Practices, Challenges And Opportunities Of Soil And Water Conservation In Two Rural Villages Of Toke Kutaye District, West Showa Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

The Socio-economic development of developing countries depends on the performance of the agricultural and the contribution of this sector depends on how the natural resources are managed. From this natural resource management, soil and water conservation are one which it is important to control the loss of nutrients from agricultural land, to prevent pollution of water bodies, to decrease rates of sedimentation in reservoirs, rivers, canals and ditches and to limit crop. This study was conducted in two purposive selected rural villages on the title practices, challenge and opportunities of soil and water conservation in Toke Kutaye District. Majority of the studied in past were based on adoption of new introduced technology of soil and water conservation but not taking account ingenious knowledge and perception on practice. The main objective of this study was to assess practices, challenges and opportunities of SWC in the study area. Descriptive research design and combined research approach (quantitative and qualitative methods) were employed in conducting respondent and also employ both probability and non-probability sampling techniques as sampling methods. Data were collected from 144 rural farming household and using questionnaire, focus group discussion, key informant interview and observation methods of data collections. The primary and secondary data sources were used and analysis using through statistical package for social science and summarize by descriptive statistics like chi-square and t-test, average, table, percentages. The major types of soil and water conservation practices were agronomic conservations which farmers more practices crop rotation in the study area. More physical and biological conservation in this place were traditional water way and a forestation respectively. Vegetative cover and good natural climate condition were existed environmental opportunities from the other in the study area, but they did not effective used it. The overall conclusion from this study, extension services and training were the most core problem in soil and water conservation practices, solve challenges and using of exist opportunities. Therefore, the studied recommended that such challenges and opportunities require coordinated and systematic planning wit