Agro Environ 2012, Wageningen Role of institutional and socio-economic factors on adoption, dis-adoption and non- adoption of soil and water conservation technologies: Empirical evidence from the North Western Ethiopia highlands

Over last four decades the government of Ethiopia in collaboration with consortium of donors has undertaken massive programs of natural resource conservation to reduce environmental degradation, poverty, and increase agricultural productivity and food security. However, the level of adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices remains low. The purpose of this study is to investigate the institutional and socio-economic factors that impede or facilitates adoption, dis-adoption and non-adoption of SWC technologies in the North Western Ethiopian highlands. The descriptive statistics results indicate that sampled households are found in different stages of adoption, i.e., initial adoption (30.5%), actual adoption (21.1%), final adoption (30.9%), non-adoption (13.4%) and dis-adoption (abandonment) (5%). The F-test analysis indicates significant differences among the five adopter categories in terms of household head age, size of cultivable land, number of oxen, and number of farmers participating during collective action. The chi-square analysis shows a significant systematic association among adopter categories in terms of tenure security perception, cooperation with adjacent farm owners, ownership of implements (shovels), perceived problem of erosion, training in SWC, plots slope status and project assistance in SWC intervention. Moreover, the multinomial logit estimates indicate that the adoption stages of the adopter categories are influenced by different socio-economic and institutional factors at different levels of significance