Aad Kessler

Farmers' perceptions of land degradation and their investments in land management: a case study in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia.

To combat land degradation in the Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia, farmers are of crucial importance. If farmers perceive land degradation as a problem, the chance that they invest in land management measures will be enhanced. This study presents farmers’ perceptions of land degradation and their investments in land management, and to what extent the latter are influenced by these perceptions. Water erosion and fertility depletion are taken as main indicators of land degradation, and the results show that farmers perceive an increase in both indicators over the last decade. They are aware of it and consider it as a problem. Nevertheless, farmers’ investments to control water erosion and soil fertility depletion are very limited in the CRV. Results also show that farmers’ awareness of both water erosion and soil fertility decline as a problem is not significantly associated with their investments in land management. Hence, even farmers who perceive land degradation on their fields and are concerned about its increase over the last decade do not significantly invest more in water erosion and soil fertility control measures than farmers who do not perceive these phenomena. Further research is needed to assess which other factors might influence farmers’ investments in land management, especially factors related to socioeconomic characteristics of farm households and plot characteristics which were not addressed by this study.

Factors affecting farmers’ coping and adaptation strategies to perceived trends of declining rainfall and crop productivity in the central Rift valley of Ethiopia

BackgroundFarmers apply several and often different farmer-specific strategies to cope with and adapt to the perceived trend of declining rainfall and crop productivity. A better understanding of the factors affecting farmers’ coping and adaptation strategies to counteract both trends is crucial for policies and programs that aim at promoting successful rainfed agriculture in Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to identify the major factors that affect farmers’ coping and adaption strategies to rainfall variability and reduction in crop yield in the central Rift valley (CRV) of Ethiopia. A survey was conducted among 240 randomly selected farmers within six kebeles in the CRV using structured and pretested questionnaires. Multivariate probit (MVP) regression model was used to identify these key factors that affect farmers’ coping and adaptation strategies to the declining trends of rainfall and crop productivity.ResultsGenerally, this study identified several factors that affect farmers’ choices of certain strategies, which can be grouped in four major factors: (1) livestock and landholdings, (2) availability of labour and knowledge, (3) access to information, and (4) social and cultural factors. Farmers with better resources, labour, knowledge, access to information and social capital had better coping and adaptation strategies to the declining rainfall and crop productivity.ConclusionsTo conclude, improving farmers’ asset accumulation, access to information and knowledge are needed. Moreover, strengthening social capital and labour sharing institutions in the CRV is crucial to increase farmers’ capacities to cope with and adapt to environmental changes such as rainfall and crop yield variability.

Using Soil and Water Conservation Contests for Extension: Experiences from the Bolivian Mountain Valleys

Soil and water conservation (SWC) contests among farmer groups were organized in five rural villages in the Bolivian mountain valleys. The contests were aimed at quickly achieving widespread sustainable results. This article analyzes the effectiveness of these contests as an extension tool. Mixed results were obtained. In three villages, participation rates in the SWC activities introduced in the contests were still high even 2 years after project withdrawal. These were all villages where a solid foundation for sustainable development had been laid before the contests were held. Two years later, most families were still involved in maintenance of the SWC practices introduced in the contests, and many farmers had started to experiment with different soil management practices. However, replications of these SWC practices were not widespread, Conservation Leaders did not continue with their training activities, and the quality of maintenance of the practices was often not satisfactory. In order to become a more effective extension tool and achieve widespread impact, SWC contests must receive continued support by a catalyst agency. Moreover, other SWC contests should also be organized in which practices are not predefined. Given that SWC contests are a low-budget extension tool, local municipalities could become more actively involved.

Exploring co-investments in sustainable land management in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, not only farmers but also the public and private sector partners are still hesitant to invest in sustainable land management (SLM). This study focuses on the Central Rift Valley and explores the potential for co-investments in SLM, where public and private sector partners support farmers with material, capital, knowledge, etc. A survey revealed current bottlenecks for co-investments and requirements needed to collaboratively invest in SLM. It covered 165 public sector partners (micro-, meso- and macro-level institutions) and 42 private sector partners (banks, exporters and local traders). Results for the public sector show a gap between macro- and micro-/meso-level actors concerning co-investments in SLM. Macro-level institutions do not acknowledge the bottlenecks identified by micro- and meso-level institutions (e.g. lack of accountability, top-down approaches and lack of good leadership). Similarly, opinions on requirements for co-investments in SLM differ considerably, showing that bridging the institutional micro–macro gap is crucial to co-investments. Most factors are related to the wider governance context and to different perceptions among micro- and macro-level actors as to the critical pre-conditions to co-investment in SLM. Improving governance at all institutional levels, capacity building and enhancing a common understanding on barriers to SLM is required. Results for the private sector reveal that economic bottlenecks limit possibilities to co-invest in SLM, and that enabling policies in the public sphere are required to trigger private investments. Hence, the potential for co-investments in SLM is available in Ethiopia at micro- and meso-level and within the private sector, but profound commitment and fundamental policy changes at the macro-level are required to exploit this potential.

