THE CASE OF KOFELE WOREDA, WEST ARSI ZONE, OROMIA STATE, ETHIOPIA

Natural resource degradation is a critical problem in the highlands of Ethiopia including in Study area. Some parts of Oromia region is affected by land degradation through soil erosion, to reverse the severity of the problem, soil and water conservation practice were introduced in different parts of the region including the study area. The goal of this study is to assess the farmers" awareness and adoption on soil and water conservation practices and to assess their adoption level of farmer"s on soil and water conservation activities. Structured questionnaire survey, key informant interview, focus group discussion, and field observation were the major tools applied to collect necessary information. One-way ANOVA indicated that significance differences between household head age, family size, extension contact, land security system, labor availability, and distance from plot to homestead, livestock holding, topography of selected kebele. Descriptive statistics; percentages, mean, paired t-test and excel were used to analyze the data. To collect relevant information the study was applied 301 household heads, model farmers, office experts and elders were used as sources of data. Non probability sampling method was employed to select kebele and simple random sampling method was employed to select sample size. The findings indicate that wrong perception, lack of awareness, tenure insecurity and short term needs are the major problems. The finding of this study also showed that farm age, family size, labor availability, amount of livestock on the household, distance of the plot from the residence to home, and land holding were major factors that determine SWC Practices. The results this study showed that most of sampled farmers believed that soil erosion could be controlled with proper soil conservation measures and almost all sampled farmers have high awareness about problem of soil erosion on their farm land (85%) and the majority of the respondent farmers participated in the SWC practice in study area. Training and experience sharing program should be given to the local farmers on use of traditional and physical land management practices.