Tenure security and soil conservation investment decisions: Empirical evidence from East Gojam, Ethiopia

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mutual relation between tenure security and soil conservation investment and to examine the influence of other socio-economic and institutional factors on soil conservation investment and tenure insecurity. A formal survey is conducted in two districts of East Gojam Zone of Amhara region. The Zone and the districts are selected because of their long time experience with soil conservation development activities and land re-distribution. A two-stage random sampling procedure is used to obtain sample households. Because the structural model represents a simultaneous binary choice system, the investment and insecurity equations are estimated using a two- stage probit method. The results show that tenure insecurity is an important variable that affects the probability of investing in soil conservation technologies. However, the reverse relation is insignificant. Farmers’ soil conservation investment decisions are positively and significantly related to slope, age, education level and public investment, whereas, tenure insecurity and distance from the main road have a negative significant influences on soil conservation investments. The analysis of tenure insecurity reveals that expectation of redistribution and farm size has a negative influence on tenure security, whereas education level has a reverse effect. Key words: Tenure security, soil conservation investment, simultaneous binary choice system, two-stage probit, Ethiopia.