Assessing sustainable management practices of expert-introduced physical soil and water conservation measures
Yisihak Dangiso, Kebede Wolka
Abstract
Soil erosion is an environmental and socio-economic problem. Expert-led soil and water conservation practices have been introduced and implemented through government, NGO and public campaign to address impacts of erosion. Farmers’ management of implemented soil and water conservation measure is critically important to ensure the long-term use of the conservation measure. The aim of this study was to assess farmers’ perception and sustainable management practices of expert-introduced physical soil and water conservation measures. Field data were collected by interviewing 92 households in agriculture dominating watershed. Key informant interviews, and focus group discussions were implemented to strengthen and tabulate household responses. The findings revealed that nearly all farmers (97.8%) perceived soil erosion as a problem. Erosion was attributed to intensive cultivation (21.3%), limited use of physical soil and water conservation measures (19.6%), excess rainfall (17.9%), damage of conservation structure (16.7%), uncontrolled grazing (15.3%) and deforestation (9.2%). Indigenous conservation measures such as traditional diversion ditches and introduced soil and water conservation measures such as Fanya juu, and soil bunds were implemented to reduce erosion impacts. Although 65.2% of farmers implement the introduced conservation measures on their farm, about 79.3% have insufficiently repaired the implemented conservation measures. Due to poor maintenance, the constructed measures have been extensively broken on the majority of the farmland. Farmers explain shortage of labor, and lack of knowledge and skill as limitation for managing constructed conservation measures. However, it appeared that since the expert-introduced structures are constructed by public campaign or government/NGO based incentive, farmers are not committed to invest their labor/money to sustain such practice. Therefore, government and NGO should invest on awareness building, and policy implementation, and related issues relevant to sustain the constructed conservation measures.