Ethiopian smallholder families in the semi-arid north are under pressure to adapt their farming systems to changing social, political and environmental conditions. Various indicators such as the vegetation index, soil quality, demographic change and socio-economic stratification suggest that development in the region is becoming increasingly unsustainable in both ecological and social terms - a situation that will have direct and catastrophic repercussions for human beings and animals in drought years. Famine relief has not proved particularly effective, but there is potential for better use to be made of endogenous resources -first and foremost in the field of water management, but also in terms of the local capacity for innovation, economic activity and sociopolitical organization. Witness the results of a study conducted under the Soil Conservation Research Programme (SCRP).
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