Das Projekt "Entscheidungsstrategien in der Land- und Forstwirtschaft bei den Guraghe im südlichzentralen Hochland Äthiopiens" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Technische Universität Dresden, Fachrichtung Forstwissenschaften, Institut für Internationale Forst- und Holzwirtschaft, Professur für Tropische und Internationale Forstwirtschaft durchgeführt. This study pursues the following research questions: 1. How do the socio-economic and biophysical characteristics of the Guraghe farming system look like? Which farm forestry constraints, potentials, opportunities, and priorities are typical to these households? 2. What are the major constraints that shy farmers away from aggressive integration of multipurpose trees and shrubs into their farm units? 3. How can these constraints be addressed in order to encourage and motivate farmers in on-farm tree/ shrub management schemes? 4. How effective are current government extension programs in promoting farm forestry practices and thus help farmers in reaping the rewards of agroforestry? 5. How do farmers' risk perception and risk attitude vary among households and with different situations under which they are operating? Research hypotheses: 1. Smallholder households of the Guraghe Zone are operating under favorable biophysical and socio-economic conditions that favor guaranteeing food security, betterment of livelihoods, and sustainable production systems. 2. The potential of on-farm tree/shrub management in enhancing household livelihood and sustainable production system has not been fully utilized. 3. Current government programs aimed at promoting agricultural and farm forestry technologies stick to the highly advocated participatory bottom-up approaches rather than conventional top-down approaches. 4. Current eucalypt marketing arrangements allow farmers to obtain satisfactory share of the gross revenue generated. Tentative result: Farm forestry decision-making process of smallholder households in southern-central Ethiopian Highlands was studied via informal and structured questionnaire surveys. Farmers decision-making process is subjected a multitude of internal and external factors. Farmers' limited capability in winning internal constraints predisposes them to diverse external factors of various importance levels. Attempts to achieve food self-sufficiency are being thwarted by intense crop damages by pests and diseases. Wild animals' damage and crop diseases cause a substantial annual loss of crop yields. Likewise, lack of access to modern farm inputs and inappropriate credit arrangements contribute to the dwindling crop yields. Periodically recurring drought problem and ever declining holding sizes add fuel to food insecurity threats. Promotion of on-farm tree/ shrub planting activities is frustrated, inter alia, by lack of adequate knowledge and planting materials of appropriate species. Current extension program is rather counterproductive in helping farmers reap the rewards of agroforestry or integrated land use practices. Extension services provide mainly seedlings of exotic timber species which farmers plant solely for aesthetic values. Eucalypts represent a major on-farm plantation species. Despite government authority's' discouraging propaganda, an account of unfavorable ecological effects, eucalypt woodlots are expanding through farmers