Effect Of Soil And Water Conservation Measures On Soilproperty

According to IPCC (2001), there are of eight broad classes of determinants of adaptive capacity indicator. From these resource (income) is the major one that those people who has better resource or income has got a chance to adapt climate change risks in a better way as compared to those who do not have sufficient resources.

From the table above the mean income obtained from crop and animal production are 37,774 Ethiopian birr and 31,441 in treated watershed untreated watershed respectively .The mean income difference is 4333 EB which is highly significance (p4.

3.1 Contribution of IWM through soil water and water conservation measures on saving

Saving is an assurance that households have to deal with, the difference in saving income and asset owned by household heads determine how far households can cope with the risk of climatic shocks. The amount of reserve that households have for the uncertain future reflect how much they have insurance in time of hazards, capacity to overcome adaptation barriers and degree of resilience.

In view of that, average saving capability of households residing in the study area before and after watershed management is 1600 and 2001birr respectively (Maeza Hadusha,2015). Even though, there had been changes in saving capability of households residing in the study area before and after watershedmanagement, the amount of saving is low.

As households replied low saving is due to large family size, small land size, low average income and frequent drought. Total asset (money reserve, food and other equipment) owned by household heads also in apposition of reducing vulnerability to climatic extremes as households are equipped with a means to cope with the expected or forthcoming climate related impacts.

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Large asset owners are not generally the most resilient but also the most susceptible to wider impact as compared to small asset owners. For example a household heads those keep large herds of cattle are being hardly vulnerable to the death of animal during prolonged drought which is frequent in current years.

Climate change and variability in the study area has a significant impact on agricultural productivity. From household survey 98%, 94.1%, 98.4%, 43.5, 100% and 95.2 % of the total respondent in both two watersheds is affected by drought, flood, off seasonal rainfall, too much rain fall, too little rainfall, and frost hazard respectively.

To overcome the above mentioned climate variability & change hazard on people’s livelihood, agricultural productivity at community watershed scale different coping mechanisms and adaptation strategies had been taken place. From house hold survey ,focus group discussion and key informant interview 89%,41%,95.2%,98%,97.9%,92.5%and 94% of the households were practicing planting multipurpose trees and shrubs on their farmland, practicing irrigation development, taking different soil and water conservation measure on their farm and communal land ,changing crop variety ,mixed farming ,selection and cultivation of early matured crops ,reducing number of livestock respectively in treated watershed .

Majority of SWC effort made in Adefwuha watershed was aimed to controlling soil loss from cultivated fields, improve productivity of land and to enhance livelihood option of the rural households and thereby reduce climatic risks. According to information obtained from Enbsie woreda agriculture office and approved by GIS tool from Google earth, the main SWC structures constructed in the study area (Adefwuha community watershed) include 70 ha farm land terracing, 65 ha of farmland is covered by biophysical soil conservation measures, 12.56 ha of hill sides are treated with hill side terraces and the rest is 64.8 ha, 52.3 ha 43.8 ha is covered with forest, shrub and settlement respectively. Forage plants such as treelucern Chamaecytisuspalmensis, (C. palmensis ) and Sesbania sesban were planted on the soil conservation structures as stabilizer. The soil bunds stabilized by biological conservation measure were reduced soil losses, improved the availability of organic inputs for soil improvement, and offered animal feed. Similarly 316 ha cultivated land was protected from free grazing of animal in the watershed through MERET project, DAs and Woreda expert technical support. These measures are all considered as adaptation strategies approved by Assefa Abileneh (2011) and Maeza Hadush (2015). This is due to the fact that those conservation measures taken in both farm and communal land reduce the velocity of rainfall through interception, block runoff flow ,improve infiltration capacity of the soil thereby reduce runoff .

Conclusion

This study addressed the effect of various SWCP implemented on soil property wheat crop productivity income of the house hold and climate change adaptation. The study indicated that there has been success in maintaining and improving soil property, productivity of wheat and income of households due to the implementation of SWCP. The major findings obtained from the research were TN in treated had statistically significant different in cultivated land slope 30% with soil bund at p30% with stabilized bund at p0.05 with untreated ones though some numerical variation has been shown except bulk density in cultivated land slope>30% with stabilized soil bund has shown significant difference at P30% with stabilized soil bund had significant effect at PIntegrated soil and water conservation has highly significant contribution in increasing crop productivity of treated watershed hence, increase income to reduce food insecurity of smallholder farmers. Construction of soil conservation measures in the degraded area and stabilizing with multipurpose plant species was very important to conserve the soil, increase crops yield and increase animal product and foraged. As a result the living standard of Adefwuha watershed communities income are improve highly significantly and increase the purchasing power of any item to full fill their demand as saving habit of the households was improved that helps them to adapt climate change effects during the bad season .

Recommendations

The finding of the study revealed that biological and physical SWC practices have a significant role in improving soil property of soil and income of the households thereby increase climate change adaptive capacity. Therefore all concerned bodies have to be given attention for ISWCP to implement in all untreated watershed areas to create equal change of the woreda.

Attention should be given to the bio-physical SWC measures. Biological SWC measures have the capacity to make the ecology more stable and economically viable. The findings of this study revealed that an integrated watershed management approach is by far the most effective way in reducing soil erosion, increasing land productivity, increasing crop yield, changing the physico chemical property of soil and income of peoples. Therefore, integrated watershed management approach initiated by MERET project shall be further strengthened in the implementation of SWC measures adapted to local socio-economic setup with real participation of all stakeholder especially, farmers to make sustainable land management.

Soil fertility management technique has to be implemented widely especially in cultivated land with lower PH value or acidic soil using lime application in, scientific compost application, green manure practices. Resource saving culture has to be enhanced to adapt climate change effects because of uncertainty of climate change hazards. Watershed management activities should focus on income generating opportunities has to be implemented so as to adapt and mitigate local microclimate. Climate change related information should be forwarded to the farmers to develop adaptation measures