Adoption of rainwater harvesting and its impact on smallholder farmer livelihoods in Kutaber district, South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study aimed to identify determinants of rainwater harvesting adoption, and evaluate its impact on livelihood of smallholder farmers in Kutaber district. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select 196 sample households. Descriptive statistics and econometric models were used to analyze the primary data. Logit model was used to identify determinants of rainwater harvesting adoption while propensity score matching was used to evaluate its impact on livelihood of smallholder farmers. The result of logit model revealed that education level, family size, farming experience, participation in technology demonstration, and membership in farmer cooperative were significantly and positively affected adoption of rainwater harvesting technology, while age of household head negatively affected it. The finding of this study showed that adoption of rainwater harvesting technology have a positive and significant effect on the livelihood of farmers in terms of household annual farm income and food security. The result indicated that rainwater harvesting has significantly increased adopters' annual farm income by 35.13% and daily calorie intake per adult equivalent by 15.56% than non-adopters. Therefore, it is recommended to alter the attitude of technology averse older farmers, enhance farmer training and experience sharing, accessible demonstration sites and farmer cooperative to achieve extensive adoption of the technology thereby improve farmer’s livelihood.