Caring for the land : best practice in soil and water conservation in Beressa watershed, highlands of Ethiopia

Land degradation in the form of soil erosion and nutrient loss is a major constraint to farming activities and agricultural development in the highlands of Ethiopia. Though large-scale conservation projects have been initiated and carried out by the government during the past few decades, the conservation measures introduced have not been sustained by most farmers and land degradation continued to be a problem. The main objective of this research was to examine soil and water conservation practices in the Beressa watershed of the Ethiopian central highlands and identify the constraints and opportunities for a better conservation intervention. The analysis was carried out in view of the history of land use dynamics, farming and livelihood changes, past conservation activities, and policy regime changes.Chapter  2: Long-term dynamics in land resource use and the driving forces  The dynamics in land resources use between 1957 and 2000 was analysed. It was revealed that the watershed area underwent through substantial land use changes during the 43-year period. The most important changes were destruction of the natural vegetation cover, increased plantations, and expansion of grazing land. Cropland, which comprised of the largest proportion of the watershed area, increased slightly despite a quadrupling in the density of human population. The land use changes were driven by a combination of several factors; demographic pressure, soil degradation and water scarcity, introduction of cattle breeding program, and policy (land, economic) regime changes. It was indicated that farmers tended to change gradually from sole dependence on annual cropping to tree planting and livestock production to cope with the problems of soil degradation and smaller farm size. Functioning rural markets stimulated farmers to participate in tree planting and selling dung-cakes. Apparently, little attention has been paid to investments in SWC and local soil fertility amendments to combat degradation problems. It was concluded that increased erosion and related nutrient losses due to limited conservation investments as well as the removal of potentially available soil nutrients through the sale of manure are real threats to the future of agriculture in the area. Chapter  3: The dung-cakes threaten agricultural development  The extent of farmers' involvement in making and selling dung-cakes and the implications on agricultural activities in general and soil fertility management in particular was investigated. Estimates of the amount of dung-cakes households sell annually and the loss of soil nutrients was analysed. Data were obtained by employing a combination of methods that include socio-economic survey, soil sample analysis, market survey, discussions with the local farmers and literature review. It was shown that farmers in the downstream part of the watershed area were more involved in dung-cake selling. Most farmers process about 90% of their cattle manure into the dung-cakes. It was revealed that 40% of the household income was obtained from the sale of the dung-cakes in the market in Debre Birhan town. On average a farm household exports about 43.5 kg N, 9.0 kg P, and 41.4 kg K y -1 through the sale of the dung-cakes. While there is increased demand for chemical fertilizers by the farmers, actual utilization is constrained by high and increasing market prices, lack of credit services and risks associated with rainfall failure. It was concluded that poverty, market access, and soil degradation were the most important factors influencing farmers' participation in selling dung-cakes.Chapter  4: Farmers' knowledge and practicesA survey was conducted to explore farmers' perception of erosion problems and soil fertility changes as well as their conservation knowledge and practices in the watershed area. The results showed 72% of the 147 interviewed farmers recognized erosion problems. But most of the farmers associated severity of erosion problems with the appearance of visual evidence (rills and gullies) only. It was indicated that the majority of the farmers believe erosion could be stopped, and they applied a range of practices for erosion control and fertility improvement; stone terraces/bunds, waterways, drainage ditches, and contour ploughing. It was found that farmers have been changing and adapting the measures to fit local requirements. Apart from erosion control, the farmers also applied various practices for soil fertility maintenance which include crop rotation and animal manure.Though farmers were aware of the multiple benefits of organic matter for fertility improvement, intensity of manure application was largely limited by the use for fuel and sale as well as distant farm locations that impose labour constraints. Farmers tend to accept and use conservation practices that offer them short-term benefits instead of technologies that require long-term investments. It was concluded that conservation interventions should consider farmers' knowledge and practices in the design of conservation technologies.   Chapter  5: Determinants of adoption and continued use of stone terraces In this section, the determinants of sustained adoption of introduced stone terraces that have been widely promoted in past conservation interventions were analysed. A sequential decision-making model using the bivariate probit approach was employed to identify the factors influencing farmers' adoption decision and continued investments. The results revealed that adoption was influenced by farmers' age, farm size, perception of the technology's profitability, slope, livestock number, and soil fertility, while the decision to continue using the practice is influenced by actual technology profitability, slope, soil fertility, family size, farm size and participation in off-farm work. The results indicated the importance of household/farm and plot level factors in farmers' conservation decision. It was concluded that:analysis of the determinants of adoption per se may not provide a full understanding of the range of factors influencing farmers' decision of continued investmentsconservation interventions should not focus only on the biophysical performance of the measures but also on economic benefits that can be obtained to the farmers in the short runa 'blanket approach' to conservation intervention could make the measures inappropriate to local circumstances and eventually unacceptable by the farmersChapter  6: Participatory evaluation of soil and water conservation practicesA farmer participatory evaluation of currently used SWC practices was carried out. The Regime method in multicriteria analysis was employed to identify the best measures on the different categories of cultivated land based on farmers' evaluation criteria and rankings. It was revealed that farmers consider a range of criteria in choosing the conservation measures. Most of these criteria account for the costs and the benefits relating to the use of the conservation practices. The results indicated stone terraces the best measures on the steep slopes, followed by the waterways. On the medium slopes, soil bunds were considered best measures followed by contour ploughing. And on the gentle slopes where drainage problems were more serious than soil loss, drainage ditches were found to be the best measures. The results further underlined the relevance of farmers' knowledge and experience in the development of appropriate conservation technologies.Chapter  7: Creating enabling conditions for soil and water conservationA framework for better conservation intervention in the watershed area and other areas of the highlands with comparable situations was developed. The framework comprised of a set of enabling conditions that should be considered at three levels of decision-making, viz. local/household, village/community, and national/regional levels. Participatory technology development and farmers' participation in local level conservation activities were indicated most important. At the village/community level, the interaction between the farmers and extension workers should be improved. In addition, monitoring and evaluation of conservation activities, together with the farmers, was indicated necessary for checking the progress of interventions. It was also noted that national/regional level decisions should support and encourage local level actions by the farmers. Policies related to demographic pressure, security of land tenure, and efficient market and credit services require serious attention.