Factors affecting the Practice of Sustainable Land Management in East Gojjam Zone, North West Ethiopia

Abstract

Land degradation is a serious problem in Ethiopia in general and in the study area in particular. Although efforts have been made to achieve the objective of the sustainable land management program, the success is not comparable with the efforts the country has made; as a result the community’s livelihood is highly affected and many households cannot always ensure their food security. Therefore, this study was conducted in East Gojjam Zone of Ethiopia with the objective of identifying factors affecting sustainable land management practices. To achieve this objective, a household survey was conducted by collecting primary data from a randomly selected sample of 140 household heads. Descriptive statistics like mean, percentage and standard deviation along with F- tests, x2 - test and binary logistic regression model were employed to analyze the data. The survey results indicated that about 40 per cent of the sample respondents were maintaining the available land management measures regularly, whereas 60 per cent of them did not volunteer and hence were not interested to maintain different mass constructed land management structures. The results also revealed that educational level, awareness on land degradation, participation, labor availability, extension contact, farm size and slope of the land owned were found to be positively and significantly affecting sustainable land management practices. Finally, community empowerment, genuine community participation and appropriate sustainable land management technologies specific to each agro-ecosystem zone of the area are recommended.