The role of sustainable soil management practices in improving smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in the Gosho watershed, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Although significant conservation techniques had been established over the preceding forty years, there was little quantifiable evidence regarding the roles of soil management practices on livelihoods in the highlands of Ethiopia. In the Gosho watershed in northwest Ethiopia, the study aimed to investigate how the joint use of indigenous and introduced soil management practices impacted the development of smallholders’ livelihoods. A systematic sampling technique was used to choose 141 household heads from which primary and quantitative data were gathered. The data were collected through conducting face-to-face interviews with each sampled respondent. The data were analyzed using an independent sample t-test and multiple linear regression models. Comparing adopter farm households to non-adopter farm households, the adopters’ natural, physical, human, financial, and social asset indices were larger by 0.28, 0.43, 0.64, 0.54, and 0.15, respectively. Compared to non-adopter farm households, adopter farm households had a 0.41 higher overall livelihood index. Additionally, using both introduced and indigenous structural, vegetative, and agronomic conservation practices on a single plot was the most significant underlying factor for improvements in smallholder farmers’ livelihood assets when compared to using either introduced or indigenous practices alone. Hence, there needs to be a scale-up of the combined use of traditional and introduced structural, vegetative, and agronomic soil management practices on each farmland to sustain smallholder livelihood.