Heterogeneity in land resources and diversity in farming practices in Tigray,Ethiopia

The management of soils is an important issue for policy makers in Ethiopia. However, most of the interventions designed to conserve the soil resources have fallen short of the expectations, performing impressively in the short run, but proving unsustainable on a long-term basis. There are no simple explanations for the failure of these interventions to reverse soil degradation, but it has been evident for some time that there is an uneasy connection between ‘objective’ assessments of the state of the land and the way this information is used in the policy-making processes. It is now widely accepted that understanding the processes of the soil degradation is not simply a matter of analysing changes in the stock of physical and nutrient capital. While studies of nutrient balances are an important component of research in soil erosion and land degradation, their results need to be considered in the context of social, cultural and political factors.