Sustainable agriculture in the Blue Nile Basin: land and watershed management practices in Ethiopia

Abstract

The trade-off between short-term welfare and long-term agricultural development in the highlands of Ethiopia represents a challenge to successful economic development in a predominantly agriculture-based economy. We employ nearest neighbor and kernel-based matching techniques to measure the impact of sustainable land and watershed management (SLWM) on the value of production at the plot level. Analysis suggests that plots that received SLWM investments (terraces, bunds, check dams) within the first study period (1992–2002) had a 24 per cent higher value of production in 2010. In addition, continuous treatment effects analysis provides a robustness check and suggests that plots with existing SLWM infrastructure have a positive and increasing value of production seven years after construction. Although value of production increases over time, net benefits may not outweigh costs, and mechanisms to incentivize maintenance may be needed.

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

“…The results obtained from the hydrological model simulations at micro-watershed scale are consistent with the household survey analysis at plot-level scale reported by Schmidt and Tadesse (2014). Survey analysis (using propensity score matching techniques) suggests that the biophysical improvement in the watershed with well-maintained SLM infrastructure reaps higher plot-level value of production.…”

“…Based on household survey data, households spend an average of 5 person weeks to construct SLM structures in the first year and 2 person weeks to maintain SLM structures after the 1st year of construction. Taking into account that SLM maintenance occurs during the slack labor season (and using a shadow wage rate factor of 50 percent), cost-benefit analysis suggests that the earliest that total benefits would exceed costs is 12 years after initial implementation, assuming construction costs were fully subsidized (Schmidt and Tadesse, 2014). These estimates are consistent with other cost-benefit studies found in the literature.…”

“…For example, terrace development requires the most labor input, including collection of stones and construction and maintenance of retaining walls over time. Cost-benefit analysis at the household level suggests that benefits (measured in value of production) do not outweigh costs of maintaining SLM infrastructure until 12 years after the initial investment (Schmidt and Tadesse, 2014). 9 The opportunity cost of foregone off-farm labor opportunities, even after taking into account minimum labor opportunities during the slack season (adopting a shadow wage rate factor of 50 percent), remains an important obstacle to achieving economic gains from SLM investment in the short run.…”

“…Previous studies have examined the impact of investments in sustainable land management (SLM) in the Blue Nile basin derived implicitly from economic analyses (Schmidt and Tadesse, 2014;Pender and Gebremedhin, 2006;Holden et al, 2009;Kassie et al, 2007). However, pairing a local-level hydrological model that takes into account biophysical differences in terrain and household survey data that reports investment choice and magnitude provides greater insight as to how specific investments improve hydrological processes.…”

Behavioural mechanisms and adaptation to climate change : Evidence from lab-in-the-field experiments in the upper Blue-Nile basin

“…Pro-poor institutional arrangements and their working environment (Devereux 2000), market development and access (Schmidt and Tadesse 2014), and climatic factors (Deressa et al 2008 and are relevant in shaping smallholders' behaviour. As summarized by Ihli et al (2013), farmers' economic decisions such as crop selection (Price and Wetzstein 1999), technology adoption (Purvis et al 1995), conservation (Worku and Friederich 2016), and crop insurance (Hill and Viceisza 2012) depend on many factors including their risk and time preferences.…”