CHALLENGES OF LAND REHABILITATION PRACTICES: THE CASE OF GIBE WOREDA, HADIYA ZONE, SNNPR, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Land is an essential input to all productions, but degradation of land has become a serious problem affecting all spheres of social, economic and political life of the population. It is one of the major challenges to agricultural development and food security of the country. In order to reduce the problem of land degradation a lot of efforts have been practicing after 1970s at country level. However, the interventions could not be sustainable and unable to bring the intended prospect. The main objective of this study is to examine the challenges of land rehabilitation practices in Gibe woreda. This study employed primary and secondary sources of data in order to achieve the stated objectives. The mixed research design (concurrent triangulation) was used to collect, and present data collected from randomly selected households. The results are presented using the SPSS software (version 16.0). Using the systematic sampling technique, 183 households were selected from three kebeles as it is believed that the households are heterogeneous with respect to the characteristics that influence the research output. The findings of the study indicated that decrease in productivity of farm land, involvement in-off farm activities, increase in size of human population, lack of sufficient economy (poverty), lack of full cooperation of kebele members to involve in land rehabilitation practices, low assistance gained from NGOs, less access to extension service and inadequate attention from Woreda Agriculture and Natural Resource Development office are the major challenges encountering the implementation of land rehabilitation practices in effective way. Awareness creation and continuous training, resettlement program, creating opportunities for alternative means of livelihood and promoting NGOs effort to involve in land rehabilitation practices help solve the problem encountering land rehabilitation practices in the study area.