Abstract:
The study explores the participation of smallholders farming household in watershed management
practices existing in the area, to analysis the determinants of households’ participation in
watershed management practices and to investigate challenges and opportunities of farm
household participation in watershed management in Hababo district in Gudane Dedu and Lalistu
Loya sub-watersheds. The study was used mixed research approach. Simple random sampling was
used to select small holder farmers and 2 kebeles of Hababo Guduru district were purposively
selected based on their potential in watershed. Sample sizes of 130 respondents were selected from
Hababo Guduru district and sample size was determined by using Yamane formula.
Questionnaires, interview, focus group discussion and observation were used to collect data. The
Binary logistic regression model was used. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the mean
and proportion of the independent variables in association with the dependent variable. Findings
of the study revealed that; age of farmer household, farmer household experience, slope of farm
land, access to credit, farm land size, agricultural extension contact, and training of farmer
household significantly affects participation of small holder household watershed management
positively while farm distance from watershed management site significantly affects participation
of watershed management negatively. Soil bund, stone faced soil bund and mixed approach like
agro forestry practices are existing watershed management programs in the study area. The study
concluded that there are different factors affecting farm household participation decision in
watershed management in Hababo Guduru district. Effective and sustainable integrated
watershed management should be done by the concerned body to intervene on the gap created by
different factors on watershed management in the study area
