Expanding sustainable land management in Ethiopia: Scenarios for improved agricultural water management in the Blue Nile

Exploring Drivers of Livelihood Diversification and Its Effect on Adoption of Sustainable Land Management Practices in the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

“…As a result, rural households are trying to diversify their household economies to either survive or generate additional income to secure their livelihoods, regardless of the impacts on the natural resource base [8,28,29,31,32,47]. Despite decades of land rehabilitation efforts by governmental and non-governmental organizations that have addressed land degradation and the associated loss of production and productivity, as well as improving rural livelihoods, the efficiency and adoption rates of promoted land management practices have shown mixed results [48][49][50][51][52].…”

Determinants and impact of sustainable land management (SLM) investments: A systems evaluation in the Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

“…Simulations of SLM investments suggest that improvements in infiltration, decreases in surface runoff, and decreases in erosion are achievable in the Ethiopian highlands. In order to quantify the impact of SLM on agricultural output at watershed level, the SWAT model has a built‐in crop model that tracks the plant growth cycle and yield of specific agricultural crops under diverse hydrological, climatic and topographic environments (see Schmidt and Zemadim () for a detailed discussion of methodology and results).…”

“…Simulations suggest that terrace and bund construction on all agricultural land, regardless of slope, has the greatest effect on decreasing surface runoff and sediment yield (Schmidt and Zemadim, ). However, SLM construction on all agricultural areas resulted in increased flooding and crop damage in a variety of localized flat slope agricultural areas during high rainfall years.…”

Using satellite imagery to assess impacts of soil and water conservation measures: Evidence from Ethiopia’s Tana-Beles watershed

“…This has led to a consensus that intervention packages that are adapted to local conditions and pair SWC activities with infrastructure investments and support for the necessary inputs or compensation for labor are most conducive to longterm success . While GIS-based terrain modeling, combined with field observations, can be used to identify hotspots for interventions (Tamene et al 2017) and SWC measures are likely to have clear impact (Schmidt and Zemadim 2015), also needed are economic analysis and a link to the biophysical relationships of individual farms (Ekbom 2008) or larger agro-ecological units (Kassie et al 2008). In principle, real-time feedback based on remotely sensed imagery could help make it possible not only to assess the extent to which desired impacts are realized, but also to adjust interventions in an iterative evidence-driven process.…”