Abstract:
Land degradation leads to decline crop land productivity affect the agricultural production of rural
farmers of Ethiopia as well as a country’s ability to produce. It is one of the major challenges for
agricultural production in Ethiopia similarly in study area. In recognition to this, different watershed
management practice was introduced to combat the problem but effectiveness and sustainability of
this practice was below expectations. Hence, this study attempt to investigate sustainable watershed
management in increasing agricultural production: The case of Indris watershed, The study deal with
assess the implementation of watershed management, agricultural productions, the contribution of
watershed management in increasing agricultural productions, to identify the challenges of
sustainable watershed management and to identify the policy and institutional related constraints of
watershed management. 4 Kebles were purposively selected, two from the upper course where poor
watershed management and two kebeles from the lower course where good watershed management in
Indris watershed. Survey questionnaires were administered for 187randomly selected sample
households and 7 key informants for interview. The qualitative data were analyzed in the form of
narration whereas quantitative data were tabulated and the results were summarized by using
frequencies and percentage in form of tables, figures and T-test analysis results were applied using
SPSS version 20. The major finding of this study shown that lack of communities participation, nonsustainable
watershed management due to lack of awareness, Bio-physical, socio-economic and
political challenges, little technical support and training, and lack of coordination between
government and communitiesSome possible recommendations were forwarded including training for
Development Agents and other stakeholders in allocating the necessary resources for the program to
change the livelihoods of communities in the study area by generating income from on farm and off
farm activities, establishing community watershed management institution and giving thecontinuous supportm
