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The densely populated highlands of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda are home to severe poverty, low productivity, and poor natural-resource management. Despite these problems, some farmers in the area have successfully invested in agriculture and improved resource management, and have been able to generate significant profits.

Strategies for Sustainable Land Management in the East African Highlands (available for download at www.ifpri.org), edited by John Pender, Frank Place, and Simeon Ehui, identifies the factors that have been the most critical in enabling some communities and farmers to prosper, and highlights the importance of identifying and promoting profitable income strategies and land-management practices in different biophysical and socioeconomic contexts.

The authors found that in areas with high agricultural potential and favorable access to large urban markets, a virtuous circle is possible. Farmers can increase their production of high-value commodities and employment in nonfarm activities, which contribute to higher incomes and make it possible for farmers to invest in land-improving and productivity-enhancing technologies. These help to further increase farmers' production of high-value commodities.

Areas with relatively high agricultural potential but more limited access to major markets are likely to have a comparative advantage in nonperishable and readily transportable commodities, such as coffee, cereals, and livestock. These areas have suffered from low world prices of cereals and coffee in recent years, which, together with elimination of input subsidies, liberalization of foreign exchange markets, and regional trade restrictions, have reduced the profitability of using inputs in agricultural production. According to the book, efforts to promote the substantially increased use of inputs are unlikely to be successful without major changes in farmers' product portfolios or the market environment.

In lower-potential areas, a combination of targeting the use of costly inputs like fertilizer and improved seeds and implementing soil and water conservation and management practices is likely to be more effective than heavy reliance on external inputs.

As these findings demonstrate, policies and programs that account for the diversity of situations in the region can help improve land management, raise productivity, and make agriculture more profitable for poor rural people in the highlands of East Africa.