Farmers’ perception on land degradation in northern Ethiopia: Implication for developing sustainable land management

Abstract

Even though perception varies with agro-ecology and socioeconomic situation of the farming community, there are insufficient reports about farmers’ perception on land degradation in the semiarid area conditions. The objectives of this study were to examine farmers’ characteristics from the view of land degradation, explore farmers’ perception on causes and indicators of land degradation, and analyze the determinants of farmers’ perception on land degradation in Dura sub-catchment, northern Ethiopia. Transect-walks, group discussions and semi-structured questionnaire interviews were used. Data were subjected to descriptive, chi-square (χ²) and binary logistic regression analysis. This study showed that there was significant variability in the socioeconomic, farm, biophysical and institutional factors among farmers’ that led to have different views on land degradation. The farmers’ participated during the walks identified low, medium and high degradation classes. Significantly higher proportions of respondents perceived that deforestation (100%), followed by overgrazing (98%) and improper soil management (97%) are the main direct causes of degradation; whereas poverty (100%) followed by population pressure (98%) are the most commonly identified indirect causes of land degradation. The most frequently used indicators of degradation by farmers are soil depth (100%), soil erosion (95%) and soil fertility (95%). The respondents’ perception on land degradation trend varied significantly by slope steepness. The logistic regression model result indicated that farm and biophysical explanatory variables showed the highest likelihood for farmers’ to perceive land degradation. Attention should be given to such factors while formulation promising landscape management strategy that considers suitability and adaptability to local conditions.

Keywords:

• Binary logistic regression
• Deforestation
• Soil management
• Soil erosion
• Soil fertility
• Biophysical factors

Acknowledgements

This research was conducted with the financial support provided by Aksum University (Ethiopia) under the terms of grant no. AKU/IG/RCSD/1092/07. The author gratefully acknowledged the financial support provided by Aksum University to conduct this study. The author also highly appreciated the farmers who involved and assistance offered by the village administration and development agents during all the discussions and data collection in this study.