Impact of Land Husbandry Technologies on the Improvement of Soil Erosion Control in Rwanda: A Case of Land husbandry Water harvesting and Hillside irrigation (LWH) project site, Nyanza 23.

Abstract

Erosion has significant effects on the economic, environment, agronomic productivity, food security, and the quality of life of resource-poor farmers in Rwanda. Unsustainable land-use, coupled with Rwanda‟s steep topography, fragile soils, and climate, is the driving cause of soil erosion. Hence, Land Husbandry Technologies (LHT) was adopted as measures to mitigate soil erosion impact in Nyanza, Southern Province, Rwanda The main objective of this research was to assess the impact of land husbandry technologies on the improvement of soil erosion control. Revised Universal Soil Ross Equation (RUSLE) applied to GIS was used to assess the erosion rate before and after the implementation of land husbandry technologies while focus group discussions were held with various actors to evaluate the adoption and maintenance of land husbandry technologies and investigate the impact of land husbandry technologies on welfare improvement of direct beneficiaries. Basing on the results from RUSLE equation applied with GIS, it was found out that the acuteness of erosion reduced significantly. The study revealed that farmers have adopted and are maintaining LHTs. Plot size, farmers‟ capacity to invest, distance travelled from home to the treated plot, off-farm activities and availability of supportive institutions are the main factors that significantly affect the probability of adopting LHTs. The results also indicate that the introduction of LHTs resulted into welfare improvement of farmers in the area. Based on the mentioned positive results of adoption of LHTs, local authorities should extend land husbandry technologies in areas where they have not yet been introduced. Also, it is imperative that more sensitization mechanisms be put in place to address the challenge of farmers who have not adopted LHTs and encourage the ones who adopted them to maintain them. Lastly in-depth research should be conducted for evaluating farmer‟s capacity to invest in adoption and maintenance of Land Husbandry Technologies, therefore based on the results, the LHTs can be extended to other regions of the country