Farmers „Awareness about Land Degradation and the Practices of Soil and Water Conservation Measures in Hadiya zone: The Case of Duna Woreda, Ethiopia
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Date
2015-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In Ethiopia land is a source of income and means of production on which the livelihood of 85 percent of the population depends. The main objective of this study is to assess farmers’ awareness about land degradation and the practice of soil and water conservation measures in Hadiya Zone: the case of Duna Woreda, Ethiopia. Different data analytical techniques were applied including chi squire test and descriptive analysis. The result indicates that about 75% of the respondents were aware of causes of land degradation by indicating population growth, over cultivation, over grazing, soil erosion, rugged topography, poor farming practices and poverty are pointed out by the farmers as the main causes of land degradation respectively. Also the results shows that most of the respondents were aware of consequences of land degradation indicating loss of agricultural productivity results from land degradation 90.6%, followed by difficulty of farming and loss in livestock productivity as consequence of land degradation. There are respondents who were not aware of Desertification, migration and landlessness as effects of land degradation. But the implication is that correct awareness about the problem of land degradation may be necessary but not sufficient condition for farm-level to practice different effective activities of awareness in the study area. Moreover, about 72.5% of the respondents indicated that land degradation on their farm-field was Severe and mentioned that there is land degradation risk on their farm-field. The result shows that major sources of information for farmers on the conservation practices were friends and relatives indicated by 80% of respondents as the most significant source of information and there is poor or no contact with development agents of the study area. Moreover, the practiced soil and water conservation measures in the study area include: -cutoff drains 51.7%, contour farming 44.2%, waterways 35.3%, check dams 30.1%, fallowing16.6%, application of manure12.6%,soil bunds5.5% and fanyajuu3.6% respectively. The importance of soil and water conservation practices likely found to be too lower poor. Thus, conservation measures have been influenced by many factors. These factors include:- Age, sex, marital status, house-hold size, educational qualification, farm-size (ha), farmers’ experience, distance from homestead, household income, and physical factors were observed which obstacle to apply the soil and water conservation measures. The findings also showed that there was a significant association between these factors
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Geography and Environmental Studies