Landowners’ Outlook Towards Soil Erosion Problem and Conservation Strategies in Maksegnit Province, Ethiopia

Kassaye Gurebiyaw

doi:10.11648/j.ijpp.20180201.15

Abstract

Soil erosion is an imperative environmental deterioration almost all over the world, which leads to reduction of crop yield. Present study investigates farmers' views of soil erosion problems and their conservation measures in the <i>Gummara-Maksegnit</i> watershed to understand inter-relationships between perception of farmers' knowledge and soil conservation practices. Data was obtained from a survey of 332 farm households and informal discussions selected by stratified random sampling from upper, middle and lower catchment at <i>Fertamit, Enkri and Dilkana</i> districts respectively. Both open ended and close ended questionnaires were employed to acquire required data. The result revealed that 81% of the local people realize the occurrence of soil erosion in their farm land. Moreover, 67% of the population recognizes the formation of rill forms of soil erosion on their farm land. 45% of the communities perceive soil erosion as primary factor for productivity reduction while 48% of them consider as second cause. Finally, there are several soil conservation measures done by the society living in the watershed. 84% of the population constructed stone bund on their farm land to control soil erosion. Other soil conservation measures like soil bund, draining ditch, tree planting and contour plowing were practiced. The varieties of conservation measures were very limited and incapable to control erosion forms like gully. Therefore it is highly recommended to teach farmers concerning different soil and water conservation measures and its relevance for tackling soil erosion.

Highlights

The world has been grappling with how to reconcile the three objectives of increasing agricultural production, reducing poverty and using natural resources sustainably [1]
Agricultural production shall to increase in such a way that future production capacity of the natural resource is enhanced rather than diminished
The study revealed that farmers in the study area are well aware of the soil erosion problem and its positive and negative impacts

Summary

Introduction

The world has been grappling with how to reconcile the three objectives of increasing agricultural production, reducing poverty and using natural resources sustainably [1]. With the land frontier shrinking due to population pressure, future growth in agriculture will increasingly have to come from yield increases rather than from area expansion [1,2]. Agricultural production shall to increase in such a way that future production capacity of the natural resource is enhanced rather than diminished. Each year about 10 million ha of cropland are lost due to soil erosion, reducing the soil quality and productive cropland availability for cultivation is being lost from land areas 10 to 40 times faster than the rate of soil renewal imperiling future human food security and environmental quality [9]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion