Below is an article published by All Africa:

Media coverage on land tenure and administration should be strengthened with a view to raising the awareness of the public, State Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ahmed Nasir said.

Ahmed told a relevant workshop yesterday [24 March 2007] that Ethiopia-strengthening Land Tenure and Administration Programme (ELTAP) was being implemented in the country with a view to raising awareness on rural land tenure, rights and duties.

The state minister said rural landholding verification was being undertaken in 24 woredas and 90 localities of Amhara, Oromia, Tigray and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples states.

He said assessments made in the Amhara and Tigray states indicated that implementation of rural land administration is significant to raise farmers awareness to enable them know their rights and duties.

A three-year project is being implemented with a financial and technical support by USAID and the US-based Associates in Rural Development (ARD. INC.) respectively.

According to him, there are plans to issue landholding certificates to farmers to create a sense of ownership among them.

Certificates have already been prepared in four states through the project.

At the day-long workshop, organized for media practitioners under the theme: "Strengthening Media Coverage on Rural Land Administration," research papers were presented.