Factors that influence the implementation of sustainable land management practices by rural households in Tigrai region, Ethiopia

Background:Sustainable land management is considered as one of the useful approaches to combat the threat of various forms of land degradation in Ethiopia.Despite this,there is scant information regarding households’decision towards the implementation of sustainable land management practices.This paper,therefore,looks into the determinants for the continued use and choice of the sustainable land management practices by smallholder farmers and its productivity effect in three randomly chosen districts in Tigrai region,Ethiopia.The study uses data from household survey and key informant interviews.The paper employs a binary logit to analyze the determinants for the decision of continued use of sustainable land management practices,and a multivariate probit to analyze the simultaneous adoption decision of sustainable land management practices using cross sectional data collected from 230 randomly selected households.The impact of sustainable land management practices was also evaluated using propensity score matching.Results:Farming techniques,wealth status,agro-ecological variations,and plot level characteristics were found to be associated with the implementation decision of sustainable land management practices by rural households.Besides,institutional supports and access to basic infrastructures influenced the overall continued use of sustainable land management practices and the preference of households toward these practices.The study also finds that the value of crop production of sustainable land management users was on average 77–100%higher than that of nonusers.Conclusions:The results of the current study confirm that the implementation of various sustainable land management practices are influenced by farming technologies deployed by rural households,agro-ecological variations,plot characteristics,and institutional supports.The findings also affirm that most of the sustainable land management practices are complementary to one another,and implementing two or more sustainable land management practices on a given plot is highly associated with higher value of crop production.Such complementarity highlights that the productivity effect of a given sustainable land management practice is enhanced by the use of the other ones.

Impact of exclosures on wood biomass production and fuelwood supply in northern Ethiopia

In the Ethiopian highlands, communal grazing lands are one of the major land uses, and are source of livelihood for the rural people. Free and uncontrolled grazing in the communal grazing lands is the dominant grazing system. The traditional uncontrolled and free grazing system has caused severe degradation of the grazing lands. As a result, communities have started to establish exclosures and support the restoration of degraded communal grazing lands. Studies have shown that exclosures are effective to restoring degraded communal grazing lands and improving ecosystem services. However, studies that investigate the changes in aboveground biomass following the establishment of exclosures and compare it with fuelwood demand of the beneficiaries in our study area is lacking. Therefore, our study aimed at:(1) quantifying yearly biomass accumulation in exclosures and compare it to fuelwood demand of households that manage the exclosures;(2) assessing household energy sources and their consumption levels. To monitor changes in biomass production with over time, replicated(n = 3) 5 and10 year-old exclosures were sampled. To investigate fuelwood sources and consumption patterns, household surveys, key informant interviews and focus group discussion were conducted. Our results demonstrated that total biomass production increased with exclosure age. In both exclosure, biomass production from Vachellia etbaica was significantly(p \ 0.05) greater than that from Euclea.racemosa. Average daily fuelwood consumption per person was(0.63 ± 0.2) kg day^(-1). This means that the total biomass(27.5 Mg year^(-1)) obtained from 114.6 ha of exclosures covers only 9.4% of yearly fuelwood demand of the residents who manage the sampled exclosures. Nearly all respondents(95%) confirmed that they travel more than10 km day^(-1) to gather fuelwood from surrounding degraded forest patches. We recommend plantings of fast growing native tree species within exclosures and around homesteads to provide a sustainable fuelwood supply and using improved stoves to address the problem of fuelwood shortage. District agricultural offices could provide seedlings of native plant species, while communities provide unpaid labour for planting and managing plantations.

A combination of climate,tree diversity and local human disturbance determine the stability of dry Afromontane forests

Background:Anthropogenic disturbances are increasingly affecting the vitality of tropical dry forests.The future condition of this important biome will depend on its capability to resist and recover from these disturbances.So far,the temporal stability of dryland forests is rarely studied,even though identifying the important factors associated with the stability of the dryland forests could serve as a basis for forest management and restoration.Methodology:In a degraded dry Afromontane forest in northern Ethiopia,we explored remote sensing derived indicators of forest stability,using MODIS satellite derived NDVI time series from 2001 to 2018.Resilience and resistance were measured using the anomalies(remainders)after time series decomposition into seasonality,trend and remainder components.Growth stability was calculated using the integral of the undecomposed NDVI data.These NDVI derived stability indicators were then related to environmental factors of climate,topography,soil,tree species diversity,and local human disturbance,obtained from a systematic grid of field inventory plots,using boosted regression trees in R.Results:Resilience and resistance were adequately predicted by these factors with an R^(2) of 0.67 and 0.48,respectively,but the model for growth stability was weaker.Precipitation of the wettest month,distance from settlements and slope were the most important factors associated with resilience,explaining 51%of the effect.Altitude,temperature seasonality and humus accumulation were the significant factors associated with the resistance of the forest,explaining 61%of the overall effect.A positive effect of tree diversity on resilience was also important,except that the impact of species evenness declined above a threshold value of 0.70,indicating that perfect evenness reduced the resilience of the forest.Precipitation of the wettest month was the most important factor explaining 43.52%of the growth stability variation.Conclusion:A combination of climate,topographic factors and local human disturbance controlled the stability of the dry forest.Also tree diversity is an important stability component that should be considered in the management and restoration programs of such degraded forests.If local disturbances are alleviated the recovery time of dryland forests could be shortened,which is vital to maintain the ecosystem services these forests provide to local communities and global climate change.

Traditional Irrigation Management in Betmera-Hiwane, Ethiopia: The Main Peculiarities for the Persistence of Irrigation Practices

Traditional irrigation, as part of the ancient agricultural practices in northern Ethiopia （Tigray）, has persisted for long time since 500 B.C., while many newly introduced irrigation projects have usually failed there. The main objective of this study is thus to investigate the peculiarities pertinent to irrigation management and those having contributed for the persistence of traditional irrigation practices for a long period of time. The experience gained from such areas can definitely help make irrigation management system of new irrigation schemes sustainable. Betmera-Hiwane, one of the ancient traditional irrigation areas in Tigray region, was selected for the field study. Direct observations through field visits accompanied by interviews to farmers, local officials, local knowledgeable individuals and higher officials were made. After analyzing the collected primary and secondary information, the main peculiarities that contributed to the persistence of traditional irrigation areas were identified, and they are： constructed local rules, the presence of communally locally designed hydraulic control structures, ownership feeling of the irrigators and accountability of water distributors to the irrigation management, the culture for mobilizing communal resources and the culture of self-initiating local water management strategies.

Sero-prevalence, Risk Factor and Community Perception of Foot and Mouse Disease in Cattle under Extensive Management in Southern Tigray, Ethiopia

To determine the sero-prevalence of foot and mouth disease in southern zone of Tigray,North Ethiopia,a cross-sectional examination of 340 sera samples were conducted from November 2015 up to May 2016.In addition,a structured questionnaire survey was done to know the perception and knowledge of the local community about the disease and 120 informants were interviewed.The overall sero-prevalence was 20.9%and there was no statistical significant difference(P>0.05)in prevalence of foot and mouth disease between sexes,agro-ecology,breed and vaccination history.However,a statistical significant difference(P<0.05)was noticed between the age groups,different body conditions,farming systems,and history of contact with wild life.The logistic regression analysis indicated that all the factors which had an association with sero-positivity were found significant risk factors for the disease.The questionnaire survey indicated that 65%of the contacted informants described the disease consistent with the major clinical signs mentioned in literature.The study revealed that the virus is circulating in the area and requires further identification of the serotypes.Moreover,implementing control of foot and mouth disease with integrated approaches has paramount importance.