Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the highlands of Ethiopia

Soil erosion is one of the most serious environmental problems in Ethiopia. Coupled with growing populations, falling per capita food production and worsening poverty, loss of productive land due to land degradation undermines rural livelihoods and national food security. Despite their awareness of...

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Autores principales: Shiferaw Bekele, Holden, Stein
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 1999
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/171587
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author Shiferaw Bekele
Holden, Stein
author_browse Holden, Stein
Shiferaw Bekele
author_facet Shiferaw Bekele
Holden, Stein
author_sort Shiferaw Bekele
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Soil erosion is one of the most serious environmental problems in Ethiopia. Coupled with growing populations, falling per capita food production and worsening poverty, loss of productive land due to land degradation undermines rural livelihoods and national food security. Despite their awareness of the erosion problem, peasants' investments in land have been limited. We use an applied nonseparable model to simulate conservation decisions. Pervasive market imperfections, poverty and high rates of time preference seem to undermine erosion-control investments. Lack of technologies which provide quick returns to subsistence-constrained peasants also seem to deter such investments. Lower private incentives to internalize the intertemporal land degradation externality may require public intervention.
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spelling CGSpace1715872025-02-19T14:01:24Z Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the highlands of Ethiopia Shiferaw Bekele Holden, Stein erosion land degradation environmental degradation economic aspects Soil erosion is one of the most serious environmental problems in Ethiopia. Coupled with growing populations, falling per capita food production and worsening poverty, loss of productive land due to land degradation undermines rural livelihoods and national food security. Despite their awareness of the erosion problem, peasants' investments in land have been limited. We use an applied nonseparable model to simulate conservation decisions. Pervasive market imperfections, poverty and high rates of time preference seem to undermine erosion-control investments. Lack of technologies which provide quick returns to subsistence-constrained peasants also seem to deter such investments. Lower private incentives to internalize the intertemporal land degradation externality may require public intervention. 1999-04 2025-01-29T12:58:24Z 2025-01-29T12:58:24Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/171587 en Limited Access Elsevier Shiferaw Bekele; Holden, Stein. 1999. Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the highlands of Ethiopia. World Development 27(4): 739-752. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(98)00159-4
spellingShingle erosion
land degradation
environmental degradation
economic aspects
Shiferaw Bekele
Holden, Stein
Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the highlands of Ethiopia
title Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the highlands of Ethiopia
title_full Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the highlands of Ethiopia
title_fullStr Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the highlands of Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the highlands of Ethiopia
title_short Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the highlands of Ethiopia
title_sort soil erosion and smallholders conservation decisions in the highlands of ethiopia
topic erosion
land degradation
environmental degradation
economic aspects
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/171587
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AT holdenstein soilerosionandsmallholdersconservationdecisionsinthehighlandsofethiopia