This study is about assessment of factors determining land use competition between cereals and enset crops in Hadiya zone, Lemo woreda. The main objective of the study was to assess changes in land use and cropping pat-tern, farmers’ perception on land use and cropping pattern as well as factors that determine land use competition between cereals and enset crops. A substantial section of this paper discussed the trends of land use and cropping pattern changes since 2000 and the determinant factors of the changes. Attempts are also made to explore the responses of peasants on causes of land competition between cereals and enset. The findings indicated that there are changes in land use and cropping pattern in the study area. It revealed that land use changes in the study area in the last 20 years, 2000 to 2019, specifically cultivated land and residential area expanded by 0.34% and 0.019% annually respectively. On the other hand, grazing and wood lands has decreased by 0.143% and 0.11% annually respectively. There were changes in the cropping pattern. The land use competition in dega area was among barely, wheat, enset and bean, whereas, in woinadega area the competition was amongst wheat, teff, chats and enset. These crops were dominant crops in dega as well as woinadega areas. The major determinant factors of the changes in land use and cropping pattern were population pressure, farm size, profit maximization, access to market, access to extension services, damages caused by wild animals, distance of plots from home, pests and diseases, land ragmentations, physical infrastructure and crop specific input requirements.
Institutional levers of maintenance of ecological-economic efficiency of agricultural land-use