This paper examines the nature of community management of woodlots and investigates the determinants of collective action and its effectiveness in managing woodlots, based on a survey of 100 villages in Tigray, northern Ethiopia. Despite limited current benefits received by community members, the woodlots contribute substantially to community wealth, increasing members' willingness to provide collective effort to manage the woodlots. We find that benefits are greater and problems less on woodlots managed at the village level than those managed at a higher municipality level, and that the average intensity of management is greater on village-managed woodlots. The factors that do significantly affect collective action include population density (higher collective labor input and lower planting density at intermediate than at low or high density), market access (less labor input, planting density and tree survival where market access is better), and presence of external organizations promoting the woodlot (reduces local effort to protect the woodlot and tree survival). The finding of an inverse U-shaped relationship between population density and collective labor input is consistent with induced innovation theory, with the increased labor/land ratio promoting collective effort to invest in resources as population density grows to a moderate level, while incentive problems may undermine collective action at high levels of population density. These findings suggest collective action may be more beneficial and more effective when managed at a more local level, when the role of external organizations is more demand-driven, and when promoted in intermediate population density communities more remote from markets. In higher population density settings and areas closer to markets, private-oriented approaches are likely to be more effective.

Despite the presence of several studies on technology adoption, there are limited empirical studies on how socio-psychological factors affect the adoption of sustainable agriculture. Therefore, this paper investigates how socio-psychological factors-such as social capital, information, attitudes, efficacy, and aversion-affect smallholder farmers’ decisions to adopt sustainable land management practices, such as agroforestry systems, organic compost, and crop rotation with legumes. Cross-sectional data are collected from 350 randomly selected farm households using a pre-tested and structured questionnaire. A multivariate probit model is used to investigate factors that influence the probability of adopting these practices. The ordered probit model is also applied to identify and analyze the determinants of the number (intensity) of land management practices adopted. The findings indicate that nearly half of the farmers have adopted these land management practices to improve soil fertility, enhance water retention capacity, and increase productivity. It is also found that attitudes, information, education, group membership, relational capital, risk attitudes, and labor supply significantly affect the probability of adopting these agricultural practices. The estimates of the ordered probit model also indicate that extension services, risk attitudes, group membership, relational capital, education and labor supply are major determinants of the number of land management practices used. However, financial resources, biophysical factors and some demographic factors are found to have an insignificant effect on sustainable agriculture adoption. This implies that when it is necessary to promote sustainable land management practices and to stimulate smallholder farmers to adopt such practices in isolation or combination, specific strategies should be designed to improve awareness, build positive attitudes, reduce risk aversion, strengthen formal organizations, and empower endogenous groups (or informal institutions).

Conventional agriculture has been blamed for its ecological and economic concerns. Consequently, sustainable agriculture has emerged as a feasible and viable alternative for addressing food insecurity and climate change risks, despite its low uptake and unmet expectations. This study examined the opportunities, challenges, and limitations of adopting sustainable agriculture. To do this, a questionnaire survey and group discussions were used to collect information from a random sample of households. The collected data were examined using the percentage, priority ranking, and content analysis. Farmers have mentioned several economic benefits and ecological viability of sustainable agriculture: enhanced soil fertility, improved vegetation coverage, reduced land degradation, generated employment, and increased water availability. These results have then led to increased agricultural productivity, reduced carbon emissions, and improved food security. However, it was found that lack of information, limited institutional support, labour shortages, and fragmented farmland are the major constraints to adopting sustainable agriculture. Other problems include an increased workload, waterlogging, sedimentation, loss of cultivated and grazing land, the spread of external predators, and the emergence of diseases and pests. All of these problems may prohibit farmers from fully accepting and implementing sustainable agriculture. Hence, it is imperative to organize on-the-spot demonstrations, information-sharing, and capacity building for farmers and extension workers in order to comprehend the attributes, benefits, and constraints of sustainable agriculture. Farmers should also be given technical and financial assistance to implement sustainable agricultural practices. It is imperative that policymakers and development actors must establish and empower local institutions to promote sustainable agriculture, in order to fully explot its potential benefits and expand its reach to areas that are prone to drought and water shortages.

The frankincense from Boswellia papyrifera plays important roles in rural livelihoods and the national economy. On the other hand, Boswellia papyrifera is under threat of extinction. Nevertheless, little is known about the sustainability and fair-trade relationship of the current production system of the frankincense commodity. The current paper primarily analyzed sustainability of the production, processing, and exporting systems of frankincense production using the total emergy flows to the product. Data were primarily collected through key informant interviews and from secondary sources in the Tigray region, northern Ethiopia. An emergy synthesis method was used to assess the direct and indirect environmental energy requirements for the production, processing, and exporting of frankincense. The Emergy Sustainability Index (ESI), and Ratios were used as indicators of ecological sustainability. Whereas the Emergy Exchange Ratio (EER) was used to evaluate the level of fair trade of frankincense with importing countries. The average total emergy of the system was 50.14E+20sej/year, of which 3.92E+20sej are from local renewable, 45.20E+20sej from local nonrenewable and 1.02E+20sej from imported nonrenewable sources. The Percent Renewable (% Ren), Environmental Loading Ratio (ELR), Emergy Yield Ratio (EYR) and ESI were 7.82, 11.79, 49.50 and 4.19, respectively. The EER showed that the region exported 11.8 times more emergy in frankincense products than it received in the money paid for it in 2008/09, showing unfair trade between the exporting and importing countries. According to our results, it can be concluded that the current production, processing, and exporting of frankincense is not sustainable.