Ethiopia stretches over a cross sectional area of 1.13 million square kilometer or 113 million hectare. It is characterized by high mountains, grass lands, forests that mainly cover mountains, broad swampy places, partially-dry-and-hot lands and landscapes.
According to the coordinated land management draft policy document, the heights of highland areas ranges from 1,500 above sea level up to 2,500 meter. The area in between comprises broad plateaus including Ras Dashen mountain, which is 4,600 meter above sea level.
And the rest part of the country’s part covers 43 percent of the total landscape.
Dr. Azene Bekele has rich experience in land planning and management. As to him, the high land areas of the country boast congenial climate and cover 95 percent of the land utilized for crop production, which accounts for 88 percent the means of living of the population.
In addition, the land serves for farming, grinding of crops, sustaining livestock, which is a source of meat and milk for family consumption not to mention the supply of cattle to the market.
It also supports 75 percent of pastoral community and ultimately the sector supports the ever growing population.
The traditional farming engagement put pressure on the vast type of land resources. The utilization of land without proper policy, plan and supervision by the public and other sectoral institutions for far too long has brought about rapid land degradation.
The broad masses’ dependency on natural resources has minimized the chance to resort to other alternative income generation options.
As to Dr. Azene without considering, better land utilization and conduct, various land utilization methods are changing and still continuing.
The absence of coordinated land utilization plan and supportive utilization policy undermined the nation’s capacity to mitigate climate change and global warming and weakened the already fragile ecosystem and impacted the sustainably usage of land.
It also aggravated the clearance of forests in the apex of mountains. The same was the fate of vegetation cover which is the main water source.
The useful swampy lands have dried up. Dry and semidry savanna grasslands, which are inconvenient for crop production, are changed into croplands.
Contrary to this, croplands, with high productivity per hectare, changed into urban centers – some industrial zones and settlement areas.
Unless the situation is reversed and land degradation is arrested, the country’s land resources will be endangered. Its productivity capacity is damaged which in turn destabilized the livelihood of the present and future generations.
Hence, priority should be placed on sustainable land use management and utilizing the resource responsibly in a coordinated manner.
According to Dr. Azene, unless the land resources are managed in a planned manner and utilized backed by studies and research, the nation will face severe climatic conditions.
As to him, the inner and upper parts of the land’s wellbeing are determined by the proper utilization of land.
Human beings, wild and domestic animals and other flora and fauna are sustained on the upper part of the land. The soil that exists on the upper part of the land supports human beings’ livelihood. On the upper part of the land, human beings produce crop, fruits and pulses which are the means of their existence.
For land productivity and existence of human beings, other creatures’ interactions and healthy weather condition are decisive. However, the country’s climate is changing from time to time. But mitigating the problem seems neglected. And yet productive lands are improperly used and modern economic activities, which hugely use chemicals as input, also affect the land which is not expanded by nature.
The developed nations that realized the significance of proper land use and management have been practicing the proper usage for the last 200 year. As opposed to this, the people in developing countries are not yet awakened to this fact.
Utilizing land in a planned manner means using the resource based on the land’s capacity sustainably and productively. That is not simply using the resource arbitrarily. And the national land plan will be prepared with the pertinent stakeholders’ participation such as farmers, pastoral communities and other bodies by studying the land’s characters.
The study focuses on the limitation and the potential of the land and its suitability, weather conditions and proximity to sun.
Such approach helps to use the land properly. As to Dr. Azene, in Ethiopia, 80 percent of the population ekes out a living from land. Hence improper usage results in dire consequences. The ongoing land grabbing, witnessed in several parts of the country by the public and institutions, and also moreover, the unwise construction of infrastructural facilities need a mitigating measure.
As to Dr. Azene, the national land usage by itself does not bring long-lasting solutions for the problems being witnessed today. Rather it needs complementary institutions, which have strong executive power.
In this regard, the Prime Minister Office has a capacity to provide lasting decision after all stake holders reached on consensus.
Dr. Azene further said that, due to mismanagement, the nation has lost its resources, which could enhance its foreign currency earning capacity.
If land is properly used based on study in addition to overcoming global warming and climate change, raising productivity could be possible. To this end, all stakeholders’ contribution should be utilized as an input.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 11 August 2019
BY ABEBE WOLDE GIORGIS
