Farm Land Conflict and its Socio-Economic Consequences in Tahtay Qoraro, Tigray, Ethiopia.

Abstract

This study attempted to explore the main causes of farm land conflicts and its socio-economic consequences on the rural residents. The general objective of this study was assessing the causes and socio-economic consequences of farm land conflict in the study area. The study explored the agricultural productivity loss and socio-economic costs by using 175 rural farm household respondents. Moreover, focus group discussions and interview were also employed to collect qualitative data. The main causes of farm land conflicts are building extension on private land, population growth, fragmented land and drainage. Moreover, scarce farm land, high demand for land, inheritance problem and land grabbing are other causes of farm land conflicts. Disputant farmers do not invite or support each other in the social association and organizations. Therefore, farm land conflict terminates the social interaction of the community. Furthermore, the study finds that in average one farm household respondent waste more than one month and birr 2445.72 annually to execute his/her case when the farm land conflict went to the court. Moreover, farmers loss 18.8 percent to 23.2 percent agricultural productivity because of farm land conflict. Farm land conflict hampers local and national development by mainly affecting rural agricultural productivity. The large proportion of caseloads handled by the woreda court is farm land conflicts and more than half of farm land conflicts reach to the woreda court while few proportion address in the local area.

Keywords: Farmers, farm land, conflict, socio-economic, agricultural productivity, Tahtay Qoraro.