IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v87y2019ics026483771831411x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effects of trainings in soil and water conservation on farming practices, livelihoods, and land-use intensity in the Ethiopian highlands

Author

Listed:
  • Chesterman, Nathan S.
  • Entwistle, Julia
  • Chambers, Matthew C.
  • Liu, Hsiao-Chin
  • Agrawal, Arun
  • Brown, Daniel G.

Abstract

Smallholder farmers in the Ethiopian Highlands face increasingly difficult farming conditions. Agricultural intensification to feed the growing rural population, livestock pressure on native vegetation, and climate change converge to exacerbate soil erosion, creating a significant threat to crop productivity and rural livelihoods. Farmer trainings can be a potent strategy to increase farmer awareness of the larger causes of soil loss, help farmers adapt to or mitigate environmental challenges, and improve crop outputs and incomes. However, evaluations of farmer training programs rarely assess socioeconomic and environmental outcomes simultaneously. Our study uses multiple methods to estimate the socio-ecological effects of a soil and water conservation training program for farmers implemented by ADHENO Integrated Rural Development Association, an Ethiopian non-governmental organization. We asked: (a) did farmers use practices taught in trainings; (b) did these strategies lead to improved agricultural productivity or livelihoods; and (c) how did land-use intensity change in areas with more participation in farmer trainings? To address questions (a) and (b), our study and results are based on 449 household surveys, collected between June and August 2017, in two rural kebeles in Ethiopia in which ADHENO has been active since 2003. We used remote sensing analysis of high resolution satellite images to measure land-use change over a period of nine years, addressing question (c) for one of the kebeles. Analysis of household surveys with propensity score matching and robustness checks suggests that participation in farmer trainings predicts the implementation of four out of seven soil conservation farming methods. Participants in training sessions also had higher average incomes from agriculture than non-participants. Linear models of land-use change in the area around villages did not depict a clear relationship between participation in farmer trainings and change in land-use intensity. These results indicate that farmer trainings focusing on soil and water conservation have the potential to influence farming practices and livelihoods and have implications for soil conservation efforts in the Ethiopian Highlands. This study highlights the importance of evaluating the impacts of small, localized development interventions, of which there are many in sub-Saharan Africa, to better understand the ways in which myriad types of programs influence both land use and livelihoods.

