INTEGRATED WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PRACTICES, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES: THE CASE OF DOBENA MICRO-WATERSHED, MESKAN DISTRICT, SOUTH CENTRAL ETHIOPIA.

Abstract

The current concerted efforts of Ethiopian government for the establishment of IWM in every rural areas is an emerging agricultural development and rural livelihood strategy aiming at developing environmental protection and enhancing rural households income through participating them on rural developmental activities for improving agricultural production and productivity. This study was conducted to examine the current status of IWM in relation to its structure and community participation on watershed development based activities, to identify the main challenges, to evaluate the opportunities of IWM to the livelihood of the rural households, and to assess the institutional and implementation related issues of IWM in the study area. The study was based on descriptive survey and followed cross sectional design encompassing both qualitative and quantitative data. A total of 212 sample respondents were selected through systematic random sampling. The data were analyzed by using simple descriptive statistics such as percentage, frequency, tables and charts. Qualitative data were analyzed through interpretation and conceptual generalization. The findings of this study indicate that the study micro-watershed faced various social, economical, institutional and implementation problems that hinder the effective performances of watershed interventions and development projects. Of which deforestation, soil degradation, over grazing, continuous plows, less contact between agricultural experts and farmers are the main determinant. Furthermore, poor education status of the respondent and farmers lack awareness of carrying responsibility is the other challenging factors for the adoption and implementation of IWM practices. For that reason, limited training and technical support of agricultural experts/DAs, poor planning and identification of problems, lack of proper follow up, lack of organization, proper implementation problems, lack of coordination between farmers and DAs, lack of support from NGO’s, limited use of proper management techniques for varying landscape, administrative problem and failure of the committee in mobilizing the community are the main institutional and implementation constraints in the study area. Therefore, the district agriculture and rural development offices and every concerned stakeholder should take into consideration the social, economical, institutional and implementation constraints affected the effective functioning of IWM program/projects.