Abstract
The farm household system (FHS) is one of the main entry
points for interventions for rural development. To identify appropriate
interventions, it is necessary to assess a priori potential impacts of these
interventions on the livelihoods and environment of rural households. This
study presents an analytical approach to assess concurrently the environmental
and economic performance of FHSs. The approach combines qualitative
resource flow diagrams for rapidly assessing the organization and
resource flows of the FHS with quantitative economic and environmental
performance indicators of the household. We apply the approach to three
types of mixed crop-livestock FHSs in Northern Ethiopia, i.e., wealthy,
medium, and poor FHS. The wealthier FHS diversifies production, recycles
nutrients, and makes substantial use of common resources, with the
risk of degrading them. Diversification leads to increased labor productivity
at the expense of low land productivity. The livelihood strategy of the
poor FHS is based on a combination of off- and on-farm activities.
Although the medium FHS is fully engaged in farming, the household is
not able to produce sufficient food on-farm, but is able to use cash generated
from selling products to bridge the food deficit. The low-cost analytical
approach uses existing databases and a limited set of indicators to
evaluate economic and environmental performance of FHSs. The methodology
can be used to assess and evaluate the current performance of different
types of FHSs. This information can be used to identify FHS-specific interventions
(recommendation domains) aimed at poverty reduction or improved
resource use efficiency and to assess environmental effects of these interventions
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 565-595 |
Journal | Journal of Sustainable Agriculture |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- policy
- sustainability
- nitrogen
- impacts
- tropics
- diversification
- instruments
- indicators
- diversity
- dynamics