Abstract
In the drylands of Ethiopia, several road water harvesting practices (RWHP) have been used to supplement rain-fed agriculture. However, factors affecting adoption of RWHP and their impacts were not studied systematically. Understanding the factors influencing the adoption of RWHP for sustainable agricultural intensification and climate resilience is critical to promoting such technologies. This paper investigates the impacts of using rural roads to harvest rainwater runoff and the factors causing farmers to adopt the practice. Road water harvesting is considered a possible mechanism for transformative climate change adaptation. By systematically capturing rainfall with rural road infrastructure, rain-related road damage is reduced, erosion and landscape degradation due to road development is lessened, and farm incomes increase due to the beneficial use of harvested water, resulting in an increased climate change resilience. This paper uses a binary probit model and propensity score matching methods based on a household survey of 159 households and 603 plots. The results of the probit model show that the education level of the household, family labor, access to markets, and distance of the farming plot from the farmer’s dwelling are statistically significant in explaining farmers’ adoption of RWHP in the study area. The casual impact estimation from the propensity score matching suggests that RWHP has positive and significant impacts on input uses (farmyard manure and fertilizer), crop yield, and farm income among the sample households.
Highlights
Ethiopia’s estimated population of over 100 million makes it the second most populous country in Africa
This paper aims to evaluate the impacts of road water harvesting practices (RWHP) on input uses, crop yield, and income
RWHP users were found to apply additional farmyard manure of 119 kg to 149 kg. This implies that the adoption of road water harvesting has a positive impact on farmyard manure consumption. These results show that the use of RWHP is important in promoting complementary land management practices in the study area, as the coefficient of both farmyard manure and fertilizer is positive and statistically significant; input uses are said to be more responsive to water that results in higher production
Summary
Ethiopia’s estimated population of over 100 million makes it the second most populous country in Africa. Ethiopia is agro-ecologically and ethnically diverse, and predominantly agrarian [1]. Rainfed agriculture plays a pivotal role in the national economy, accounting for 36% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 70% of export earnings, 76% of the livelihood of the country’s workforce, and nearly 80% of employment in rural areas [2]. The agriculture sector in the dryland areas of the country suffers from drought-induced moisture stress events [3]. Dryland areas in Ethiopia cover three-quarters of the country’s landmass, and one-third of the population [4]. Changes in the biophysical environment, such as rainfall fluctuations in dryland areas, destabilize the national economy [5,6]
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