Abstract:
Ethiopia is among the poorest countries where land degradation caused livelihood problem to its inhabitants.
The livelihood of rural communities in Ethiopia is seriously threatened by land degradation. Land is the
major natural resource that economic, social, infrastructure, and other human activities are undertaken on.
Thus, land resources play an important role in shaping rural livelihoods, and lack of sustainable land
management practices leads to land degradation. Thus, this study aimed to assess causes of land degradation
and its impacts on the livelihood of farmers in case of Adiarkay woreda, in North part of Ethiopia. It also
addresses the factors which influence income diversification for livelihood of households in the study area. In
doing this, a descriptive survey reaserch design and mixed research approach was deemend to be approprate
because the study is besically concerned with explaing the actual situation as the main task. Majority of the
primary data of this study was collected through household survey questionnaires, field observations and key
informant interview. Descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency, percentage, and tabulations were
employed to assess causes of land degradation and its impacts on the livelihood of farmers. The research
finding indicates that the major causes of land degradation are both natural factors and human causes such
as over population growth (over population), deforestation, poor tillage, flood, typhoons, fires and Heavy
rain. Land degradation and livelihood are negatively interlinked with each other. The livelihood of the
majority of the population in the study area is dependent on subsistence agriculture both farming and animal
husbandry with low diversification. The survey result showed that majority respondents’ i.e 93 (93%) of the
sample households have less than 2.5 ha farm land and nearly 3 (3%) have more than 2.5 ha. More than 80%
of the respondents pointed out that land degradation has impacts both on natural assets and social assets
such as costs of nutrients lost with top soil erosion, loss of fodder for cattle, lost production due to nutrient
and soil loss, loss of livestock carrying capacity, famine, crime, conflict and migration. Our results suggest
awareness should be created in the community about the livelihood diversification mechanisms which enabled
them to engage in different income-generating activities and comprehensive watershed and soil management
should be implemented.
