Determinants of Smallholder Farmers’ About Choices of Sustainable Land Management Practices in West Wollega Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Background: Due attention has recently been given to the choices of sustainable land management practices (SLMPs) to reduce land degradation and improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers in developing countries. A rising number of people believe that Sustainable Land Management is an essential strategy for enhancing food security. For generations, Ethiopia has been regarded as a hotspot of land degradation, posing a severe threat to agricultural productivity leading to widespread rural poverty. Hence, this study aimed at identifying the determinants of smallholder farmers’ choice of SLMPs in the West Wollega zone, Oromia region of Ethiopia using the Multivariate Probit (MVP) model. Results: Results of the MVP model show that the predicted probabilities of adopting organic fertilizer, area closure, soil and water conservation, crop rotation, and compost were 37.2, 35.3, 40.5, 38.3, and 38.5% respectively. The MVP model results also show that the five SLMPs are complementary and the probability that households choose all five SLMPs was 23% which is low. Further, results of the MVP model show that cooperative membership, model farmer contact, farm size, non-farm income, credit, farm experience, perceived soil erosion, social capital, livestock owned, farmland slope, NGO intervention, information access, and training have a significant positive influence while age, family size, and perceived input cost significantly and negatively impacted the choice of SLMPs by households in the study area. Conclusions: The findings of the study confirm that socioeconomic, household, farm and institutional characteristics of the households have a significant impact on the choices of SLMPs and hence the need to focus on the above-mentioned factors to enhance the choices of SLMPs and reduce land degradation problem in the study area. The results also highlight the significance of environmentally-friendly policies, which include sustainable development, SLMPS plan determination, environmental permits, and incentive programs for managing the sustainability of land management performance in land-use policy within the local context.