Actors behind soil and water conservation structures: a case study in Tigray, Ethiopia

Soil and water conservation (SWC) structures do not crop up of their own accord. Understanding the strategies and objectives of different actors that play a role in the implementation of SWC techniques is a key to explaining the latter’s effectiveness and efficiency. The role of and interaction between the state, as a deliverer of rural development interventions, and farmers, as their receivers, in SWC programmes have been studied in a rural society in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Data have been gathered by participant observation, complemented with open and semi-structured interviews with both farmers and development workers. A sustainable livelihood approach (DFID among others) has been used and adapted to conceptualize the role of agency in creating differential livelihood impacts of one single development intervention. In the study area farmers’ and developers’ objectives and strategies influence the performance and sustainability of SWC structures in two ways. Firstly the majority of SWC structures are built within the framework of food for work (FFW) programmes on village scale organised by the government to bridge seasonal food gaps. Employment in these FFW programmes depends on farmers’ readiness to adopt newly introduced techniques and technologies, some of them for their part in the field of SWC. These back- and forward linkages between FFW and SWC have consequences for SWC measures’ success and sustainability, as farmers are willing and competing to participate in FFW programmes. Secondly farmers’ room for participation in the decision making process with respect to rural development and environmental rehabilitation in the study area is limited. This influences SWC measures' sustainability, as households are pushed to look for other opportunities to go about with development interventions.status: publishe