Evaluating the Impact of Community Based Participatory Watershed Management on crop productivity in the Case of Mount Damota, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The main objective of study was to evaluate the impact of  community based watershed management on crop productivity in the case Mount Damota Watershed in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia. To address the research questions, the target research site  was selected purposely due to the implementation of watershed based SWC practices. To evaluate the impact of the implemented SWC specifically on crop, comparison study and recall method were made to assess the perception of  randomly selected respondents. Both primary  and secondary sources of data from field observation, focus group discussion, interview and household questionnaire survey as well secondary document review were collected respectively. The collected data were  analyzed using SPSS soft version 20. The results show that the field watershed management works are implemented by involving majorities of the  local people by organizing in different development teams. Regarding crop productivity of their farm land before the intervention of watershed management the majority (98%) of the respondents opinion reflected that as it was decreasing. However, the situation of their farm land crop productivity is reversed to increment after watershed management intervention as  the  97% respondents' opinion. Moreover, the majority (91%)  of  respondents have  rated the crop productivity as bad (poor)  without  the project while 71% as good with the project. Results on the estimation of respondents on  some selected commonly produced crops productivity  indicated that the productive of the crops increased on average by two folds. Hence , the research concluded that involving local people is important for cost effective implementation of soil and water conservation field work and watershed based activities are playing essential and tangible roles in increasing crop productivity. However, time period for improvements and proportion of land occupied by the installed structures are the main challenges facing the respondents. Therefore, awareness creation training and disseminating improved farm technologies to the respondents should be given priority. Furthermore, empirical studies to be conducted so as to dig out the biophysical and socio-economic impacts of watershed management at different scales.

Keywords: Watershed Management, Impact, Crop Productivity, Damota Watershed

DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/69-02

Publication date:October 31^st 2020