Suggested Citation

  • Chesterman, Nathan S. & Entwistle, Julia & Chambers, Matthew C. & Liu, Hsiao-Chin & Agrawal, Arun & Brown, Daniel G., 2019. "The effects of trainings in soil and water conservation on farming practices, livelihoods, and land-use intensity in the Ethiopian highlands," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:87:y:2019:i:c:s026483771831411x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104051
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026483771831411X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104051?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gershon Feder & Rinku Murgai & Jaime B. Quizon, 2004. "Sending Farmers Back to School: The Impact of Farmer Field Schools in Indonesia," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 26(1), pages 45-62.
    2. Sascha O. Becker & Marco Caliendo, 2007. "Sensitivity analysis for average treatment effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 7(1), pages 71-83, February.
    3. Beliyou Haile & Carlo Azzarri & Cleo Roberts & David J. Spielman, 2017. "Targeting, bias, and expected impact of complex innovations on developing-country agriculture: evidence from Malawi," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 48(3), pages 317-326, May.
    4. Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum & Dorosh, Paul A. & Gemessa, Sinafikeh Asrat, 2012. "Crop production in Ethiopia: Regional patterns and trends," IFPRI book chapters, in: Dorosh, Paul A. & Rashid, Shahidur (ed.), Food and agriculture in Ethiopia: Progress and policy challenges, chapter 3, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Amsalu, Aklilu & de Graaff, Jan, 2007. "Determinants of adoption and continued use of stone terraces for soil and water conservation in an Ethiopian highland watershed," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 294-302, March.
    6. Edward Kato & Claudia Ringler & Mahmud Yesuf & Elizabeth Bryan, 2011. "Soil and water conservation technologies: a buffer against production risk in the face of climate change? Insights from the Nile basin in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 42(5), pages 593-604, September.
    7. Shiferaw, Bekele & Holden, Stein, 1999. "Soil Erosion and Smallholders' Conservation Decisions in the Highlands of Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 739-752, April.
    8. Tomislav Hengl & Jorge Mendes de Jesus & Gerard B M Heuvelink & Maria Ruiperez Gonzalez & Milan Kilibarda & Aleksandar Blagotić & Wei Shangguan & Marvin N Wright & Xiaoyuan Geng & Bernhard Bauer-Marsc, 2017. "SoilGrids250m: Global gridded soil information based on machine learning," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-40, February.
    9. Tolessa, Terefe & Senbeta, Feyera & Kidane, Moges, 2017. "The impact of land use/land cover change on ecosystem services in the central highlands of Ethiopia," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 47-54.
    10. Davis, K. & Nkonya, E. & Kato, E. & Mekonnen, D.A. & Odendo, M. & Miiro, R. & Nkuba, J., 2012. "Impact of Farmer Field Schools on Agricultural Productivity and Poverty in East Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 402-413.
    11. Shiferaw, Bekele & Holden, Stein T., 1998. "Resource degradation and adoption of land conservation technologies in the Ethiopian Highlands: A case study in Andit Tid, North Shewa," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 233-247, May.
    12. Legesse, Befikadu A. & Jefferson-Moore, Kenrett & Thomas, Terrence, 2018. "Impacts of land tenure and property rights on reforestation intervention in Ethiopia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 494-499.
    13. Holden, Stein & Shiferaw, Bekele, 2004. "Land degradation, drought and food security in a less-favoured area in the Ethiopian highlands: a bio-economic model with market imperfections," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 31-49, January.
    14. Bekele Shiferaw & Julius Okello & Ratna Reddy, 2009. "Adoption and adaptation of natural resource management innovations in smallholder agriculture: reflections on key lessons and best practices," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 601-619, June.
    15. Temesgen Tadesse Deressa & Rashid M. Hassan, 2009. "Economic Impact of Climate Change on Crop Production in Ethiopia: Evidence from Cross-section Measures," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 18(4), pages 529-554, August.
    16. Author-Name: Jeffrey D. Sachs & John W. McArthur & Guido Schmidt-Traub & Margaret Kruk & Chandrika Bahadur & Michael Faye & Gordon McCord, 2004. "Ending Africa's Poverty Trap," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 35(1), pages 117-240.
    17. World Bank Group, 2015. "Ethiopia Poverty Assessment 2014," World Bank Publications - Reports 21323, The World Bank Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Weiwen Wang & Jian Gong & Ying Wang & Yang Shen, 2022. "The Causal Pathway of Rural Human Settlement, Livelihood Capital, and Agricultural Land Transfer Decision-Making: Is It Regional Consistency?," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-24, July.
    2. Hongyun Zheng & Wanglin Ma & Gucheng Li, 2021. "Adoption of organic soil amendments and its impact on farm performance: evidence from wheat farmers in China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 65(2), pages 367-390, April.
    3. Qian Li & Jingjing Wang & Xiaoyang Wang & Yubin Wang, 2022. "The Impact of Training on Beef Cattle Farmers’ Installation of Biogas Digesters," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-14, April.
    4. Faridi, Amir Ali & Kavoosi-Kalashami, Mohammad & Bilali, Hamid El, 2020. "Attitude components affecting adoption of soil and water conservation measures by paddy farmers in Rasht County, Northern Iran," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Lan, Xiao & Zhang, Qin & Xue, Haili & Liang, Haoguang & Wang, Bojie & Wang, Weijun, 2021. "Linking sustainable livelihoods with sustainable grassland use and conservation: A case study from rural households in a semi-arid grassland area, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    6. Shunji Oniki & Haftu Etsay & Melaku Berhe & Teklay Negash, 2020. "Improving Cooperation among Farmers for Communal Land Conservation in Ethiopia: A Public Goods Experiment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-16, November.
    7. Wang, Wenxiong & Lan, Yuanqin & Wang, Xu, 2021. "Impact of livelihood capital endowment on poverty alleviation of households under rural land consolidation," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    8. Suresh Kumar & Dharam Raj Singh & Alka Singh & Naveen Prakash Singh & Girish Kumar Jha, 2020. "Does Adoption of Soil and Water Conservation Practice Enhance Productivity and Reduce Risk Exposure? Empirical Evidence from Semi-Arid Tropics (SAT), India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    9. Qi Sun & Yunli Bai & Chao Fu & Xiangbo Xu & Mingxing Sun & Baodong Cheng & Linxiu Zhang, 2022. "Heterogeneous Effects of Skill Training on Rural Livelihoods around Four Biosphere Reserves in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-22, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wolka, Kebede & Sterk, Geert & Biazin, Birhanu & Negash, Mesele, 2018. "Benefits, limitations and sustainability of soil and water conservation structures in Omo-Gibe basin, Southwest Ethiopia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-10.
    2. Meskerem Abi & Aad Kessler & Peter Oosterveer & Degefa Tolossa, 2018. "Understanding the Spontaneous Spreading of Stone Bunds in Ethiopia: Implications for Sustainable Land Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-14, July.
    3. Kate Vaiknoras & Catherine Larochelle, 2023. "Training and seed production spillovers and technology adoption: The case of seed producer groups in Nepal," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(6), pages 921-942, November.
    4. Fontes, Francisco Pereira, 2020. "Soil and Water Conservation technology adoption and labour allocation: Evidence from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    5. Meskerem Abi & Aad Kessler & Peter Oosterveer & Degefa Tolossa, 2020. "How farmers’ characteristics influence spontaneous spreading of stone bunds in the highlands of Ethiopia: a case study in the Girar Jarso woreda," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 317-335, January.
    6. Getnet, Kindie & MacAlister, Charlotte, 2012. "Integrated innovations and recommendation domains: Paradigm for developing, scaling-out, and targeting rainwater management innovations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 34-41.
    7. Gebremariam, Gebrelibanos & Tesfaye, Wondimagegn, 2018. "The heterogeneous effect of shocks on agricultural innovations adoption: Microeconometric evidence from rural Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 154-161.
    8. Adam M. Komarek & James Thurlow & Jawoo Koo & Alessandro De Pinto, 2019. "Economywide effects of climate‐smart agriculture in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 50(6), pages 765-778, November.
    9. Shiferaw, Bekele & Holden, Stein T., 2000. "Policy instruments for sustainable land management: the case of highland smallholders in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 217-232, April.
    10. Mikami, Satoru & Furukawa, Mitsuaki, 2014. "An Empirical Study of the Conditions for Successful Knowledge Transfer in Training Programs," Working Papers 85, JICA Research Institute.
    11. Mohammad Mahfuzur Rahman Bhuiyan & Keshav Lall Maharjan, 2022. "Impact of Farmer Field School on Crop Income, Agroecology, and Farmer’s Behavior in Farming: A Case Study on Cumilla District in Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-20, April.
    12. Holden, Stein T. & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2014. "The roles of land tenure reforms and land markets in the context of population growth and land use intensification in Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 88-97.
    13. Vondolia, Godwin Kofi & Eggert, HÃ¥kan & Stage, Jesper, "undated". "Nudging Boserup? The Impact of Fertilizer Subsidies on Investment in Soil and Water Conservation," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-08-efd, Resources for the Future.
    14. Yonas Alem & Mathilde Maurel & Katrin Millock, 2016. "Migration as an Adaptation Strategy to Weather Variability: An Instrumental Variables Probit Analysis," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01955941, HAL.
    15. Suresh Kumar & Dharam Raj Singh & Alka Singh & Naveen Prakash Singh & Girish Kumar Jha, 2020. "Does Adoption of Soil and Water Conservation Practice Enhance Productivity and Reduce Risk Exposure? Empirical Evidence from Semi-Arid Tropics (SAT), India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    16. Gebremedhin, Berhanu & Swinton, Scott M., 2003. "Investment in soil conservation in northern Ethiopia: the role of land tenure security and public programs," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 69-84, July.
    17. Boris Bravo & Horacio Cocchi & Daniel Solís, 2006. "Adoption of Soil Conservation Technologies in El Salvador: A cross-Section and Over-Time Analysis," OVE Working Papers 1806, Inter-American Development Bank, Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE).
    18. Alice Turinawe & Lars Drake & Johnny Mugisha, 2015. "Adoption intensity of soil and water conservation technologies: a case of South Western Uganda," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 711-730, August.
    19. Fissha Asmare & Jūratė Jaraitė & Andrius Kažukauskas, 2022. "Climate change adaptation and productive efficiency of subsistence farming: A bias‐corrected panel data stochastic frontier approach," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(3), pages 739-760, September.
    20. Kumar, Suresh & Singh, Dharm Raj & Mondal, Biswajit & Palanisamy, Venkatesh & Kumar, Anil, 2021. "Does Adoption of Soil Bund Increase Sorghum Productivity? Some Empirical Evidence from Drought Prone Areas of Karnataka, India," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315343, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:87:y:2019:i:c:s026483771831411x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.