Abstract
Improving crop productivity and farm income of rural households and ensuring food security through soil and water conservation (SWC) measures are one of the integral parts of sustainable livelihood approaches. The study aims to assess the impact of soil and water conservation measures on improving the rural livelihoods, which is measured in terms of annual crop production and farm income of rural households in the Damota area districts. The data was collected from 378 households (209 adopters and 169 nonadopters of SWC measures) using survey questionnaires, which were randomly chosen by using multistage sampling techniques. Descriptive and inferential statistics with propensity score matching (PSM) method were used to analyze the collected data. The propensity score matching method was used to assess the impacts of soil and water conservation measures by controlling unobserved heterogeneity and were matched with balanced observable characteristics. The result showed that the mean value of wheat production of adopter households was higher (654 kilograms per hectare) than that of nonadopters (496 kilograms per hectare). Similarly, the mean values of farm income of adopter households were higher (17372.67 Ethiopian Birr per year) than those of nonadopter households (13883.22 Ethiopian Birr per year). The result indicated that both crop production and annual farm income were more pronounced when farmers implemented sustainable soil and water conservation measures on their farming lands. This suggests that all rural households need to focus on the large-scale adoption, integration, and maintenances of damaged structures for better agricultural outcomes.
Highlights
Land degradation is a global problem but it is critical in rural areas of developing countries [1, 2], mainly due to overexploitation of natural resources even in more sensitive areas [2]
The result showed that the majority of adopters of soil conservation measures were attendants of formal schooling up to 6th graders (5.69), whereas the majority of the nonadopters were attendants up to 3rd (3.26) class of schooling. e likelihood of adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) measure is more for larger family sizes than for their counterparts
The highest percentage share of livelihood strategies was derived from farm income, which is calculated as the difference between total cash income obtained from crops, livestock, and off-farm activities and the total cost incurred by the households. e descriptive result showed that these output variables revealed significant variation between adopter and nonadopter households (Table 5)
Summary
Land degradation is a global problem but it is critical in rural areas of developing countries [1, 2], mainly due to overexploitation of natural resources even in more sensitive areas [2]. Ethiopia is among the sub-Saharan belt countries in which the majority of the population lives in the highlands where land is continually cultivated. Land degradation has been a major challenge in the Ethiopian highlands due to its adverse impacts on crop productivity and food security [3,4,5]. Researchers agree that land degradation has resulted in a significant impact on the productive capacity of land and the stability of the natural environment [10, 11]. Soil erosion in the form of land degradation triggered declining soil fertility and limited water availability, which resulted in low crop yields on Ethiopian highlands [3,4,5]. Due to soil erosion in the form of land degradation, the recurrent incidents of famine and starvation have partly occurred in Ethiopia [12]
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