The Contribution Of Soil And Water Conservation Practices Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods In Tigray Region Northern Ethiopia

Severe land degradation affects the livelihood of many farmers in the Ethiopian highlands. Inrnresponse, the current government has invested in soil and water conservation practices, mainly inrnthe degraded lands. The overall objective of the research was to assess the contribution of soilrnand water conservation practice towards sustainable rural livelihoods in Tigray region. Researchrnwas carried out in Adwa and Emba-Alajie districts. Data were collected from a survey of 300rnrural households from December 2012 to May 2013. A multi-stage stratified random samplingrnprocedure incorporating household’s survey questionnaires, focus group discussions, and keyrninformants discussions were used to interpret the whole results in general. Data analysis includedrndescriptive statistics, inferential statistical processed through one way ANOVA, t-test and Chisquarerntest, and Binary logistic regression model have been used.rnThe first topic assesses the adoption of soil and water conservation practices and its benefitsrntowards livelihoods, in the form of farm wealth groups and spatial gradients. Survey resultsrnindicate a considerable proportion of farmers were adopters of soil and water conservationrnpractices among farm wealth groups on their farms. There is such a difference among three farmrnwealth groups in adoption of soil and water conservation practices. This implies that farm wealthrngroups are influence, by adoption of soil and water conservation practices. Adoption of soil andrnwater conservation practices is perceived and valued as positive by all the farmers regardless ofrnwealth differences. The findings show five main dominant sources of livelihoods with a smallrnvariation in their mean annual income of both farm and off-farm incomes of adopters and nonadoptersrnof soil and water conservation practices. Moreover, the results reveal that there isrnvariation in adoption of soil and water conservation practices and soil fertility managementrnpractices among farm wealth groups with respect to variations in plot’s spatial gradient and farmrnsizes. Therefore, to promote conservation efforts, policies should identify social and economicrnfactors with respect to soil and water conservation and integrate them into the plans. Moreover,rnsoil and water conservation practices should not only be aimed at minimizing soil erosion butrnshould also cover other household objectives like securing economic and livelihoods, and followrnup process on the proper maintenance and management of the soil and water conservationrnstructures along with integrating agronomic measures using appropriate plant species.rnThe second topic focuses on investigating the factors that influence natural resourcesrnmanagement, perceptions of community benefit from soil and water conservation practices.rnResults revealed that a large-scale mass mobilization undertaken for more than three decades inrnsoil and water conservation practices has minimized flooding and thus soil erosion orrndegradation both in the farmlands and off-farm conservation, although it was less in on-farmrnconservation compared to the off-farm conservation. Results of the study also indicated thatrnperception of farmers towards benefits of conservation attempts in changing and hence importantrncontribution towards livelihoods has been recorded. However, the benefits are not yet adequate.rnFree grazing and conflicts over communal grazing lands were the major problems, causing therndestruction of the physical and biological conservation works. Thus, the local leaders should givernaccreditation to informal institutions, in order to empower the local community and minimize thernconflicts among the society in relation to communal natural resource management.rnThe last topic assesses determinants of farmers’ adoption that affect sustainability of soil andrnwater conservation practice. The empirical results from binary logistic regression model showed,rnage, literacy, tenure, farm size, and credit access were positive and significant predictors ofadoption of soil and water conservation practices. Extension workers are urgently needed to giverneducation for farmers to maximize public awareness for the sustainable use of soil and waterrnconservation practices, and there is need for sensitization of farmers to form groups to benefitrnfrom institutional credit facilities to enhance adoption of soil and water conservation practices,rnand capacity building of farmers in other livelihoods areas to reduce burden on natural resources.rnKey words: contribution, livelihoods, sustainable, adoption, soil and water conservation, slope gradient, northern highlands of Ethiopia

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