Participatory soil fertility management – a case of social soil science
1. 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
2.
3. Seasonal variability in water flow for
agriculture::
reforestation and afforestation as a
management option
4. • 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
6. ”In Beseku there is enough rain, the soils are
inherently fertile but soil fertility is declining and
agricultural productivity decreases”
7. 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.
8. • 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….
9. 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
11. • Quantitative mapping of adoption
• Semi-structured interviews
• In-depth interviews with key informants
• Focus group discussions
• Triangulation
Methods
12. 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
13. 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
