Poverty and Livelihood Strategies of Rural Landless

Access to land is an imperative issue for the bulk of Ethiopian people who, in one way or the other, depend on agricultural production for their income and subsistence. Still, agricultural land is becoming very scarce, patchy and its productivity becomes fading. In Amhara Region of Ethiopia, no land redistribution has happened since 1996. Given the rural households, particularly the youth, who were not old enough to be entitled to land during the land reallocation, have no future in farming. Thus, this book tries to examine the poverty situations and livelihood strategies of rural landless in Mecha district. The research finding, therefore, dig out that the segment of the population in Mecha district is found in intense poverty situation, where the root causes are lack of agricultural land, absence of skill training schemes, and limited access and provision of services (credit and input). This book will benefit students, academicians, policy makers and development planners to understand the situations of poverty and livelihood strategies of rural landless, and will motivate them to conduct further research.