**Figure 1: Average Per Hectare Tax Rates, Rural Land Use Fee and Agricultural Income Tax, Amhara, Oromia, and SNNP Regions**

<!-- Start of picture text --> 200<br>180<br>160<br>140<br>120<br>100<br>80<br>60<br>40<br>20<br>0<br><0.5 0.5-1 1-1.5 1.5-2 2-2.5 2.5-3 3-3.5 3.5-4 4-4.5 4.5-5<br>Total land area (ha)<br>Amhara - non PSNP kebeles Amhara - PSNP kebeles<br>Oromia rain and irrigation farmers Oromia rain dependent farmers<br>SNNP high value crops SNNP others<br>Per hectare tax rate (Birr/ha)<br><!-- End of picture text --> _Source_ : Amhara Regional State, Proclamation (No.161/2001), Proclamation to Amend Rural Land Use Payment and Agricultural Income Tax of Oromia Regional State’s Proclamation (No.99/2005), SNNP Regional State: A Revised Proclamation to provide for rural land use fee and agricultural activities income tax (No. 122/2008). _Note_ : The average birr per hectare tax rate is calculated by dividing the total tax by the mid-point of the landholding classes; this is similar to the method used in Hill et al. (2017). See Appendix 1 for the tax schedules for the three regions.

The Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development provides farmers’ names and area of rural landholdings in the land registry to the Revenue Bureau (ORS 2005). The Revenue Bureau or the chairman of the _kebele_ (ward) peasant association delegated by the Revenue Bureau collects the taxes from the farmers, who have until April 30 E.C. to make the payment (ORS 2005). Farmers are required to notify any changes in the landholders or the area of landholdings to the Revenue Bureau (ORS 2005).

# **2.3 Gender and Land Rights, Ethiopian Context**

The government has taken considerable steps to formalize land rights for women and men. Land certificates were issued in the names of both women and men<sup>4</sup> but there were variations by region in implementing joint titling<sup>5</sup> (Deininger et al. 2008; Kumar and Quisumbing 2015). Subsequently, the Tigray region carried out the Second Stage Land Registration in 2014 to register the names of all parcel holders, with Amhara, Oromia, and SNNP regions following suit (Bezu and Holden 2014a; Holden and Tilahun 2020). As for other regions, Afar, Gambela, Benishangal-Gumuz, and Somali have adopted rural land use proclamations, and in 2016, first-stage land registration and certification began in Harari and Gambela (Hailu 2016). According to the Constitution, the state owns the land but every Ethiopian wishing to engage in agriculture can receive use rights for free ( <mark>Deininger et al.</mark> 2008). Thus, individuals or households receive usufruct rights to land, not ownership, and are

> 4 There is evidence that land registration has led to improvements in a number of areas, including increased investments in farms (Deininger et al. 2011), land productivity (Bezabih et al. 2016; Holden et al. 2011), caloric intake (Ghebru and Holden 2013), and tenure security (Deininger et al. 2008), particularly for female-headed households. The formalization of property rights has also empowered women to have a greater say in decisions about crop choices and renting out land <mark>(Bezu and Holden 2014a).</mark> 5 When land certification started in the Tigray region in 1998, certificates were issued in the name of the household head— usually the husband of the principal couple in the household—because joint titling was not yet mandated (Deininger et al. 2008). It was subsequently mandated in other regions and in the second stage in Tigray region (Deininger et al. 2008).

5