Integrated Rainwater Harvesting Practices for Poverty Reduction Under Climate Change: Micro-Evidence from Ethiopia

Abstract

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) has been practiced and promoted to address the temporal and spatial variability of rainfall, thereby enhancing 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. Research on water productivity and impact for poverty reduction mainly focused on irrigated agriculture while it is potential to provide the water needed to produce food for rapidly growing population is the subject of intense debate these days. An important option is to upgrade rainfed agriculture through better land and water management that improves soil moisture conservation and rainwater harvesting that provides supplementary irrigation. In the meantime, studies on impact of agricultural water management focused more on unidimensional poverty while poverty is multidimensional. This study investigates the impact of integrated RWH practices (IRWHPs) on multidimensional poverty in Ethiopia. Results show that the use of IRWHPs has a significant negative impact on the probability that a household is multidimensionally poor. This study suggests that policies that enhance the promotion of IRWHPs would be central for the sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture that simultaneously alleviate poverty and enhance resource sustainability.