@article{Shukri:249825,
      recid = {249825},
      author = {Shukri, Ahmed},
      title = {Diversification across crops and land in small holder  agriculture in Ethiopia: the case of shewa administrative  region},
      journal = {Ethiopian Journal of Economics},
      address = {2006},
      number = {683-2016-46854},
      series = {ETHIOPIAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS},
      pages = {73},
      year = {2006},
      abstract = {The opportunities available for consumption smoothing can  be expected to influence the ways in which rural households  respond to income risks and thereby impact on the degree of  diversification and adoption of risky activities. By  assuming that diversification is a risk reduction  mechanism, this paper deals with the diversification across  crops and plots in Ethiopian small-holder agriculture.  Specifically, the incidence and levels of land  fragmentation and cereal crop diversification is analyzed  in relation to the households' consumption security  provided by liquid asset stocks (livestock). It is  hypothesized that more endowments, specifically in terms of  livestock assets will lead to less diversification (more  specialization). A four year rotating panel data from the  "Rural Integrated Household Survey Program" of the  Ethiopian Central Statistical Authority (CSA) collected  during 1988 to 1991 in Shewa, Ethiopia is employed.  Contrary to the expectation of a safer strategy, land  fragmentation was found to have a positive relationship  with the level of asset ownership (though insignificant)  and land holdings. This result, coupled with the positive  relationship between population density and fragmentation,  and the absence of land markets in rural Ethiopia, suggests  that farmers were supply constrained. When the rural  population is growing faster than the number of off-farm  jobs, agriculture is the only career option for many. As  more people try to make a living from a limited land base,  pressure to divide and sub-divide farms and fields will  increase. This calls for measures to ease barriers to land  transactions which may then induce greater consolidation of  plots thereby setting in motion a wide range of social and  economic benefits. It also calls for enhancing the attempts  being made to facilitate the introduction of appropriate  technology, to create off-farm employment, and to curb  population growth. On the other hand, it was found that,  apart from climatic and agronomic factors, there is a  systematic bias towards more crop diversification as the  level of asset ownership and land holdings decline.  Households with higher levels of livestock asset ownership  and/or farm size have relatively lower levels of crop  diversification. Thus, households with the ability to bear  more risk (through their asset position) are found to have  greater concentration on fewer cereal crops. The  traditionally developed strategy of closely integrating  crop and livestock enterprises to buffer against  uncertainty in peasant agriculture is under threat due to  the ever expanding cultivation of crops into grazing land,  feed shortages, and overgrazing of existing pasture. This  limits the possibility of poorer households entering into  livestock rearing and those who have already done so may be  forced to give it up},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/249825},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.249825},
}