What integrated watershed management can deliver for the environment and livelihoods: The Ethiopian experience

Abstract

The interplay between climate change and land degradation puts food and nutrition security at risk in the seasonally dry Tigray region of northern Ethiopia in complex ways. Agriculture production is at risk due to increased soil loss, soil fertility decline, deforestation, and ground water level depletion. In response to these challenges, the government, communities and non-government organisations have been implementing integrated watershed management technologies such as soil and water conservation, soil management, and water harvesting since 1997. So far, few studies following up on the impacts are available or organised in a way that serves the direct beneficiaries. Therefore, information for this study was gathered from secondary reports and a field survey was conducted to create a baseline for documenting good multifunctional land-use practices in support of planning and scaling-up processes. The literature review showed that implementation of integrated watershed management halved the average annual soil loss and improved crop productivity, water and fodder availability, and household incomes compared to untreated neighbouring watersheds. Effective scaling-up of the approach will require much work to integrate farmers, extension, research, academics, and policy at the local and regional level; the approach should also give more emphasis to the short/medium/long-term benefits farmers can expect to see.