Potential impact of land certification on rural households' land-related investment intentions in Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

This study analyses the effect of land registration and certification on rural farm households’ intention to engage in tree planting, an indicator used as a proxy to measure land-related investments in the Oromia and Southern nations and nationalities people (SNNP) regions, Ethiopia. I used cross-sectional data from Wollaita and West Arisi zones collected in 2012. Maximum Likelihood probit model was employed for estimation. Results suggest that there is indeed a positive and highly significant correlation between possession of land certificates and tree planting intention among rural households in the study areas. Other estimates for variables such as households’ farming experience, size of work force and farm size tend to positively affect the probability of planting trees.