UN report calls for land ownership

The Addis Ababa-based UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said on Tuesday that granting farmers in Ethiopia ownership of their land could speed up development. Launching its annual Economic Report on Africa, it said land ownership should form the cornerstone of any agriculture-led development plan in the country. “Land tenure and governance are among the most pressing areas requiring institutional reforms in Ethiopia,” the report said. “Although the land issue is politically difficult, it needs to be resolved quickly since it impedes the development of several key sectors." “In particular the success of the government's main development strategy - agriculture-led industrialisation - may largely depend on addressing rural land tenure insecurity,” it said. Almost 90 percent of Ethiopians live in rural areas and more than half of export earnings in the country comes from agriculture. Land tenure is a highly contentious issue in Ethiopia. Although farmers have the right to use land in Ethiopia and to transfer that use to their children, they cannot own it. The ECA report said insecurity over land tenure discouraged investment – particularly in the areas of boosting productivity and soil conservation. Patrick Asea, the director of the Economic and Social Policy Division at the ECA, said ownership should be a “component of any broad-based rural agriculture” plan. “Our own experience is that a land title which provides ownership, whether in a lease or total ownership, is a very important route out of poverty,” he told a news conference. Asea praised Ethiopia’s economic reforms over the last decade which had led to a growth in excess of six percent. But he noted that income inequality had increased, as had urban unemployment and poverty.