Abstract
For countries where the agricultural sector supports a majority of the population as in Uganda, the link between poverty and land degradation is of great significance. Soil and water conservation technologies are a recommended means of reducing degradation rates. However, ex-ante and ex-post analyses of the impact of these technologies remain few. Using survey data collected from 338 randomly selected households in the Kabale district of South-Western Uganda, this study used a Tradeoff Analysis for Multi-Dimensional Impact Assessment (TOA-MD) model to analyze the impact of adoption on household agricultural income and poverty levels. In the survey, households in the district either had or had not adopted the soil and water conservation technologies that had been disseminated. Results indicate that the simulated range of adoption rates is between 55 and 85%, with a potential to increase to about 90% amongst households with higher non-farm income. Households are also anticipated to benefit from adoption of soil and water conservation technologies through higher income from farming and poverty reduction; adoption is positively correlated with household non-farm income. Increased access to inputs, credit and improvement in infrastructure are recommended, especially for low income households. Dissemination of soil and water conservation technologies needs to be combined with other income generating measures in order to have a bigger impact on household welfare. Key words: Trade-off analysis, tradeoff analysis for multi-dimensional impact assessment (TOA-MD), soil and water conservation, Uganda, adoption impact, household welfare, smallholder farms.  
Highlights
The link between poverty and land degradation is of great significance, especially in developing countries where the agricultural sector supports a majority of the population, and is the main focus for future growth and development (Shiferaw and Holden, 1998; Dey et al, 2010)
Similar results are seen when the sample is divided into recent and early adopters; within a sub-population considered as recent adopters, when exposed to soil and water conservation technologies, the adoption rate among farmers with high off-farm income would be considerably high, at least twice as much as that of farmers with low off-farm income in the same category (79% compared to 33%, respectively)
The adoption rate between the would-be early and recent adopter sub-populations would be almost the same if the two sub-populations had same off-farm income levels; the adoption rate in the recent adopter sub-population is 79%, while it is 75% in the early adopter sub-population. This suggests that late adoption of SWC in the study area is partly driven by lack of off-farm income to finance initial investment, not necessarily risk aversion which is often attributed to late adoption
Summary
The link between poverty and land degradation is of great significance, especially in developing countries where the agricultural sector supports a majority of the population, and is the main focus for future growth and development (Shiferaw and Holden, 1998; Dey et al, 2010). Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is mainly subsistence, relying on little or no external inputs or land conservation measures. More intensive use of the land to meet increasing demand.
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