Farmers’ Visions on Soils: A Case Study among Agroecological and Conventional Smallholders in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract Purpose: Why do farmers not take better care of their soils? This article aims to give insight into how farmers look at soil quality management. Design/methodology/approach: It analyses diverse land management practices and visions on soils and soil quality of ten agroecological and 14 conventional smallholder farmers in Araponga, Minas Gerais, Brazil. As agroecological farming (that is, managing soils with minimum use of external inputs) requires more complex knowledge, it is assumed that agroecological farmers would be more knowledgeable on soils compared to conventional farmers. This case study tests the hypothesis that differences in land management practices between agroecological and conventional farmers can be explained by differences in their knowledge on soils. Findings: The hypothesis turned out to be faulty: agroecological and conventional farmers do not differ in what they know about soils, but how they use their knowledge in their farming strategy. Both groups of farmers have different but rational farming strategies. Practical implications: Designing policies and measures to make farming more environmentally friendly and more sustainable as two-way knowledge exchange between farmers and science (and not as one-way knowledge transfer from science to farmers), to benefit from vital and context-based farmers’ knowledge and to ensure successful implementation of more sustainable land management practices. Originality/value: By analysing farmers’ visions on soil quality management and farming strategies, this study shows that farmers’ knowledge is valuable for farmers, for scientific knowledge on soil quality management and for policies which are to be effective and adapted to the local environment.

Co-investments in land management: lessons from the Galessa watershed in Ethiopia

The use of co-investment activities to motivate farmers to carry out sustainable land management is increasingly recognized. Several co-investment efforts have been implemented to combat land degradation and increase agricultural production in the Ethiopian highlands. Nevertheless, these co-investment activities have not been documented. Moreover, the impacts of these activities have not been evaluated. This study presents a co-investment initiative for sustainable land management in the Galessa watershed in Ethiopia. It documents successful co-investment activities that trigger farmers to carry out land management practices, and assesses the impact of these activities on farmers’ land management investments. The most important co-investment activities that trigger farmers to invest in land management are co-investments in awareness creation, water provision, technology, and governance. Of these activities, co-investing in water provision is most successful, because it directly solves one of the basic needs of farmers in the watershed. Results reveal that the experimental group of farmers (participants in the co-investment initiative) – compared to the control group (nonparticipants) – invested significantly more in land management practices such as soil bunds, composting, and tree planting. This article concludes that use of multiple co-investment activities are crucial to trigger farmers to invest in land management in Ethiopia.

Sustainable agricultural entrepreneurship in Burundi: drivers and outcomes

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the emerging literature on sustainable entrepreneurship by studying knowledge, motivation and early stage outcomes of sustainable agricultural entrepreneurship in the context of farmer groups in Burundi.,Quantitative and qualitative data were combined in a multiple-source case study. Data were analyzed using content analysis and basic statistics.,Results revealed that farmer groups’ prior knowledge (PK) on environmental sustainability is better developed than their social and economic sustainability. This is reflected in the environmental sustainability part of the business plans (BPs), which is generally better than the economic and social sustainability parts. Moreover, the top groups on PK identified opportunities directly related to their PK. Pro-activeness of the group was a more determining factor than risk taking and innovativeness. Furthermore, there seemed to be a positive interplay between the groups’ PK, entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge motivation (KM) and the quality of the sustainable BP. In particular, KM seemed to be important, but other variables also explained the quality of the BP, such as level of education.,This research fills a gap in literature because there are few empirical studies on agricultural entrepreneurship that focus on the earliest phase of opportunity recognition, let alone studies that focus on sustainable opportunity recognition in the context of emerging economies such as Burundi. Furthermore, in this research, the authors studied well-known knowledge, motivations and outcomes of sustainable entrepreneurship.

How farmers’ characteristics influence spontaneous spreading of stone bunds in the highlands of Ethiopia: a case study in the Girar Jarso woreda

This study aims to identify key differences between farmers who spontaneously implement stone bunds (i.e. farmers implementing stone bunds by their own initiative) and farmers who do not. Data were collected in the Girar Jarso woreda in the central highlands of Ethiopia, through a household survey with 80 farmers: 40 with spontaneously implemented stone bunds and 40 without. Independent samples t test, principal component analysis and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. Results show that five key-factors explain differences between the two groups of farmers: (1) readiness to change, (2) available resources, (3) social capital, (4) type of family, and (5) commitment. These factors together explain 73% of the variance in the data set and show that particularly characteristics related to the farmer’s intrinsic motivation play a crucial role to spontaneously implement and integrate stone bunds into the farming system. Furthermore, results show that young farmers are most committed to soil conservation: they are often intrinsically motivated dynamic farmers who are ready to change their future and improve productivity and food security. The study suggests that government extension programmes should therefore focus more on these young and dynamic farmers and foster their readiness to change. This implies that extension workers and government officials should better understand the crucial role of farmers’ intrinsic motivation when dealing with sustainable land management, and also reformulate extension strategies and messages. This is particularly important when developing a scaling-up strategy that helps to sustainably increase agricultural production and achieve food security of small-holder farmers in Ethiopia.

The quest for improving soil fertility : Why an integrated approach is needed

Improving the productive capacity of lands has been on the international development agenda for many years. Yet, to date insufficient progress has been made. Although there have been successes, they tend to be of limited impact, and spontaneous spreading of good practices is low. In this article, different intervention paradigms are reviewed. It is concluded that interventions differ in their fundamental view of drivers for change. We found interventions that aim to increase the total amount of nutrients within the soil, either through increasing inputs or through increasing demands, but seldom both at the same time. We also found interventions that aim to increase the efficacy of existing soil nutrients through either increasing the nutrient holding capacity (e.g. through mulching) or the release of nutrients (e.g. through liming). The differentiation of these approaches has strong effects on the institutional organization of the intervention. This article makes the case for integrating these different approaches and for more collaboration at institutional levels to facilitate this process.