DETERMINANTS OF FARMERS’ WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR SOIL CONSERVATION PRACTICES:THE CASE OF JARSO DISTRICT, EASTERN HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Soil erosion is one of the most serious environmental problems in the highlands of Ethiopia. The prevalence of traditional methods of agricultural land use and the absence of appropriate resource management practices often result in the degradation of natural soil fertility. Hence, this study assesses farm households’ willingness to pay for soil conservation practices in Jarso district. Singlebounded dichotomous choice with an open ended follow up format was used to elicit households’ willingness to pay for soil conservation practices. Based on the data collected from 120 randomly selected households, descriptive statistics results indicated that most of the respondents had perceived the problem of soil erosion and were willing to pay for conservation practices. Probit model was employed to assess the determinants of willingness to pay. Results of theprobit model showed that age, sex, education, labor availability, frequency of extension contact, land tenure, social position and distance to the nearest market were the important variables determining willingness to pay for soil conservation practices in the study area. Age of the household head and distance to the nearest market significantly and negatively affect willingness to pay while remaining variables had positive and significant influence on the willingness to pay for soil conservation practices.Therefore, policy interventions designed to address soil erosion problems in the study area need to take into account.