Abstract
IntroductionEthiopia has made efforts to tackle the challenges of low crop and livestock productivity and degradation of land resources through various rural development strategies. However, increasing demands for food, animal feed, fuel, and income-generating activities are putting pressure on the land. In this paper, we describe the production pressure and competition between crop and livestock production, quantify rates of land-use/cover (LULC) changes, and examine driving forces and consequences of land conversion.MethodsThe study was conducted in Gudo Beret watershed, North Shewa Zone of Amhara region, Ethiopia. It used a combination of methods including remote sensing, household interviews, field observations, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. Supervised and unsupervised image classification methods were employed to map LULC classes for 31 years (1984–2016).ResultsThe results of satellite remote sensing revealed that 51% of the land in the study area was subject to accelerated land conversions. The household survey results indicated that feed resources and grain production pressures were 1.43 and 1.34 t ha−1 respectively. The observed annual changes in plantation and settlement areas were 2.6% and 2.9%. This was mainly at the expense of bushland and grazing land systems. Cropland increased (0.4% year−1) while grazing land reduced (3.5% year−1) under contrasting dynamics and competitive changes. An increase in human and livestock populations and farm expansion were major drivers of land conversion that adversely affected household livelihoods and the natural ecosystem. The consequences of these pressures resulted in a lack of animal feed, low crop-livestock productivity, and a reduction in natural vegetation coverage.ConclusionsWe suggest that sustainable land resource management, more integrated crop-livestock production, and the use of productivity-enhancing technologies could play a role in managing competition for land resources.
Highlights
Ethiopia has made efforts to tackle the challenges of low crop and livestock productivity and degradation of land resources through various rural development strategies
Our objectives were to (a) evaluate grain production and feed resources pressure in the mixed crop-livestock systems, (b) examine competition between crop and livestock production and the associated tradeoffs, (c) quantify rates of LULC changes due to land conversion, and (d) provide insights on the drivers and consequences of crop-livestock production dynamics associated with ecological changes
Increased numbers of endangered tree species, high grazing pressure, and intensive land conversions are, potential threats to enhance the management of improved land resources
Summary
Ethiopia has made efforts to tackle the challenges of low crop and livestock productivity and degradation of land resources through various rural development strategies. Traditional crop and livestock production along with rapid growth in human population have put significant pressure on land resources in these parts of the country. Crop production has expanded due to increases in the amount of land dedicated to this activity, though the adoption of agricultural inputs has contributed to the rise (Alemayehu et al 2011). Trends in crop production are more uneven than the growth of the human population due to the erratic nature of rainfall and other shocks. Favorable weather conditions in 1 year result in bumper harvests, but severe drought causes crop failures that adversely affect agricultural production. On top of the impacts of population pressure, a lack of appropriate management practices has led to severe land degradation (Hurni et al 2016; Nigussie et al 2015; Kindu et al 2017)
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