Abstract:
This study was undertaken at Weli micro watershed, which is located in the Ambo district
of west shoa zone in the Oromia region. The study was aimed to assess the contribution
of climate smart agricultural production practices for soil quality, local communities’
livelihoods improvement and adaptation to climate change in the study area.
Socioeconomic conditions, biophysical and farm land management practices were
assessed in the watershed under study. Household survey, Key informant Interview and
soil survey were also conducted in study site. Furthermore, in order to compare the
relative soil quality improvement with some selected physico-chemical properties of soil,
a total of 18 soil samples were collected from the upper 0-20 cm depth of cultivated land
and selected physical and chemical properties were analyzed in the laboratory. The
results of the study showed that, soil pH (P=0.314), soil organic carbon (SOC)
(P=0.211), total nitrogen (N) (P=0.902), EC (P=0.211), Av.K (P=0.832) and Av.P
(P=0.096) were not significantly (p≤0.05) different on the intervened farmlands of CSA
(Weli) watershed as compared to the non-intervened farmlands (weli2). Similarly, there
was no significant difference in mean values of silt (P=0.104) and clay (P=0.583)
contents between intervened and none intervened while mean values of sand contents
showed a significant difference (P=0.034) between the compared lands. The study
revealed that, CSA practices benefited households under the intervention to gain yield
advantage of 5 quintal in teff, 7 quintals in wheat and 9 quintals in sorghum, maize and
bean productions than the yield of households under non-intervened.
Keywords: CSA, soil quality, weli micro-watershed, intervention, yield gain.