Perceived Impacts of Land Degradation on Livelihood of Farming Communities in Upper Gumara Catchment Northern, Ethiopia
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Date
2018-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In Ethiopia land degradation is the main challenge for agricultural sector and food security in particular and economic development as a whole. It negatively affects the livelihood of the farmers. In view of the impacts of land degradation on livelihood, the study was conducted in Deremo, Kanat, and Meskel-Tsion and Semena kebele of Upper Gumara catchment in Northern, Ethiopia. The main objective of the study was to investigate the impacts of land degradation on livelihood of farming communities in Upper Gumara catchment Northern, Ethiopia. 196 household heads were selected from each target kebeles by using simple random sampling technique. In order to achieve the objective of the study both primary and secondary data were generated. Primary data were generated through questionnaire, FGD, key informant interview and personal observation. Secondary data were obtained from woreda agricultural office, research and articles. Descriptive statistical methods of analysis were applied like cross-tabulation, percentage table and graphs. The finding of the study indicated crop and livestock productivity are declining as a result of land degradation and this seriously affects the livelihood of the farming community. In addition to this water resource in the study area were drying up over time. The magnitude of land degradation is increasing over time because of high population pressure, frequent farming, and topographic nature. The livelihood of farming community is affected by land degradation in the study area. As a result of this the farmers were applied different strategies like daily labor, farm animal sale, irrigation, handcraft and preparing charcoal and selling it to cope up the effect of land degradation. So, the agricultural office of the woreda should give greater emphasis on Land management and on non-farm source of income.
Key Words: land degradation, livelihood, impact, coping mechanisms