Linking Indigenous With The Conventional Measures For Sustainable Land Management In The Highlands Of Ethiopia A Case Study Of Digil Watershed East Gojjam

This paper attempts to explore the ways of linking indigenous with ‘conventional’ measuresrnfor achieving sustainable land management in the highlands of Ethiopia in general and thernnorthwestern highlands in particular. A representative highland watershed, the DigilrnWatershed of East Gijjam, was selected for the study. The watershed is typical of the highpotential,rnintensively cultivated, mixed farming, ox-plough cereal belt in the northwesternrnEthiopian highlands. The socio-economic as well as the demographic data that have relevancernto the study were collected and both the indigenous and the ‘conventional’ land managementrnpractices were explored using questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions, and keyrninformant interview. About 60 farmers were interviewed in the selected watershed. Topsoilrndepth and slope data were collected from 60 randomly selected farm plots using auger andrnclinometer, receptively, to classify the observed plots into erosion risk classes based on arnrevised Treatment-Oriented Land Capability Classification Scheme.rnPool of indigenous land management practices were/are practiced by farmers of the studyrnwatershed. The mesures are well adapted to local conditions and widely practiced by farmers.rnTwo types of indigenous land management practices have been observed. The household-levelrnland management practices such as traditional ditches (feses), cropping, weed heaping, etc,rnwhich are practiced and/or managed by single household, and both protection as well asrnproduction oriented. Other indigenous land management practices such as traditionalrnwaterways, traditional cutoff drain, etc. are supra-household level (neighborhood-level andrncommunity-level) and more of protection oriented. Multi-functionality, flexibility, lowrnexternal input requirement, complimentarity, compatibility to the prevailing farming systemrnetc., are found to be the strengths of these land management practices.rnOn the other hand, the ‘conventional’ measures that are currently introduced into the studyrnwatershed are the fanya juu bunds, checkdams, and artificial waterways among the soilrnconservation measures, and artificial fertilizers among the fertility enhancing measures. Thernsoil conservation measures are found to be less flexible, space taking, and incompatible to thernfarming system, labour intensive and high external input dependent. Regarding, the artificialrnfertilizers high price, lack of credit, and untimely supply are found tobe the major constraints.rnGenerally, in order to link these measures the factors that affect farmers’ decision to invest onrnland management activities as well as their decision on the choice of land managementrnmeasures should be explored. From the study it has been found that farmers decision to investrnon land management activities and their choice of land management mesures are affectedrn[positively or negatively] by several factors. These include land related factors: land holding size, land fragmentation, land ownership security; size of livestock; labour availability; production assets availability etc. In addition, the merits and demerits of both [indigenous and ‘conventional’] measures should be assessed. And then, by taking a lesson from their merits, the measures can be purposefully complimented in order to meet the desired objective

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism