Adapting the current mass mobilization approach in Ethiopia to enhance its impact on sustainable land management: Lessons from the Sago-kara watershed

How farmers' characteristics influence spontaneous spreading of stone bunds in the Highlands of Ethiopia: a case study in the Girar Jarso woreda 37Chapter 4Adapting the current mass mobilization approach in Ethiopia to enhance its impact on sustainable land management: 57

This study aims to identify key differences between farmers who spontaneously implement stone bunds (i.e. farmers implementing stone bunds by their own initiative) and farmers who do not. Data were collected in the Girar Jarso woreda in the central highlands of Ethiopia, through a household survey with 80 farmers: 40 with spontaneously implemented stone bunds and 40 without. Independent samples t test, principal component analysis and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. Results show that five key-factors explain differences between the two groups of farmers: (1) readiness to change, (2) available resources, (3) social capital, (4) type of family, and (5) commitment. These factors together explain 73% of the variance in the data set and show that particularly characteristics related to the farmer’s intrinsic motivation play a crucial role to spontaneously implement and integrate stone bunds into the farming system. Furthermore, results show that young farmers are most committed to soil conservation: they are often intrinsically motivated dynamic farmers who are ready to change their future and improve productivity and food security. The study suggests that government extension programmes should therefore focus more on these young and dynamic farmers and foster their readiness to change. This implies that extension workers and government officials should better understand the crucial role of farmers’ intrinsic motivation when dealing with sustainable land management, and also reformulate extension strategies and messages. This is particularly important when developing a scaling-up strategy that helps to sustainably increase agricultural production and achieve food security of small-holder farmers in Ethiopia.

This paper focuses on participatory testing of decision making tools (DMTs) at village level to assist in development of land use plans (LUPs) for sustainable land management (SLM) in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. Data were collected using conditional surveys through key informant interviews with the project’s district stakeholders in each district, focused group discussions with selected villagers and participatory mapping of natural resources. Soil health, land degradation, carbon stock, and hydrological conditions were assessed in the seven pilot villages in all seven districts using DMTs as part of testing and validation. Results indicated soils of poor to medium health, and land degradation as portrayed by gullies and wind erosion in lowlands and better in uplands. Carbon and forest disturbance status could not be assessed using one-year data but hydrological analysis revealed that water resources were relatively good in uplands and poor in the lowlands. Challenges with regard to land use include increased gully erosion, decreased stream flow, reduced vegetation cover due to shifting from coffee with tree sheds to annual crops farming, cultivation near water sources, and overgrazing. Empowering the community with decision making tools at village level is essential to ensure that village land uses are planned in a participatory manner for sustainable land and natural resources management in Kilimanjaro and other regions in Tanzania.

This study deals with the spontaneous spreading of stone bunds in the central Ethiopian highlands, i.e., the adoption and implementation of stone bunds by farmers on their own initiative. The study tests the hypothesis that spontaneously implemented stone bunds, as compared to stone bunds implemented by mass mobilization campaigns, are more integrated with other land management practices and lead to higher yields. Data are collected in the Girar Jarso woreda through field observations and household surveys. Descriptive statistics are used to analyze and test the data at 1% and 5% probability levels. Results show that stone bunds are spontaneously implemented mainly on farmlands located nearby the homesteads where farmers perceive severe erosion, poor soil fertility and steep slope gradients. Compared to stone bunds implemented by mass mobilization, spontaneously implemented stone bunds are perceived as better maintained, more frequently modified to fit the farming system and better integrated with soil fertility management practices, such as applying fertilizer, compost and manure. Particularly, this better integration with other practices is very important, because it makes stone bunds more effective in reducing erosion, leading to beneficial effects on soil moisture and soil productivity, as perceived by farmers. The study, therefore, suggests that the mass mobilization campaign should use a more participatory and integrated approach, in which there is ample space for awareness raising and learning concerning the benefits of integrated farm management, and in which farmers themselves have a leading role in the decision on where to construct stone bunds. Such a strategy will lead to more sustainable impact on soil fertility and food security than the current top-down intervention approach.

Smallholder farms in the humid highlands of East Africa are undergoing changes that question the notion of the rural space. Characterized by land degradation, increasing population pressure, intensive farming and continuous cropping in small plots, smallholder farmers have increasingly embraced additional forms of nonfarm income generation activities. The observed changes put to question parameters used in the analysis of smallholder farming systems in the region. In this paper, we endeavour to analyze how these changes in smallholder farming systems influence investments of proven sustainable land management practices. The paper is based on a study of 320 farm households comprising 494 plots in the western Kenya region. For cross-section data, use is made of the OLS and instrumental variable methods to explain investments in sustainable land management. In contrast to a number of recent studies, specification is made of non-farm income (NonFarmincome) as income from non-agricultural activities, and natural resource-based income (NRMincome) as income from natural resource management activities undertaken away from individual farm holdings. The NRMincome activities have an implication on landscape conservation, as they are mainly undertaken in communal and other public lands. Results show that non-farm income contributes to investments in soil prevention practices, contrary to the results of a number of studies looking broadly at off-farm incomes. The findings have implications for suitable policies for enhancing sustainable land management. This study argues that those policies need to focus on landscape level conservation, enhance non-farm income, and address impacts on communal lands and other common property regimes resulting from smallholder farmers’ natural resource management income strategies.

Sound water resource management is critical for Ethiopia to protect water bodies and wetlands as well as tap these resources for better socio-economic development. However, water resource management has faced challenges in Ethiopia. This article examines whether water resources could be better managed through an innovative way of integrating their management and administration with land administration in line with the principle of Integrated Water Resource Management and sustainable land management. Doctrinal analysis of laws pertaining to water and land management is applied to this end. Primary data collection methods were also applied through questionnaire survey, in-depth interview, and focus group discussion. The article discusses the general role of sustainable water resource management in the protection of the country’s water bodies and examines the critical gaps under the present fragmented natural resource management system. A conceptual framework is developed to highlight the relationship between the principle of sustainable water resource management and land management. The existing natural resource management in Ethiopia is unsustainable and hence it is argued that a land administration approach can enhance water resource management in an integrated, holistic, and sustainable fashion by focusing on Lake Tana Watershed.

In the Highlands of Ethiopia, soil erosion is a pressing challenge causing deterioration of soil quality including soil fertility. To overcome this problem, the government has been taking various sustainable land management (SLM) measures. This study was conducted in 2011 to investigate the long-term impacts of soil conservation on soil qualities and crop performance at Anjeni watershed in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Soil and crop samples were collected from the lower (deposition), middle and upper (loss) zones of the terraces at a depth of 30cm.The test crops were maize (Zea mays) and bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). Soil samples were also taken at toe slope, foot slope, back slope, shoulder slope and crest positions of the watershed from 0-30 cm soil depth to evaluate the status of soil qualities along the catena. Results of the study showed that soil pH, exchangeable cations, available phosphorus, sum of exchangeable bases and percent base saturation showed non-significant difference between the loss zone and deposition zones, whereas higher mean value of organic carbon, and total nitrogen were obtained at the deposition zone than the loss zone. For both testing crops, higher mean yields were found at deposition zones followed by the middle zones while the lowest value was obtained from the loss zones. Soil pH, exchangeable cations, available phosphorus, sum of exchangeable bases, percent base saturation, organic carbon and total nitrogen showed significant variation due to slope position differences. Toe slope position followed by crest slope position showed higher mean value of the parameters. The shoulder slope position had the lowest mean value for all parameters. From the results of the study, it was possible to conclude that soil conservation measures implemented at Anjeni watershed reduced soils erosion, improved soil qualities and increased crop yield. It is, therefore, possible to recommend the need for scaling up of results obtained from learning watersheds on soil conservation activities to the highlands of Ethiopia to improve the soil quality and livelihoods’ of the society.

