Fragile East African Highlands: a Development Vision for Smallholder Farmers in the Ethiopian Highlands

Abstract

For societies that depend on agriculture, the process of meeting current or future welfare demands should not continue without regard to the potential long-term dangers of land resource over-use. With an increasing human and animal population in the Ethiopian highlands development efforts so far have been hasty and disjointed, and have sidetracked issues of production base security and conservation. As a result, large-scale degradation has ensued, and if the trend continues the agricultural future of the country is threatened. Cohesive land-use practices are needed in order to manage the fragile Ethiopian highland resource environment properly and to support growing human demands.