Impact of Soil Conservation on Household Income in East Wollega, H/G/ Wollaga and West Shawa Zones of Oromia Region

Abstract

Land degradation in many third world countries threatens the livelihood of millions of people and constrains the ability of countries to develop a healthy agricultural and natural resource base. This study was conducted to explore Impact of Soil Conservation on Household Income in East Wollega, H/G/ Wollaga and West Shawa Zones of Oromia Region. In this study, three-stage sampling procedure was used to select six districts, tuwelve kebeles and 252 specific sample farm households. Descriptive and econometric analyses were employed. This study has been designed with objective of to assess the impacts of the SWC on yields and farmers’ income, to assess community perception towards the ongoing SWC interventions. and to identify constraints and opportunities on SWC practices in the study area. The analysis is based on the data collected from randomly selected 252 farm households in western Ethiopia. a propensity score matching method for impact analysis to avoid bias arising from possible self-selection. The descriptive analysis showed that, out of the 252 household heads, in the study area the average farm size of the respondents was fragmented into 3.36 parcel, each with average 2.26 hectares. In the sampled area, 13.3%, 57.8%, 14.8%, and 14.1% of the interviewed farmers has been built SWC structures on cultivated land by SLM programme, by campaign, with their family and through both (campaign and family) respectively. The results obtained through a propensity score matching method was 7931.3 Ethiopian Birr net on household income of farmers increase for adopters as compared to non-adopters.