Integrated land and water management practices for rainwater harvesting: Joint estimation on the combined use of the practices in Azgo watershed, Ethiopia

Abstract

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) has been practiced and promoted to address the temporal and spatial variability of rainfall, thereby enhance agriculture production in rainfed systems. The practices could also address the problem of land degradation. However, there is limited practice of approaching RWH from the perspective of managing both the water and land resources. This paper analyses the various combination rainwater harvesting practices (RWHP) on a single plot using multivariate probit. The result reveals that there is a significant correlation between the RWHPs and use of the practices is interdependent, depicting either complementarities or substitutabilities between the practices. The practices are influenced differently to the set of explanatory variables considered. This implies the different RWHP would require specific entry point and promotion strategy. This study suggests that policies that enhance the integration of RWHP would be central to exploit the full value of the land and water resource for livelihood support.