Impact of large scale agricultural investment on income and food security in Oromiya Region, Ethiopia
Bekele, Maru Shete & Marcel Rutten
This article identified the impact of large scale agricultural investment on income and food security in Bako Tibe district of Oromiya regional state in Ethiopia. It considered an agricultural investment project that leased in an area of about 12000 hectares for 45 years. The projects has been operational since 2008, and some households lost access to customarily owned grazing and cultivation plots. Primary data were collected from 300 households that were drawn through systematic random sampling techniques from communities that lost access to grazing and farmlands and from those who did not lose anything but comparable to the first group. Data were analyzed employing the propensity scores matching technique. In a situation where there are competing claims over land resources and where population density is relatively high, putting land into large scale investment disposes local community from their livelihood, worsens their food insecurity status and brings loss in income for local people. We argue that the approach of leasing out farmlands for large scale commercial agriculture should consider previous livelihood patterns of the local people and recognize customary property right.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2013
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