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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1393124
This article is part of the Research Topic Land Management and Food/Nutrition (In)Security In Mixed Farming Systems View all 19 articles

Unlocking Horizontal and Vertical Cropping Intensification Potentials to Address Landlessness and Food Security Challenges of Rainfed Crop Production Systems in Ethiopia: Potential, Performance and Gap Assessment

Provisionally accepted
Dr. Tibebu Kassawmar Dr. Tibebu Kassawmar 1,2*Gizaw Desta Gizaw Desta 3Matebu Tadesse Matebu Tadesse 4Amare Bantider Amare Bantider 4Dr.Ermias Teferi Demessie Dr.Ermias Teferi Demessie 4Lemlem Abraha Lemlem Abraha 5Gete Zeleke Gete Zeleke 4Claire L. Walsh Claire L. Walsh 6Greg O’Donnell's Greg O’Donnell's 6
  • 1 Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • 2 Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
  • 3 ICRISAT · Resilient Farm and Food System - Landscapes Soil Fertility and Water management, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
  • 4 Water and Land Resource Centre, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • 5 Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia
  • 6 Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Knowledge-based evidences about the potential and existing rain-fed cropping is crucial for decision-making aimed atfor sustainable land use and food security. Using multi-criteria spatial analysis techniques, this study assessed the current status of cropland availability and projected impacts on future crop production in Ethiopia. The study primarily defined the extent of the Rrain-fed Cropping Area (RCA) and assessed the performances of different cropping practices. After precisely mapping currently cultivated area, cropping intensification potentials were estimated. Subsequently, disregarding the existing cultivated area, completely unsuitable areas, protected and intact forest areas; the potentially available arable land using suitability analysis techniques was determined. Besides, the performance of existing crop production systems were evaluated against the natural potential. The findings reveal that RCA covers ~60% of the country's landmass, of which currently cropping is practiced in only 33% of its RCA. The coverage of Potentially Available Cropland (yet uncultivated) accounts for 16% of the country's RCA. This is dominantly located in sparsely populated western and southwestern parts of the country. Theis present study confirms that Horizontal Cropping Intensification (HCI) in the RCA of Ethiopia reaches so far only 33%. On the other hand, Vertical Cropping Intensification (VCI) practices covers only 10%, while about half potion of the RCA is suitable for VCI services at various level of suitability. The performance of existing VCI oriented cropping (covers only 10% of the RCA) is very poor. Challenges to the use of the available cropland and ways of addressing land shortage to needy farmers are highlighted to inform efforts to readdress landlessness and food insecurity in Ethiopia.

    Keywords: cropland, Potential Cropland, Intensification, Land suitability, Rainfed agriculture, Landlessness, Food insecurity, Ethiopia

    Received: 28 Feb 2024; Accepted: 29 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kassawmar, Desta, Tadesse, Bantider, Demessie, Abraha, Zeleke, Walsh and O’Donnell's. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Dr. Tibebu Kassawmar, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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