Assessing Farmers' Perception towards the Effectiveness of Sustainable Land Management Practices in the Teleyayen Sub-Watershed of the Northeastern Highlands of Ethiopia

The main objective of sustainable land management practice is to integrate people’s coexistence with nature over the long-term, so that the provisioning of supporting services of ecosystems. Hence, understanding farmer’s perception on the effectiveness of sustainable land management is vital. Data were collected using a survey questionnaire, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and field observations. Independent-sample t-test, chi-square, percentage, mean and standard deviation were employed to analyze the data. The result of the study indicated that land tenure security problem (32.6%) is one of the major factors affecting farmers land management practices, followed by unaffordable price of fertilizer (27%), lack of assistance from development agents (15.8%), lack of credit access (14%), and negative perception towards land management practices (10.7%). Sixtyfive percent of the focus group discussion participants also reported that the sustainable land management practices conducted in their area is not effective because of farmers’ reluctance to participate in soil and water conservation practices, lack of incentives, poverty, and lack of awareness about the long-term benefits of such practices. Moreover, the chi-square results of gender of the household head (X2=8.716), land tenure security (X2=6.595), and educational status of the household head (X2=11.738), found to be significant in explaining the correlation between farmers’ perception and the effectiveness of sustainable land management practices. Therefore, exploring farmers’ perception towards the effectiveness of sustainable land management practices is helpful because it would improve the quality of the environment so that farmlands will remain productive for a long period of time. Keywords: Ethiopia; Farmers’ perception; Land degradation; Sustainable land management;