Integrated rainwater harvesting practices

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) has been practiced and promoted to address the temporal and spatial variability of rainfall, thereby enhance agriculture production in rainfed systems. The practices could also address the problem of land degradation. However, there is limited practice of approaching RWH from the perspective of managing both the water and land resources. Using advanced econometrics methodologies and based on a recently collected data from 354 farm households and 974 plots in Azgo watershed, Ethiopia, the book reports the analyses of various combination rainwater harvesting practices (RWHP), their use decision and impact on household livelihood and environmental services. The result reveals that there is a significant correlation between the RWH practices and use of the practices is interdependent, depicting either complementarities or substitutabilities between them. The analysis focused on the integrated use of in-situ and ex-situ RWH practices. The book further presents the factors that influence the decision to use integrated rainwater harvesting practices (IRWHP) and their impact on sustainable rural livelihood. Results showed that the use of IRWHP has significant positive impact on improving farm income and reducing the probability of being multidimensional poor. The results also reveal that the impact IRWM practices is changing people’s motivation and behaviors, making them positively disposed towards watershed management. This study suggests that policies that enhance the promotion of IRWHP would be central for the sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture that simultaneously alleviate poverty, foster food security, and enhance resource sustainability.