This paper presents an assessment of smallholder farmers’ perceptions of climate change, its impacts on agricultural production and adaptive responses in the central highlands of Ethiopia. The findings show that increased temperature and decreased rainfall are widely held perceptions; all respondents stated that they had observed increase in temperature and decrease in annual and seasonal rainfall amounts. The major impacts of climate change on local livelihoods as reported by respondents include decline in the length of growing period, increased crop damage by insects and pests, and increased severity of weed infestation. Some respondents also reported an increase in the incidence of livestock diseases. The adaptive responses by the smallholder farmers to the perceived or experienced climate change include adjustments in crop and livestock production activities, and investments in sustainable land management at household and community levels. Despite the range of autonomous adaptive responses adopted, climate change is negatively affecting smallholder agriculture, and thus rural livelihoods, in the study area, indicating the need for planned adaptation interventions.

Improving soil health is necessary for increasing agricultural productivity and providing multiple ecosystem services. In the African Highlands (AH) where conversion of forests to cultivation on steep slopes is leading to soil degradation, sustainable land management practices are vital. Farmers’ awareness of soil health indicators (SHI) influences their choice of land management and needs to be better understood to improve communication between land managers and other stakeholders in agricultural systems. This study aims to collate and evaluate case study analyses of farmers’ awareness and use of soil health indicators in African Highlands. This is achieved by using a multi-method approach that combines a meta-summary analysis of AH’s SHI data from 24 published studies together with farmer interviews in the East Usambara Mountain region of Tanzania (EUM). Our findings show that farmers across the AH use observable attributes of the landscape as SHI. Out of 16 SHI reported by the farmers, vegetation performance/crop yield and soil colour were most frequently used across the AH. These were also the only two SHI that influenced farmers’ land management decisions in the EUM, where organic manure addition was the only land management option resulting from observed changes in SHI. Farmers’ use of only one or two SHI in land management decisions, as is the case in the EUM, seems to limit their choice and/or adoption of sustainable land management options, highlighting the need to increase awareness and use of more relevant SHI. This could be achieved by sharing SHI knowledge through learning alliances and agricultural extension service. Integration of farmers’ observation techniques and conventional soil testing in a hybrid approach is recommended for a more targeted assessment of soil health to inform appropriate and sustainable land management practices.

Decision support for selecting SLM technologies with stakeholders

The concept of sustainability shows many facets. Ecologists, environmentalists, agronomists, sociologists, economists and politicians use it with different connotations. In addition, the sustainability of land management systems varies in space, according to climate, soil, technology and societal conditions. Sustainable farming systems vary also in time, as they evolve and may collapse, frequently together with the corresponding sociosystems. Because of its complexity, sustainability is difficult to measure directly and requires the use of appropriate indicators for assessment. A good indicator is free of bias, sensitive to temporal changes and spatial variability, predictive and referenced to threshold values. Relevant data are often incomplete or inadequate for indicator implementation. To embrace the whole width of sustainability, several methods and techniques should be used concurrently, including land evaluation and coevolutionary, retrospective and knowledge-based approaches. It is, however, at the application level that major constraints arise. A sustainable land management system must satisfy a large variety of requirements, including technological feasibility, economic viability, political desirability, administrative manageability, social acceptability, and environmental soundness. Real world conditions at farm and policy-making levels need to be substantially improved to achieve sustainable land management. Key words: Definition, assessment and implementation issues of sustainable land management

Recent research has identified the potential of the metropolitan scale, and indeed metropolitan bodies, in achieving greater coordination and more effective land-use management. In this paper, we have undertaken a systematic scoping review of the English-language literature (2014–2019) on metropolitanisation and metropolitan governance, with a view to understanding the potential relationship with more sustainable land management. Our scoping review identified several dominant trends within current research on metropolitanisation and metropolitan governance illustrating the complexity between sustainable land management and issues of territorial politics, resourcing, and power relations. The centrality of collaborative working relationships in supporting sustainable land management is identified, yet collaboration and effective metropolitan scale governance is not always an easy task or readily implemented. The paper identifies a series of challenges and concludes that while there is general consensus that the metropolitan arena may be an appropriate scale through which to support more sustainable land management, there is no agreement on the mechanisms to enable this. Steering and more strongly directing metropolitanisation processes through either formal metropolitan governance structures or other tools could provide a potential approach but will require significant adaptation in power and funding structures.

