Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe central highland of Ethiopia is facing significant challenges due to land degradation, which resulted in changes to the soil's physicochemical properties. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of different conservation methods in enhancing soil physicochemical properties, reducing soil loss and erosion, and maximizing land productivity in Ankober District of Kenseta watershed. For this study, two land uses (conserved and non‐conserved land), three slope positions, and three replication with the soil depth of 0–30 cm were used for undisturbed and disturbed soil samples data collection and analysis. The survey data were collected and evaluated from 106 randomly selecting respondents' households. The results showed significant variation in the mean value of soil physical properties (bulk density, soil moisture content, soil texture) within and between conserved and non‐conserved land. The chemical properties, including pH, EC, exK, CEC, OC, OM, and available P, also changed significant across land management types and along slope position (p < 0.05). Soil managed with stone face soil bund demonstrated significant improvement in soil physicochemical properties. The results were statistically significant difference at (p < 0.05) level of significance. Majority of the respondents' households explained the soil loss and rate of soil erosion were declined and land productivity status increased after the adoption of soil and water conservation practices in the study area. Therefore, proper conservation practices are vital in minimizing the rate of soil loss, ameliorating physical and chemical properties of the soils, and enhancing land productivity.

AbstractThis study aimed to evaluate household's willingness to pay (WTOP) for irrigation water use (IWU) per timad (0.25 ha) of the irrigable land per year and to analyze determinants of WTOP for IWU at individual households based on the contingent valuation method (CVM). The primary data collected for this study was from 120 households using two‐stage sampling techniques such as simple random sampling and purposive from four peasant associations of the Efratana Gidim and Kewit districts by semistructured questionnaire. The secondary dataset was collected from several sources. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive, inferential, and Tobit econometric models. In addition, a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit (SUBP) model was applied to calculate the average WTOP for IWU per timad/year. The CVM survey indicated that from the total sample collected data, 80% of the households showed WTOP for IWU, while the remaining 20% did not show WTOP. The econometric result of the Tobit model showed that the education level of the household, household family size, Irrigation experience, total annual income, and credit utilization influenced farmers' WTOP positively and significantly, while only initial bid price affected the farmer negatively and significantly. Hence, the above variables should be given high emphasis in designing irrigation water‐related projects in the districts. The SUBP model result revealed that the household's average annual WTOP was 854.74 Ethiopia Birr/0.25 ha/year. The estimated MWTOP for IWU is a huge amount of money. Hence, the concerned body has to collect money from households, which has to be used in the development of irrigation systems in the study area. This study recommends that different stakeholders of government should collaborate in raising revenue from the local community and apply it for the desired community development purposes, particularly for food security enhancement as the districts are highly dependent on rainfed agriculture.