The major objective of the study is to assess the agricultural resources, patterns ofrnrural land use and land covers and their changes, farming system (with particular referencernto enset,its economic uses and production problems) in conjuction with some socio-economicrnand physical factors which are likely to affect agricultural productivity and to identify thernfacto rs to which land and labour productivity are most responsive. Emphasis is,rnhowever , given to the im pact of population pressure on the land use, the farming system andrnthe agricultural productivity in the study area.rnData needed in the study were acquired from field survey using qustionnaires andrninterviews, field measurements (with the help of aerial photographs and base maps) and somernraw data from government offices and other sources. Central tendency measu res (mean andrnmeadian) , percentages, standard deviations, coefficient of variations,student-t test, analysis ofrnvariance (ANOY A) , crop combination indices, crop concentration measu res, simple andrnmultiple correlations, stepwise multiple regression techniques were used to analyse the data.rnThe findings revealed that the mean annual precipitation and hence the basin yieldrn(surface run-off) tend to decrease; the drop in the latter being more faster than that of thernformer. This may be attributable to changes in climate, land usel land cover, soil resourcerndepletions, etc. Population pressure in the region is one of the highest in the country as itrnvaries from 50 to 728 persons per square kilometer at PA level. One result of the conseqencesrnof the high population pressure in the region has been large a volume of seasonal rural- outrnmigration which in the region was recorded as 12.1 % in 1992/93.The second major responsernhas been land uselland cover change in the last 21 /36 years .Woodland (mainly eucalyptusrntree lots) ,cultivated area, and the growth of settlements, atthe expense of grazing area, recorded an expansion of 196%,26%, and 5%, respectively.rnFarm size was generally found to be small (68 % of the respondents reported to possess lessrnthan a hectare).Family labour is the basis of all farm operations and it was found to be 3rn(weighted average) per house hold. Only 19% of the responden ts reported to use oxen tornprepare land. Manuring is extensively used to replenish soil fertility. Enset is widely cultivatedrnand accounts for 61 % of the cultivated land and it is followed by chat(l5%), barley(ll %) andrncoffee(5 .1 %). Enset is grown not only for food but also has many other economic values .Itrnhas a calorie yield of about nine million cal. per hectare which is about 217 % of most of therncereals, and is expected to support about nine persons per hectare while most cereals mayrnsupport about 4.5 persons per hectare of land.rnThere is a significant variation in the patterns of land and labour productivity at zonal,rnPA and individual farm levels. The regression analysis revealed that eight ariables (out ofrnthirteen) emerged as significant predictors which together explained about 25.5% of thernvariance in land productivity, of which about 70% was accounted for by agricultaral labourrnforce, rural literacy , manure input, land value, and distance between homsteads and farm plots.rnIn case of labour producti vity, only five variables (manure input, stocking density, agriculturalrnlabour force and land value) appeared as significant predictors which together explained,aboutrn17 % of the variance.It is worth mentioning that the thirteen variables taken into consideration haverncontributed only 25.5 % and 17% to the variances of land and labour productivitiesrnrespectively, which leave 74.5% and 83% of the variance to be explained by the variablesrnwhich have not been considered in the study. Therefore further research to identify the morernsignificant variables from amongst those which have not been considered is advisable.rnOn the basis of the findings sofar noted thee foil wing recomendations have beenrnmade. These are the need to restructure the farming system,in general, and that of enset inrnparticular; to optimally plan the land use in such a way that the demand for various usesrnwould be balanced on priority basis ; to improve traditional and archaic tools used 10rncultivation and processing of enset; to set up at least one enset research station in the Guragernarea; to integrate agriculture with other income generating occupational activities; to improverninfrastructural facilities;to attract capital investment into the area to develop agroindustries,rnirrigation schemes, and small and medium size modem ranching; and strictlyrnobserve the 1993 National Population Policy (family planning aspect in particular) so as tornreal ize balance between population and resources of the area.