dc.description.abstract |
1e tuhiopian highlands, home 10 more them 50 million people who depend 011 rain-fed
subsistence agriculture, have 011e of tlte. mos/ degraded lands in the world. /11 response.
governments arul other agents have been implementing soil mu/ waler conservation
activities. However, success has been very' limited. Hence, Soil erosion seriously
threatens thefuture agriculiural productivity of Ethiopia:» highlands. Past effons at SWC
did no! bring about "Sig11ijicw11 results, mainly becuuse 1~{' the top-down approach
pursued. Uprooting this past oversight and instating a participatory approach. has since
then been strongly recommended as rhe correct strategy. Farmers also cited that soil
erosion is 011" of I~<' major CW<se<s [or the 1kciini11g crop prud1.1cthitJ i11 the areo. This. i11
uim. is caused by o'"\•er cultivation, erosive rains, steepness of the slope and run-cfffrom
upslope. SWC is, tiierefore, among the top priority orea of intervention to insure food
securitv a111i improve livin!:( conditions of fas! growing mm/ population .
·111;.~ s}udy examines factors a..&<:c:tin.g she ildop1ion of introduced soil and waler
c:tnser.ntiun measures i11 Libo-kemkem Wun«la, South Gondar Zone of Amharu National
Regional state in the Northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Vala were obtained from the
survey of J JO randomly selected household heads. Formal household s"rvey
quessionnuirc. [ocus gruup discussions, ke,1· informant interview and field observation as
well as secondary sm1.rces were used 10 generate the data. The data were analyzed using
descriouva and i1iferen1;c,1 statistics such as mean. standard deviation. coefficient of
variation, percentage, Tnest. chi-square. and correlation analysis. The results revealed
that a large majority of the formers acknowledged Ihm the introduced conservation
measures "';re effective against soil erosion and for improving land producuvity.
However, the involvement l!( some [armers w<1s essentlaliy limited to 'participation by
consultation' and f)wy were rather persuaded lo implement th« conservation measures.
The major factors Ihm wen' .fu11111l to be • i gnifirnnl in iriflu.e11cing [armers from adopting
SWC structures include education level of the farmer. slope of the [armiand, farm size,
livestock size, training and contact with deveiopmeni agents. The study underscores that
t1U111y cif these problem> wero also basically related to lack of genuine involvement of the
farmers i11 the conservation effons. Hence, me/hods ofintervention shoutd depend up 011
knowledge of various personal, physical, economic and institutional [actors that
influence [armers · conservation decisions. The important [actors that need immediate
consideruiion [or SWC eJ]orls in the study area or the region m forge are. integration <1(
social and economic factors in to SWC plans; SWC structures have lo be carefully
designed c111d constructed taking in lo account ground realities; anti participation of the
farmers has to be through their own conviction regarding th~ effectiveness and c'f}idenc:y
f!f the tectmologies. Furthermore, th« wu~v concludes by suggesli11.g Iha/ future SWC
interventions should carefully pursue a [armer-participatory approach, the need of
troinin-; ofjarmers <ul 111<~ impact ofsoil erosion. and available conservation measures. |
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