Jack Peerlings

    (Department of Social Sciences, Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy Group, Wageningen University, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Luuk Fleskens

    (Department of Environmental Sciences, Soil Physics and Land Management Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Although barley production is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, households in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia rely on barley for their diet and allocate most of their highly-fragmented land to barley production. Moreover, farmers alter land management practices as a strategy to adjust to climate change and variability. However, to what extent land fragmentation and land management jointly influence the technical efficiency of barley production is unknown. In addition, it is unidentified whether technical efficiency is uniform across multiple separated plots. In this study, we adapted two stochastic frontier panel models on plot-level cross-sectional data to investigate this. The model results indicate that fragmentation influences the effect of land management practices on efficiency. The study found that efficiency was not uniform across different plots and for different farmers and showed the existence of large yield gaps. To close these gaps, policies designed to address the specific components of inefficiency need to be implemented.

Suggested Citation

  • Tesfaye C. Cholo & Jack Peerlings & Luuk Fleskens, 2020. "Land Fragmentation, Technical Efficiency, and Adaptation to Climate Change by Farmers in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10304-:d:459605
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