Economics of Soil Conservation Adoption in High-Rainfall Areas of the Ethiopian Highlands

Menale Kassie, Stein Holden (), Gunnar Köhlin and Randall Bluffstone

No 400, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: This study measures the impact of fanya juu bunds (an important soil and water conservation technology and the most popular type of contour bund in east Africa) on the value of crop production in a high-rainfall area in the Ethiopian highlands using cross-sectional multiple plot observations. We applied switching regression, stochastic dominance analysis (SDA), and decomposition and propensity score matching methods to ensure robustness. The switching regression, SDA, and decomposition analyses relied on matched observations, which was important because regression and SDA often do not ensure that comparable plots with conservation technology (conserved) and plots without (unconserved) actually exist in the distribution of covariates. All models told a consistent story that the value of crop production for plots with bunds was lower than for plots without bunds. In addition, the yield decomposition results showed that, although there was little difference in endowments between conserved and unconserved plots, the returns to endowments were substantially higher for unconserved plots. Based on these findings, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that these technologies might reduce soil erosion and associated off-site effects, but they did so at the expense of poor farmers in the Ethiopian highlands. We concluded that unless productivity was increased—for example by increasing fodder grass production on bunds—fanya juu bunds reduced on-farm production and therefore could not be characterized as a “win-win” measure to reduce soil erosion.

Keywords: Ethiopia; soil conservation; matched data; decomposition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 C23 Q12 Q15 Q16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2009-11-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr and nep-res
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Economics of Soil Conservation Adoption in High-Rainfall Areas of the Ethiopian Highlands (2008)
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