Adoption of land restoration activities in Ethiopia: Understanding gender-labor dimensions

The role of labor in the adoption of land restoration activities (LRA) that reduce soil degradation in smallholder agricultural systems has received inadequate attention. We examine the gender-labor dimensions of the adoption of LRAs by smallholder agricultural households in rural Ethiopia, in a context where more than 90 percent of agricultural households have some form of private land tenure security, which is regarded to be an important enabling factor for restoring private agricultural land. We use three panels of Living Standard Measurement Study – Integrated Survey in Agriculture (LSMS—ISA) data between 2010 and 2016 and employ panel data estimators to provide a correlational understanding of the role of male and female labor in the adoption of LRA. We also estimate these relationships for sub-samples of male-headed and female-headed households—to examine heterogeneity in the gender-labor dimensions. Controlling for tenure security, the probability of adopting LRA is significantly higher when agricultural households have greater person-days of female household and female non-household labor. This holds for all both sub-samples of households. The area of land under LRA is positively and significantly most responsive to person-days of female non-household labor in all four types of households as well. Female non-household labor has been critical for increasing the adoption of LRA on private lands of rural households in Ethiopia in recent years. In a context with high incidence of tenure security, the results make a case for continued support towards LRA adoption with a specific focus on reducing labor shortages and drudgery.