Assessing the Determinants of Farmers ' Decision to Use and Maintain Improved Soil and Water Conservation Measures: The Case of Choke Mountain Watershed, Upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia
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Date
2013-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopian economy is still highly depends on agriculture, however, the development of this sector is
hampered by many factors, among which land degradation mainly due to soil erosion and nutrient
depletion coupled with poverty, fast growing population and policy failures has become the most
important developmental problems in Ethiopia. Soil erosion particularly is a serious problem in the region
in general and in the study area in particular. Although lots of effort has been done to the intervention of
conservation program, the success has not been comparable with the efforts made. Therefore, this study
was designed and conducted in Choke Mountain watershed with the objectives of examining farmers'
perception of erosion problem, extent of community participation on SWC works, effectiveness of
technologies and to analyze determinants of farmer' decision to maintain conservation structures. To
achieve this objectives, relevant primary data was collected from household survey, focus group
discussion, key informant interview and field observation; and also it was supplemented with secondOlY
data collected from various publication, reports, and office contacts. The household survey was collected
from a randomly selected sample of J 20 household heads drawn from five rural kebeles of five different
agro-ecosystem zones of Choke Mountain watershed region by using probability proportional to sample
size technique. Descriptive statistics with appropriate statistical tests and binOlY logistic regression model
were employed to analyze collected data. Thus, this research presented important information,
justification and findings concerning conservation efforts made in the area. The survey result indicated
that only 38% of sample respondents were maintaining constructed conservation measures regularly
whereas the rest majority of them (63%) were decided either to remove after just mass construction of the
structure or have no interest to maintain it regularly at all. The results also revealed that educational level
of the household head, perception of erosion, participation, effectiveness of technologies, extension
contact, land ownership and slope of the plot were found to be positively and significantly affected
farmers' decision to use and maintain improved soil conservation technologies. Finally, important
recommendations which were found to be of paramount importance from the findings of study are
suggested for concerned bodies to the attainment of sustainable soil and water management activities
which include: community empowerment, genuine community participation, appropriate technology, good
institutional support and improved farming practices and appropriate livestock management were
recommended.
Key Words: Soil erosioll, SWC, Determillallts of SWC, Choke MOlllltain Watershed
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Keywords
Soil erosioll, SWC, Determillallts of SWC, Choke MOlllltain Watershed