Description of the study
area
Guduru District is one of the 11 districts found in Horo Guduru Zone in
the Oromia region, western Ethiopia. It is 275km far from the capital
city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. Geographically, it is located between
8o54’0”N to 9042’0” N Latitude and
37o16’0” to 37040’0” E Longitude
(Fig.1 ). The major soil type are Nitisols characterized by low
pH.
The topography of the area is characterized by mountainous (1288.5ha),
flat (45,189.70 ha) and undulating (44,177.3 ha) of land (GDANRO, 2019)
The district experiences two rainy seasons, Belg and Kiremt. Belg is the
short rainy season and lasts between March and May. Kiremt season (June
–August) is very intensive and, hence, the severity of soil erosion is
high during these three months. The mean annual rainfall ranged
1500mm-1896mm (Guduru district natural resources management office,
2019). The temperature range is from 10 to 15 in a wet season and 15 to
25 in a dry season and the average temperature is 19 degrees centigrade
(Guduru meteorology office,
2005).
The major land uses in the area are cultivated land (34365ha), forest
(20365ha), grazing land (10161.29ha) and the rest are swampy area, water
body, and wasteland.
The total population of the district was 98,622 (Guduru district finance
economic development office, 2019). Out of this 48,848 were males and
49,084 were females. Besides more than 85% of its population depends on
agriculture for their livelihoods and practiced mixed crop-livestock
farming systems.
Methods
of Data Collection
For conducting the study two main data sources were used. These were
primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected through
field observation, focus group discussion, key informant interview, and
household survey. The household survey was used to collect qualitative
data. Before conducting the questionnaire survey, the draft
questionnaire was given considerable attention to develop
understandable, unambiguous, and well-targeted questionnaires by
avoiding confusing and incomprehensible terms that can erode the
confidence of the respondents. The testing of the questionnaire was done
in the actual study area to cross-check the relevance of its contents.
The secondary data were collected by reviewing the available project
documents, reports, and research papers.
Determination
of sample size
The basic sampling unit was the farmer’s household who derive their
livelihood entirely from agricultural activities. The sample households
were selected from the sampling frame by using simple random sampling
methods. The total population of the three kebeles was 716 households
(Table 1). A sample size of 117 households out of the total
population was considered for data collection because of their
homogenous characters. The estimation of sample size from the total
population was done according to Naing et al. ( 2007)
Sampling technique
Guduru District has 25 kebeles and from these, three kebeles were
selected. The selection of the kebeles was based on the severity of land
degradation and the implementation of SWC and management practices, and
farmers’ awareness of land degradation in the area. Thirty-nine (39)
household heads from each kebele (i.e., Dilalo Bero, Hula Guto, and
Gudane Sirba) which account for a total of 117 sample households from
the three kebeles were selected randomly.
Data analysis
The collected data were coded and analyzed using the Statistical Package
for Social Sciences (SPSS). Quantitative data was analyzed using
descriptive statistics like percentages and means. Chi-square was also
used to see the relationship between farmers’ perception and the
affecting factors.