ADDIS ABABA— Forum for Social Studies (FSS) organized a workshop at Desalegn Hotel on July 15, 2016, to disseminate the findings of the four research works completed as a culmination of a two year project implemented in four regions .

The research Project implemented by FSS as part of a program of research and public dialogue under the theme: Land, Landlessness and Poverty in Ethiopian Regions was financed by USAID through its project called Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND).

In implementing the research project, FSS assigned four lead researchers who were deployed in their respective study areas to engage in deep research and analysis of the topic including the historical context and policy options.

The four completed researches and the names of lead researchers were:

1. Land, Landlessness and Poverty in the Amhara Region, Ethiopia by Dr. Tadesse Amsalu, Bahir Dar University
2. Land , Landlessness and Rural Poverty in Oromia Regional State by Dr. Fekadu Adugna, Addis Ababa University
3. Land and Rural Livelihood Security: A Case Study in SNNPR by Dr. Teketel Abebe, Private Consultant; and
4. Land, Landlessness and Poverty in Tigrai Regional State by Dr. Gebreyohannes Girmay, Mekelle University.

Thus, the researchers aimed at exploring the extent to which land and poverty are interrelated, including the state of landlessness in the study areas and the challenges from landholders and land users, as this affects poverty reduction efforts.

They also investigated the land legislation and related policy, population pressure and land scarcity, access to resources such as pasture, water, firewood, and other forest products, among others. The researchers posited that landlessness has a strong linkage with poverty and livelihood dynamics and is the determining factor for the well-being or otherwise of rural households.

To that end, the researchers also considered the contribution of land registration and land certifications to guaranteeing land rights and see if this has a bearing on poverty and livelihoods dynamics, including gender issues in land rights.

Each lead researcher presented their research finding to an audience of representatives from various stakeholder groups: Government office, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Academic and Research Community, the Media and the public.

The findings are that many of the provisions of Ethiopia’s existing Policies and the legal frameworks of rights to land including the tenure systems and Land Administration are leaving subsistence farmers out of land and thus not helping the country’s poverty reduction efforts.

“At present, land holders face a wide range of acute pressures that impact on access to and utilization of land that pose risks to rural livelihoods due to public investments as especially large-scale infrastructure investments, commercial pressure having to do with demands for land , and land grabbing, pressure from rapid urban expansion,” a summary of the findings of the research reads.

“The pressures have a different impact on farm families, posing greater risks to the poor than the wealthy, to female-headed households than male-headed ones.”

According to the researches, land, the major productive asset and the most important main stay for poor farmers, is increasingly becoming a scarce resource as a result of the ever growing demand for it from domestic and foreign investors.

The researchers also recommended that the country needs to revisit current land policy and governance if issues of rural poverty and vulnerability are to be resolved.

The FSS-sponsored research project conducted in Amhara, Tigray, Oromia, and Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s (SNNP) Regional States, also revealed increased landlessness in the rural areas as a result of urbanization, industrialization and the growing sub-divisions of plots in response to growing population pressure.

According to the research findings, the resulting pressure is making poverty and vulnerability especially acute in the four study regions, and that this is making poor farmers feel threatened regarding their rights to land, and are apprehensive about the concomitant risks these pose to their livelihoods.

Whereas acute land shortage has been identified as a common feature of the state of landlessness, as a result of the pressures, and a failed land policy, the impact has been reflected in different ways across the study areas, and thus varying response mechanisms.

In Oromia, the response of the young, particularly women to landlessness has been varied but of particular significance has been the phenomenon of out-migration from the rural areas.

Farmers in SNNPR have resorted to shifting to cash crops as a coping mechanism, in response to increased landlessness.

In Tigray and Amhara regional states, the responses of the regional administration included pooling plots of lands as commons and distributing to the needy as per the priority list; Hillside allocation following Soil and Water Conservation, and promoting entrepreneurship among the youth in closured areas to engage in beekeeping, and other income generating activities such as fattening.

Each lead researcher presented their research finding to an audience of representatives from various stakeholder groups: Government office, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Academic and Research Community, the Media and the public.

Following each presentation, live discussions were held during which participants, asked questions, raised concerns over the state of land administration and importantly the increased landlessness in the rural areas as a result of urbanization, industrialization and the growing sub-divisions of plots in response to growing population pressure; forwarded valuable inputs to enrich the research works further.

 The importance of property rights, particularly rights to access to land for economic growth and social and political stability including their contribution towards achieving the goals of poverty and addresses issues of natural resource management and gender equality have become the major development agendas.

“The findings of the four researches seem to confirm the previous arguments that while the broad range of changes that have occurred since the Federal land laws were enacted over a decade ago have definitely had some positive outcomes, they have in other ways come to pose risks to rural livelihoods, risks which are more severe for the poor than the well-to-do, for female-headed households than male headed ones” Ato Desalegn Rahmatto, a renowned scholar and researcher who coordinated the research project commissioned by FSS told journalists at a press briefing.

According to Ato Deslaegn, what makes poverty and vulnerability especially acute in this country is the increasing shortage of arable land for most farming families and the growing sub-divisions of plots in response to growing population pressure.

“It is therefore imperative that there is wide, evidence-based, public debate on the subject of land and rural livelihoods,” he added.

A live discussion and debate was held after each presentation during which participating stakeholders reflected and valuable inputs were forwarded.

Forum for Social Studies (FSS) is an independent, non-profit think tank engaged in conducting and sponsoring policy-oriented research and promoting public debate on a wide range of development issues.

The research project on land, landlessness and rural poverty FSS implemented is among the initiatives to enhance existing knowledge-base and understanding of land and rural poverty with special emphasis on the growing problem of landlessness in the country.

FSS hopes that this workshop will provide the opportunity for free and open debate and reflection on the subject of land, landlessness and surrounding issues in Ethiopia,” Dr. Mehret Ayenew, FSS Executive Director, said in his opening speech of the dissemination workshop.