Farmer’s Perception of Soil and Water Conservation Practices in Eastern Hararghe, Ethiopia

Abstract

The perception of farmers is an important part of their decision-making. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the perception of farmers towards soil and water conservation and the socio-economic determinants. The knowledge would help understand farmers decision whether to adopt soil and water conservation practices or not. This paper analyses the perception of farmers towards SWC by taking a sample of 240 farmers from Eastern Hararghe, Ethiopia. Descriptive statistics and generalized linear model are used to describe the data and identify the important factors influencing farmer’s perception respectively. On average, Sample farmers are found to have a good understanding of soil and water conservation with standard deviations ranging from 0.615 to 1.551. The factors that positively determined the perception of farmers in the study area are; training, plot size and number of ploughing. Manure application and plot distance affected perception negatively. Following the results, we recommend extension agents in the area to provide continuous trainings and advice farmers to follow up on their land, especially to those who are far from their plots.