participatory soil fertility management – a case of social soil science

PARTICIPATORY SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT – A CASE OF SOCIAL SOIL

SCIENCE

Erik Karltun, Solomon Gebrehiwot, Atome Abebe, Fantaw Yimer, Workneh Bedada, Kevin Bishop, Tesfanesh Zikiwos and

Woldeamlak Bewket

Dep. Soil and Environment, SLU Ethiopian Institute of Water Resources, AAU

Dep. Geography and Environment, AAU Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources

Dep. Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, SLU Dep. Urban and Rural development, SLU

Seasonal variability in water flow for agriculture:: reforestation and afforestation as a management option

• Decrease of low flow after mid of 1990s (step-wise change)

• increase of Eucalyptus plantation

• Major deforestation since mid of 1970s

• No changes on flow

• Increase of low flow towards recent decades, deforestation to riverine forest suggested for this change

Some results outputs…

1640 km2

980 km2 1980 km2

1967 1986 2006

”In Beseku there is enough rain, the soils are inherently fertile but soil fertility is declining and

agricultural productivity decreases”

Why participatory methods?

Soil and water problems arise largely as a result of human

activity…

…so we need to understand why the farmers have problems with th

management.

• Fallowing is currently impossible because of population increase and shortage of land..

• Manure addition: Due to decreased number of livestock it is difficult to use manure for field crops.

• Crop residue: Farmers use crop residues for animal feed due to shortage of grazing land and therefore it is not contributing much to soil fertility

• Fertilisers: Expensive, only a few farmers can afford them and difficult to access

• Crop rotation has shown a change in crop composition in recent years, whereby only few and all non-legume crops are involved.

• Beans, the only nitrogen-fixing crop, used to be component of the crop rotation in the area, are no more grown due to thievery

Soil fertility management in crisis….

Farmers in Beseku stopped growing beans to avoid conflicts, and to preserve human security and community integrity

Bean theft

Marginalization of young people in rural areas

Driver

Boye

Shibeshi Gasha 1

Shibeshi Gasha 2

What are the reasons for adoption/non-adoption?

• Quantitative mapping of adoption • Semi-structured interviews • In-depth interviews with key informants • Focus group discussions • Triangulation

Methods

Villagization (76%)

‘‘In this area few farmers who have their land near to their home grow beans but we don’t ...Our farm is far away from our home, it is not possible to guard the farm all the time. Thieves may steal

day or night’’

Fear of conflict (44%) ‘‘In this Gote people do not expose thieves because thieves will take revenge in the future. Government law is weak, and police

release thieves without punishment. So it is better to keep quiet…

Land-holding fragmentation and poverty (32% and 26%)

“I divided and gave a large part of the family land to my sons and only kept a small portion of land which is not enough to cultivate

bean” Widow

What have we done?

• Financed fieldwork for 4 MSc students and 1 PhD student • Arranged 2 scientific workshops – 1 in Sweden, 1 in Ethiopia • Arranged workshop and field training for extensionists and

farmers • Supported laboratory maintenance at WGCF-NR • Supported two years of compost management experiments

in Beseku • Built one field experimental site for detailed studies of

plant-soil interactions • Supported X months of guest researcher visits in Sweden for

Ethiopian researchers