farmer |
The government
strongly believes that issuing land certificate to farmers is the only
way to bring land tenure security and empower farmers across the
country. Nevertheless, some argue that providing land certificate has
nothing to do with such kind of security.
"Before the
issuance of the land certificate, the territories per plot had not been
clearly defined, as a result,there were a number of land disputes among
farmers. They as well used to waste their precious time at court in a
bid to end the litigation," says Tigistu Gebremeskel , Directorate
Director of Land Management and Utilization at the Ministry of
Agriculture and Natural Resources.
He further says divorced women used to suffer a lot as they had no defined territory to claim in the past.
"Due to spontaneous
land redistribution, farmers had uncertain future and they were also so
reluctant to invest in farming, but now, the provision of land
certificate has already addressed the aforementioned challenges."
However, Former
Member of Parliament Temesgen Zewdie totally discredited the director's
views saying: "Farmers have only farmland use rights in the constitution
and so the land certification does not go beyond ensuring the rights to
use .It also inhibits farmers from long term investing as there is
clear land tenure insecurity in this country."
In fact, many say
land as economic component such as labor and capital needs to be
transacted. Their point of contention is that land ownership is
inalienable right as citizens. Moreover, they often say: "The land issue
has to be left to the farmers and land certification won't serve them
as guarantee."
But , Ministry of
Agriculture and Natural Resources in its website stated that land
certification has the potential to significantly increase investments in
agriculture by all producers, improve rural livelihoods, reduce (in the
mid- to long-term) conflicts over land, reduce land degradation, and
improve resource use.
Furthermore, along
with other interventions, improved tenure security is vital to creating
an environment in which the rural population is able to survive and
adapt to environmental and other shocks.
The Senior Land
Researcher Desalegn Rahmato who work for Forum for Social. In his study
text published in 2009, he stated that owing to demographic
danger,peasants in the densely populated areas of Southern Nation and
Nationalities state are less enthusiastic about land certification than
other less densely populated areas and among other things.
According to him,
the most pressing issues for them are population pressure and land
shortage on the one hand and soil fertility decline on the other are
paramount.
For Desalegn , the
real and full tenure security is affirmed when a land holder has a right
to have an incentive to improve or to invest in it. "The land holder
feels assured that his/her rights are not arbitrarily overridden by
others including the state,the holder has the right to use, dispose or
transfer."
A Senior Researcher
at the Ethiopian Economic Association,Dr Nuru Seid says the farmers'
land size is shrinking from time to time. In 1960s, land to farmers'
ratio was 1.2 hectare but currently it is 0.35 hectare.
However, he doesn't
agree with the view of privatizing rural land. "The double digit
economic growth that has been witnessing for over decades won't be
materialized without the big role of small scale farming."
Nuru further says
though farmers have only farmland use rights in this country, they are
currently producing 22 quintals per hectare on average using various
agricultural inputs.
He also says if the
sale of rural land is allowed, whenever farmers face economic problems
will sell the land and migrate to urban centers in search of jobs.
According to the
national study on unemployment in 2013, the rate of unemployment in
urban centers is 17 percent while in rural part is 2 percent. This
implies that despite being landless farmers, they can survive without
going to urban centers.
And to curb
unwanted rural urban migration, expanding education in rural part can be
taken as a way out. This is because after completion of education, the
youth can engaged in self employment in their locality.
As to Nuru, land certificate issuance inspires farmers to invest more in farming through building sense of ownership.
For his part ,The
Initiative Africa Director Kibur Gena says most developing countries has
failed to advance their economy because they are unable to transform
their natural resources including land into used capital.
"For instance, if
they have water sources unless they use it to power generation for
energy or irrigation farm, the resource is categorized as a dead
capital."
According to him,
currently due to population growth, a given farmer's plot contains
excess labor, the land return is diminishing from time to time and to
address the problem shifting the rural labor from farm to non farming
such as manufacturing or service sectors is vital. Unlike land, these
sectors have increasing returns, he adds
Whether issuing
land certificate to farmers bring tenure security and empowerment or
not, Kibur says it depends on the content and the objectives of the
certificate.
The Ethiopian
constitution unequivocally asserts that "Land is not a private property.
Article 40 No. 3 articulates that the right to own rural and urban land
as well as natural resources belongs to the state and the people.
Land is also an
inalienable common property of the nations, nationalities and peoples of
Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of
transfer.
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