Rural households’ perception on the effects of Prosopis juliflora invasion: The case of Amibara District of Afar National Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

In Ethiopia, Prosopis juliflora (P. juliflora) becomes one of the worst invasive alien species threatening the livelihood and thus food security of pastoral and agro-pastoral communities. However, up to the present, there have been few studies on the social aspects of the problem. This study explores households’ perceptions about the effects of P. juliflora invasions in Amibara district of Afar National Regional State, Ethiopia. The study used cross-sectional data collected from 130 randomly selected households based on probability proportional to household size. To measure households’ perceptions, a perception index was constructed based on a five-point Likert scale, and a two-limit tobit regression model was used to determine factors affecting households’ perception. The abundance of P. juliflora was perceived to have increased since its introduction in the study area, mainly due to the mobility of dispersal agents and the species’ ability to resist the harsh environment. Between the time when the first trees were planted and today, households’ mean perception about the effect of P. juliflora invasion has experienced a significant shift; whilst initially some 78% of the sampled households were in favour of the tree species, today, less than 1% still favour the tree and some 90% disfavour it. Empirical evidence indicates that gender, market distance, extension service and livelihood strategy had a significant negative influence whilst proximity to the bush land had a significant positive effect on households’ perceptions about the effects of P. juliflora invasion. Almost all sampled households had applied some form of control measure on their individually own land, including uprooting of seedlings or cutting and burning of trees. We recommend that government bodies should, in collaboration with other stakeholders, design P. juliflora management programmes, which take into account the households’ interests, demographic and socio-economic characteristics and institutional settings.

Effects of the Invasive Alien Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC and Its Management Options in Ethiopia: A Review

“…environmental harms [21,30,31] Disrupt ecosystem functioning and services [14,30,32,33] Soil properties and soil seed bank [30,[34][35][36][37][38][39] Hydrology [40] Land use land cover changes [41][42][43][44][45][46] Rangelands, quality, and availability of animal feeds [11,21,30,32,43,47] Productivity of agricultural lands [30,48,49] Loss of biodiversity [30,43,48,50] Invade parts of wildlife reserves and national parks [2,32,35,47,48,51] Human and livestock health [2,13,30,35,43,52,53] Effect economy and overall communities' livelihoods of a country [2,32,…”

“…P. juliflora thorns are dangerous and inflict pain that is like being bitten by a snake [21]. For instance, among human injuries, 8.4% in Awash Fentale and 5.2% household respondents in Amibara woreda reported that pricked by thorns of P. juliflora [83].…”

A review of gender in agricultural and pastoral livelihoods based on selected countries in west and east Africa

“…gender differences in Ethiopia's Amibara district, with men more likely to have perceived the species negatively compared to women (Seid et al, 2020). There were gender determinants of beliefs about water pollution in Burkina Faso, for example, where women expressed a strong belief that pesticides cause deterioration of water quality (Diendéré et al, 2018).…”