Current Land Tenure and Households’ Perspectives to Voluntary Land Consolidation in South East Ethiopia

Abstract

Land consolidation is supposed to improve crop production although framers’ voluntary land consolidation is negligible in Ethiopia. The main object of this study was to assess effects of current land policy on households’ voluntary land consolidation. Data were gathered with survey questionnaire, focus group discussions and interviews. The descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Results indicated that the area has insufficient land allocation, illegal land market, land conflicts, farmland fragmentation and low crop production. Regression model identified that sex, age, household sizes; number of plots, land leasing-in and sharecropping-in are determinants of future voluntary land consolidation. Therefore, the farming households should be contingent to legal land rules for accessing secured farmlands. The agriculture experts should aware farming households on negative effects of dividing already existing smaller plots. The farming households should be initiated to consolidate their fragmented plots for enhancing their agricultural production. The local governments could urge conventional land consolidation scheme so as to expand mechanized agriculture. National government should review the current land policy for devising mechanisms of controlling land fragmentation.