Factors influencing adoption of soil and water conservation measures in southern Mali

A soil and water conservation (SWC) extension programme, promoting erosion control measures and soil fertility measures, has been going on in southern Mali since 1986. Five factors that influence farmer adoption of SWC measures were analysed: land pressure, cotton-growing area, possession of ploughing equipment, possession of a donkey cart and farmer training in SWC. Interviews were carried out with 298 farmers and two to three fields per farmer were visited, in 30 representative villages and 30 villages with high SWC adoption. Correlation, regression and factor analysis led to the following conclusions: (1) Farmers in the high land-pressure area adopt more soil fertility measures. (2) Farmers in the cotton-growing area adopt less SWC measures. (3) Farmers with more ploughing equipment adopt more SWC measures. (4) Farmers with a donkey cart adopt more soil fertility measures. (5) Trained farmers adopt more erosion control measures. There is a strong correlation between the adoption of erosion control measures and soil fertility measures that could not be explained by these five factors only. This suggests that there are additional factors that trigger the adoption of SWC measure