This working paper analyzes four case studies of local districts in Ethiopia to support the theory that sustainable land management would be benefited by linking natural resource management with market-oriented commodity development.

Land degradation has been identified as severe environmental problem in Ethiopia, especially since the early 1970s. This paper focuses mainly on the effect of short-term benefits to farmers and the explicit considerations of the linkages between natural resource management and market-oriented commodity development on the adoption and scaling out of sustainable land management practices.

It hypothesize that linking natural resource management with market-oriented commodity development enhances sustainable land management by providing farmers with short-term benefits. This hypothesis is tested with analysis of case studies of four districts in Ethiopia. Two of the case studies deal with the linkage between grazing land development and market-oriented livestock development, and the other two deal with the linkage between conservation agriculture and market-oriented crop production.

This working paper is part of a series, established to share knowledge generated through Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian farmers project with members of the research and development community in Ethiopia and beyond.

Intended users of the research outputs are government, non-governmental and private sector and donor organizations that are involved in market-oriented development. Some lessons learned are also expected to be relevant for possible use in market-orientated agricultural development efforts in similar contexts outside Ethiopia.

Read Sustainable land management through market-oriented commodity development: case studies from Ethiopia.