Landscape restoration initiatives often have the potential to result in environmental gains, but the question of whether these gains are sustainable and how they are linked to other community needs (social, productivity and economic gains) remains unclear. We use the Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework (SIAF) to demonstrate how environmental benefits are linked to productivity, environment, social, human, and economic components. Using the SIAF, the standardization of relevant indicators across multiple objectives provided a contextual representation of sustainability. The study assessed the overall gains resulting from the measured indicators of sustainable land management (SLM) practices and their relationship to the multiple domains of the SIAF. We present a unique case for SLM options using a combined-methods approach where biophysical, socio-economic, and citizen science help assess the sustainability of the interventions. Using a participatory approach with farmers, land restoration options were conducted in four target micro-watersheds for 3 years (2015–2017). Co-developed restoration measures at the landscape level within the four micro-watersheds (MW1-MW4) resulted in a substantial increment (50%) for all treatments (grass strips, terraces, and a combination of grass strips and terraces) in soil moisture storage and increased maize and forage production. We demonstrate that SLM practices, when used in combination, greatly reduce soil erosion and are profitable and sustainable while conferring livelihood benefits to smallholder farmers.

Land degradation and desertification affect around one-third of the land used for agriculture, undermining productivity, and farmers' livelihoods, and resilience. People in rainfed and dryland areas are the most vulnerable to the environmental and social impacts of degradation, yet opportunities to expand agricultural areas in order to meet the needs of an ever-growing population are limited and/or not feasible. On the bright side, there are opportunities to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation (LD), however, it will require identifying areas that are suited to implement sustainable land management (SLM) practices and create an enabling environment that encourages such initiatives. In Morocco, latest available data from 2015 showed that 19 percent of its land over the total land area is degraded. In order to assess the level of degradation in rainfed landscapes of Morocco and identify the appropriate technological solutions in response to the driving forces and pressures, and to come up with a territorial planning strategy, analyses were carried out at different levels to identify the land degradation “hot spots” as well as the SLM “bright spots.” This paper sheds light on the decision support framework, co-developed with partners and applied in Morocco, the findings from national and subnational assessments of LD, as well as the process of participatory planning in selected communities of the Souss-Massa region for evaluation and scaling up of SLM good practices. The process led to the development of a “Territorial Planning Pact” as a tool for land use planning and a 3-year action plan to help decision-makers implement and mainstream SLM in the selected communities and guide similar processes throughout the region. The “Territorial Planning Pact” forms a base for planning and implementing the development program in the region led by key stakeholders. The paper presents the actions taken and concludes by highlighting the importance of integrating both biophysical and socio-economic information in a multi-level participatory process to identify the actions and responsibilities of various stakeholders and ensure sustainable management of limited natural resources and improved livelihoods for all.

Abstract. Land degradation due to lack of sustainable land management practices is one of the critical challenges in many developing countries including Ethiopia. This study explored the major determinants of farm-level tree-planting decisions as a land management strategy in a typical farming and degraded landscape of the Modjo watershed, Ethiopia. The main data were generated from household surveys and analysed using descriptive statistics and a binary logistic regression model. The model significantly predicted farmers' tree-planting decisions (χ2 = 37.29, df = 15, P < 0.001). Besides, the computed significant value of the model revealed that all the considered predictor variables jointly influenced the farmers' decisions to plant trees as a land management strategy. The findings of the study demonstrated that the adoption of tree-growing decisions by local land users was a function of a wide range of biophysical, institutional, socioeconomic and household-level factors. In this regard, the likelihood of household size, productive labour force availability, the disparity of schooling age, level of perception of the process of deforestation and the current land tenure system had a critical influence on tree-growing investment decisions in the study watershed. Eventually, the processes of land-use conversion and land degradation were serious, which in turn have had adverse effects on agricultural productivity, local food security and poverty trap nexus. Hence, the study recommended that devising and implementing sustainable land management policy options would enhance ecological restoration and livelihood sustainability in the study watershed.