Sustainability, institutional arrangement and challenges of community based climate smart practices in northwest Ethiopia

Exploring the scaling-up of sustainable land management in the Central highlands of Ethiopia

“…Agriculture is the backbone of Ethiopia's economy and food provision (MoARD, 2010;Gebrehiwot & van der Veen, 2013). The sector accounts for about 42% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 90% of export revenues and 85% of employment (Adego et al, 2018;CSA, 2018). However, agriculture in Ethiopia is characterized by low productivity (Weldemariam et al, 2013;Abebe & Sewnet, 2014), and consequently cannot cover the food requirements of the country's population (Adimassu et al, 2014).…”

“…The problem of land degradation is particularly persistent in the highlands of Ethiopia, where the majority of the country's population lives and depends on farming (Amsalu & de Graaff, 2007;Mengistu et al, 2015;Adego et al, 2018). The Ethiopian highlands cover about 65% of the total area of the country, 90% of its arable lands, house 90% of the human population and 60% of the livestock population (Hurni et al, 2010).…”

“…Likewise, between 1995 and, SLM activities were implemented as part of Ethiopia's agricultural extension programs for individual farm-households (Bewket, 2007). Since 2010, guided by the successive Growth and Transformation Plans (GTP I & II) of Ethiopia, SLM activities are being implemented through community mass mobilization at watershed level (Wolancho, 2015;Adego et al, 2018). The GTPs are a national development framework for five year periods (FDRE, 2010), with the current GTP II (lasting till 2020) being directed to achieving the country's vision of becoming a middle income country by 2025 (FDRE, 2016).…”

“…These institutions are responsible for formulating the policies and strategies related to land management, strengthening the capacity of the regional and local level institutions, developing extension strategies, providing financial support to strengthen the capacity of the regional and local level institutions, planning SLM activities, and facilitating monitoring and evaluation of implemented practices at the national level (MoA, 2014). The Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources plays a leading role in the coordination of SLM activities at national level (MoARD, 2010;Haregeweyn et al, 2012;Adego et al, 2018). Regional level institutions (in our case in the Oromia region) support the mass mobilization through building the capacity of local level institutions, providing material and financial support, facilitating the technical and practical training manuals, planning SLM at the regional level and facilitating the monitoring and evaluation of the local level implementation of SLM (MoA, 2014).…”

“…Through these farmers' development groups, farmers are working together to achieve better results and foster the scaling-up of SLM (Tukahirwa et al, 2013b;Yirga et al, 2014). Through the creation of 'one-to-five' groups (groups of five farmers living and working in the same area with one farmer leading the group) (Teshome et al, 2016b;Nigussie et al, 2018), these farmers' development groups are crucial in transferring the knowledge on SLM practices among farmers (Danano, 2010;Snyder et al, 2014;Adego et al, 2018). It aims to improve the health and quality of life, and promote the sustainable social and economic development of the country through the conservation and sustainable utilization of the natural resources and the environment at large.…”