Assessment of soil erosion processes and farmer perception of land conservation in Debre Mewi watershed near Lake Tana, Ethiopia

Erosion is of great concern in the Ethiopian highlands. The objective of this study was to determine the soil erosion rates under actual farming conditions by measuring the dimensions and number of rills in 15 agricultural fields in the Debre Mewi watershed near Lake Tana, and to understand farmers’...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology Vol. 10; no. 2-4; pp. 297 - 306
Main Authors:	Zegeye, Assefa D., Steenhuis, Tammo S., Blake, Robert W., Kidnau, Selamyihun, Collick, Amy S., Dadgari, Farzad
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Lodz Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z o.o 2010 International Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Subjects:	farmer perception Rill erosion soil and water conservation soil loss Ethiopia, Tana L Rill erosion soil loss soil and water conservation farmer perception
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Erosion is of great concern in the Ethiopian highlands. The objective of this study was to determine the soil erosion rates under actual farming conditions by measuring the dimensions and number of rills in 15 agricultural fields in the Debre Mewi watershed near Lake Tana, and to understand farmers’ attitudes towards land conservation through personal interviews with one-third of the watershed households. The annual rill erosion rate was 8 to 32 t ha−1. Greatest rates of erosion occurred at planting early in the season but became negligible in August. Major factors influencing land conservation decisions were the demand of labor and lack of technical support for implementing new conservation measures from experts.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1642-3593 2080-3397
DOI:	10.2478/v10104-011-0013-8