THE EFFECTS OF LAND CERTIFICATION ON SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENTS ON LAND MANAGEMENT IN ETHIOPIA.THE CASE OF DOYOGENA WEREDA, KEMBATA-TEMBARO ZONE, SNNPR

Abstract

The objective of this study looks at the effectiveness of land certification on sustainable investments on land management in Doyogena wereda. It also looks the status of securing land rights made by landholders after land certification program and extent and composition of disputes over land. Primary data were collected through survey questionnaire, group discussion, key informant interview and field observation, while secondary data were collected from governmental organizations carried out in three administrative kebeles from the total fourteen kebeles. Sample kebeles were selected by using simple random (lottery) sampling technique and 99 households were studied. The data were analyzed by using qualitative techniques (verbal description), statistical analyses and correlation analysis. As the results, tenure security was low during the past regimes because of frequent land redistribution and this contributes a lot towards natural resource (land) degradation in the wereda. Most of the existing rural economic and social situations of the wereda can be traced back as manifestations of tenure insecurity. However, in response to the insecurity problem the current government has been taken measures of rural land certification to increase tenure security by granting holding certificate as legal evidence. Land certification has positive and significant effect in securing land rights of holders in general and the incentive to improve investments on land management and soil f ertility management in particular. In addition, land related disputes are decreased and the vulnerable group of the society especially women land rights are protected as a result of holding certificate. Moreover, there was low productivity of farm because of increasing price of inputs such as fertilizer and low awareness for certificate as collateral /guarantee/ to the financial institute and can get credits to buy farm inputs. In general, the findings of the study demonstrate that the feeling of land rights security is increasing through time, while land certification carried out to increase tenure security has been achieving its intended objectives and is sustainably effective in improving investments on land management of landholders in the study wereda.