Abstract:
Introduction: Ethiopia has made efforts to tackle the challenges of low crop and livestock productivity and degradation
of land resources through various rural development strategies. However, increasing demands for food, animal feed, fuel,
and income-generating activities are putting pressure on the land. In this paper, we describe the production pressure and
competition between crop and livestock production, quantify rates of land-use/cover (LULC) changes, and examine
driving forces and consequences of land conversion.
Methods: The study was conducted in Gudo Beret watershed, North Shewa Zone of Amhara region, Ethiopia. It used a
combination of methods including remote sensing, household interviews, field observations, focus group discussions,
and key informant interviews. Supervised and unsupervised image classification methods were employed to map LULC
classes for 31 years (1984–2016).
Results: The results of satellite remote sensing revealed that 51% of the land in the study area was subject to accelerated
land conversions. The household survey results indicated that feed resources and grain production pressures were 1.43
and 1.34 t ha−1 respectively. The observed annual changes in plantation and settlement areas were 2.6% and 2.9%. This
was mainly at the expense of bushland and grazing land systems. Cropland increased (0.4% year−1) while grazing land
reduced (3.5% year−1) under contrasting dynamics and competitive changes. An increase in human and livestock
populations and farm expansion were major drivers of land conversion that adversely affected household livelihoods
and the natural ecosystem. The consequences of these pressures resulted in a lack of animal feed, low crop-livestock
productivity, and a reduction in natural vegetation coverage.
Conclusions: We suggest that sustainable land resource management, more integrated crop-livestock production, and
the use of productivity-enhancing technologies could play a role in managing competition for land resources.
Keywords: Cropland, Land pressure, Livestock, Population growth, Production dynamics
