Determinants of Income from Agroforestry Practice in Boloso Bombe Woreda, Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia

Agroforestry land use practice is important alternative land use in situations of land shortage with potential solution for the problem of declining rural agricultural productivity and land degradation. Agroforestry practice reduce the risks associated with agricultural production, increases the sustainability of agriculture and support livelihood of the farming community by generating income for smallholder farmers. Farmers are expanding the agroforestry by incorporating non-traditional fruit crops such as mango and avocado. On the other hand, some farmers are switching from agroforestry practice to expanding monocropping especially ginger production. The objective of the study was to assess determinants of income from agroforestry practice and to examine land holding and its allocation to different land uses in Boloso Bombe Woreda, Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia. The study employed household survey for primary data collection and different documents referred for secondary data. Both descriptive analysis and econometric method were employed. In econometric method multiple linear regressions was used to identify the determinants of income earned from agroforestry practice. The result reveals that average land holding of households in the study area was less than one hectare (0.93 ha) and land size allocated for agroforestry practice is less than land allocated for monocropping system. The regression result indicates that five variables, such as, farm size, family size, access to extension service, number of livestock kept and experience of farmers are positively and significantly affect the income earned from agroforestry practice. In order to increase income earned from agriculture, general and from agroforestry practice particularly, it is important to expand extension service build their capacity in different way. Therefore, the government and other responsible bodies should give due attention to help smallholder farmers in order to use agroforestry land use for sustainability of smallholder agriculture that has been constrained by agricultural land shortages. Keywords: Land use; income, Agroforestry practices DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-9-01 Publication date:May 31st 201