For the last two decades, governmental and non-governmental organizations,rnbilateral and multi-lateral agencies have been launching land management andrnenvironmental rehabilitation projects using food aid resources, in the studyrnWereda. Despite these efforts, however, the wereda still has not achieved foodrnsecurity.rnBased on this rationale, the primary objective of this research was to assess thernrole of food aid in rehabilitation of communal and farmlands by empiricallyrnevaluating the impacts and strategies of past natural resource conservationrnendeavors and factors underlying sustainable land management.rnThe study employed systematic and scientific methods for data collection andrnanalysis purpose. Formal survey, focus group discussion, key informantrninterviews, and review of secondary sources were used as major data collectionrnmethodologies. Soil analysis to assess the biophysical contribution of pastrnnatural resource management interventions was also employed. Descriptivernstatistical method and qualitative analysis were used as methodological tools.rnMore over, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used as one of the toolsrnfor interpretation of soil laboratory results.rnThe findings of the study revealed that FHI/E past natural resource managementrninterventions have greatly contributed to the conservation and management ofrnnatural resources in the study wereda. It was found that as a result of thernreforestation, the proportion of people who were using natural forest and cowrndung cake as household energy consumption has dramatically reduced fromrn82.3% before food aid intervention to 48.8% after commencement of thernprogram. Similarly, the communal and farmland conservation, and gullyrnrehabilitation activities have played a vital role in curbing land degradation andrnsustaining the livelihood of the poor which could have not possible in thernabsence of these interventions.rnDespite all these efforts, the number of people demanding food aid and annualrnvolume of food shows an increasing trend. The problem of land degradation andrndepletion of soil fertility is still pervasive in the study wereda. Nonetheless, thernstudy identified different factors such as land redistribution, both human andrnlivestock pressure, and poverty as the major bottlenecks for the realization ofrnsustainable land management and food security in the wereda.rnHence, rather than concentrating on the physical problems of soil erosion whichrnis a symptom of bad land management, sustainable land management and shorttermrnattainment of food security by increasing the developmental effectiveness ofrnfood aid in the study wereda can be achieved by a process of addressing thesernunderlying causes.