Reducing land degradation in Ethiopia
Period of Implementations
Apr 26, 2013 - Jun 30, 2016
Total budget
499,445
Project Name
Reducing land degradation and farmers’ vulnerability to climate change in the highland dry areas of north-western Ethiopia
About
Framed within an integrated watershed management approach, the project 'Reducing land degradation and farmers’ vulnerability to climate change in the highland dry areas of north-western Ethiopia' aims to develop, adapt, evaluate and demonstrate innovative, integrated, and sustainable land, water, crop and livestock management technologies. The project, funded by the Austrian Development Agency, will improve farmers’ resilience capacity to the impacts of climate variability and land degradation.
Impact
Goals
The project focuses on improving rainfed watershed management in Amhara, Ethiopia. The overarching goal is to increase the resilience and reduce the vulnerability of smallholder rainfed farmers to land degradation and the vagaries of climate change by developing adapted sustainable management of land, water, crop, and livestock resources.
Objectives
To achieve the goal, the following specific objectives are formulated:
1. Reduce vulnerability and increase the resilience capacity of rainfed farmers;
2. Understand the strategies adopted by farmers in their efforts to manage climate change impacts and disseminate best bet practices;
3. Enhance rainfed farmers' food security, livelihood, and economic well-being;
4. Capacitate farmers to manage their farming system resources sustainably;
5. Recommend policies and strategies to facilitate more climate change resilient production systems.
Impact pathways
The project will reduce poverty, sustainably improve land resources, increase food security and the health and nutrition of the community through enhancing the productivity of rainfed agriculture by efficiently managing rainwater, adopting improved and more adapted crop and livestock types/varieties/breeds, and management practices, by adopting sustainable land management (SLM) practices, and by introducing energy-efficient stoves and alternative energy sources.
SLM practices can make farming systems more resilient to the vagaries of climate change by restoring productive natural resources, increasing food production, and enhancing food security.
Adopting crop varieties and forages with increased resistance to heat stress, shock, and drought would reduce climate change impacts. Rainwater management/harvesting is an effective strategy to manage floods, droughts, and other climate change effects. Introducing energy-saving stoves and alternative energy sources would reduce forest and land degradation and remove dependence on biomass energy. The research outputs will be used by rainfed area extension services dealing with rural communities in enhancing small-scale poor-resources farmers’ agricultural productivity and conserving the fragile ecologies. Nevertheless, policymakers, development and extension workers, rural and urban consumers, seed producers, crop and livestock traders, graduating students, national and international researchers, and the country will benefit from the project outputs. At the household level, expected impacts will be increased crop and livestock production, reduced land degradation, and thus increased adaptation capacity to climate change. The project will enhance institutions' capacity to manage and rehabilitate rainfed systems' natural resources vis-à-vis livelihood improvement strategies.
Locations
Ethiopia
8, 38
Project Management
Claudio Zucca
Manager
Valentina De Col
Co-Manager
Partners
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research - EIAR
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Center for Development Research - BOKU - CDR
Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute - ARARI
