Open access post-harvest grazing is widespread in mixed crop-livestock systems. This discourages conservation agriculture, which depends on keeping the soil surface covered with crop residues. One way to reduce open access grazing is through restricting communal grazing access to allow rights of exclusion, while simultaneously improving the production of livestock feeds. This paper analyzes farmers’ perceptions about postharvest free grazing on agricultural lands and identifies incentives that motivate forage production, to help inform forage development and policy.

This study combined farm household panel data, weather data and discount rates, as measured by a hypothetical survey question, to estimate the impact of income on discounting. This paper has found that income variation driven by anomalies in rainfall during the main growing season is a strong predictor of farmers’ subjective discount rates. Farmers prefer a smaller immediate reward to a larger deferred one when affected by negative income shocks, while they display lower discount rates when the income shocks are positive.

This research investigates the profitability of bioethanol production in Africa, taking Ethiopia as a case in point, and suggests an oil price threshold beyond which biofuels may be profitable. Specifically, the study analyzes the viability of producing bioethanol from molasses in the context of Ethiopia, using data from a biofuels investment survey by EEPFE/EDRI in 2010. The study draw on investment theory as underlying conceptual framework and employ unit cost analysis for the empirical analysis.

There is a paucity of information on conditioning factors that hinder or promote adoption of multiple climate-smart practices and on the synergies among such practices in increasing household resilience by improving agricultural income. This study analyzes how heat, rainfall, and rainfall variability affect farmers’ choices of a portfolio of potential climate smart practices — agricultural water management, improved crop seeds, and fertilizer — and the impact of these practices on farm income in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia.

Land conflicts in developing countries are costly both directly and through increased land degradation. An important policy goal is to create respect for borders. This often involves mandatory, expensive interventions. We propose a new policy design, which in theory promotes neighborly relations at low cost. A salient feature is the option to by-pass regulation through consensus. The key idea combines the insight that social preferences transform social dilemmas into coordination problems with the logic of forward induction.

The Environment and Climate Research Center aims to support green and climateresilient development. The center is based at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI). The other two partner organizations behind the center are the Environment for Development Initiative (EfD) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI).

This article uses househld panel data spanning the period 2000–2007 to test hypotheses from the literature that secure land tenure, market access and collective action promote accumulation of private capital assets in rural highland Ethiopia. The three natural capital assets analysed in the article, livestock, eucalyptus trees and non-eucalyptus trees on households’ farm plots, make up virtually 100 per cent of privately held disposable assets. Incomes and capital stocks are extremely low and constant and tree assets are at least as important as livestock.