Agroforestry

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    ASSESMENT OF FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOPTION OF AGROFORESTRY TECHNOLOGIES IN HALABA SPECIAL WOREDA, SOUTHEREN ETHIOPIA
    (Hawassa University College of Agriculture, 2016) MIHRETU ERJABO
    Halaba special district is characterized by drought, soil erosion, high population pressure, poor livestock production, lack of feed for livestock, very deep water table, very low productivity of crops and food insufficiency. In order to address these problems, the woreda Agricultural Development office along with other management practices such as soil physical conservation measures agroforestry was introduced decades ago as a means to alleviate the problem. However, the level of agroforestry adoption remains low. The main objective of this study was to identify the factors that influence adoption of agroforestry technologies by farmers in the district. Random sampling procedure was employed to select two kebele administrations and respondents. Data collection was conducted by employing five different types of techniques such as rural household questionnaire survey, participatory rural appraisal, questionnaires for local and woreda extension staff, scanning government records & secondary data resources and field observation. A total of 12 key informants, 6 extension staffs and 182 households, samples were used in the data collection process. Chi-square test and t-test were used to determine whether there were statistically significant relationships between adoption of agroforestry and 15 selected variables. Out of which eleven were found to be significant to affect farmers’ adoptiveness. These were frequency of visits of farmers(13.39%), participation in training(11.49 %), farmers’ attitude towards agroforestry practices(10.61%), frequency of visits of extensionists(10.38%), participation in extension meeting(10.34%), participation in field day(10.28%), land holding size(9.29%), level of literacy(8.78%), awareness about the importance of agroforestry technology packages(7.06%), time taken from their residence to nearest extension(5.04%) and gender of respondents(3.34%). This study also identified various factors that may result in low adoption rates of agroforestry including fear of competition between trees & crops for water and nutrients uptake, seedling shortage, rainfall shortage, free grazing after crop harvest, financial problem, labor shortage, expecting trees as soil degrader & long span of trees and lack of need ranking of farmers by extension staff. To improve farmers’ adoption, the factors identified should be well addressed by launching a series and recurrent outreach extension program appropriate and suitable to farmers need.
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    THE EFFECTS OF FANYAJUU, DRAINAGE DITCH AND HOME GARDEN AGROFORESTRY PRACTICES ON SOIL PROPERTIES AND MAIZE CROP YIELD PRODUCTIVITY IN ALETA CHUKO WOREDA, SIDAMA, SOUTHERN ETHIO
    (Hawassa University College of Agriculture, 2022) DEGINET AYELE
    Resource degradation, particularly soil erosion coupled with poor soil and water loss control practices are few of the major causes for the decline of agricultural crop production. In Aleta Chuko Woreda, soil erosion and water logging triggered by vegetation clearance, land fragmentation and population growth, are very common. Thus, this study was carried out in Dongora Morocho and Elelcho kebeles of Aleta Chuko Woreda on Fanyajuu, drainage ditch and home garden agroforestry (HgAF) conservation practices (1) to assess soil physical properties; including soil bulk density, soil moisture content and soil texture. (2) to assess soil chemical properties including cation exchange capacity (CEC), available phosphorous av. P, and soil pH (3) to assess soil carbon sequestration (soil organic carbon (SOC), soil organic matter (SOM) and soil organic carbon stocks (SOCs) (4) to assess maize crop productivity; including crop yield and total biomass 5) to assess farmer’s perception on the effect of soil erosion and water logging control practice. Soil samples in three replicates were collected at 0-10 and 10-20 cm depth for the analysis of texture, Av. P, CEC, pH and OC. Separate core samples were collected at the same spot for bulk density determination. For each treatment a 20*20 m main plot was assigned and the grain yield was collected in 3 replicates from 2*2m sub plots within the main plot. Sampling size of 195 respondents was calculated from the entire population (4616) of two kebeles. Then 195 respondents were randomly selected from the two Kebeles to the collect data, through questionnaire. The data on soil bulk density and soil moisture content show no significant differences in all conservation treatments at (P>0.05) in the 0-10 and 10-20cm depth. Soil bulk density (BD) ranged from 1.1 g cm˗3 (drainage ditch, Fanyajuu and HgAF) to 1.3 g cm−3 (un-conserved crop field). Sand in soil under lower fanyajuu (28.3%) is significantly higher compared with that of un-conserved crop field (20.3%).Silt under un-conserved crop field is significantly greater than all other conservation practices. Clay under upper Fanyajuu is significantly higher compared with lower fanyajuu, lower drainage ditch and un-conserved crop field while clay under lower fanyajuu is significantly lower than the rest of conservation practices. Over all the textural class is clay soil for all conservation practices. Soil pH among SWC treatments and non-conserved land varied between, 5.7 to 6.6. The lowest pH (5.7) was recorded in soils under homegarden agroforestry plots. CEC in soils under un-conserved farm plots is significantly lower at (p < 0.05) compared with all of the other SWC treatments. Available P (22.7 mgkg-1 ) in soils under homegarden agroforestry plots is significantly higher than any of the SWC treatments and is within the levels of healthy range. SOC concentration ranges between 1.1 and 1.3 % and is in the order of home garden agroforestry (1.3%), upper and lower drainage ditch (1.25%) and upper and lower fanyajuu (1.22 %). The grain and stover biomass yield of maize under SWC treatments is in the order of Fanyajuu ˃Drainage ditch ˃Homegarden agroforestry ˃Un-conserved field p lots. The evidence recorded under this study attests that the majority of farmers fairly understand about the benefits of soil and water conservation practices to improve soil productivity. Generally the data suggests that SWC practices are crucially important to reduce soil erosion and augment crop yield and farmers should be advised to apply conservation practice on farm lands of their possession