Enhancing household food security through soil and water conservation practices: a case study in semi-arid areas of Ethiopia

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cg.contributor.affiliationAmhara Region Agricultural Research Institute
cg.contributor.affiliationCatholic University of Louvain
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Center for Tropical Agriculture
cg.contributor.affiliationBahir Dar University
cg.contributor.affiliationFood and Water System Unit of CARE Ethiopia
cg.contributor.affiliationTexas A&M University
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Water Management Institute
cg.contributor.donorAustrian Development Agency
cg.coverage.countryEthiopia
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2ET
cg.creator.identifierErmias Teferi: 0000-0003-2279-7666
cg.creator.identifierSeifu Tilahun: 0000-0002-5219-4527
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.sftr.2025.100830
cg.identifier.iwmilibraryH053889
cg.isijournalISI Journal
cg.issn2666-1888
cg.journalSustainable Futures
cg.reviewStatusPeer Review
cg.volume9
dc.contributor.authorAyalew, M. W.
dc.contributor.authorTeferi, E. T.
dc.contributor.authorWassie, S. B.
dc.contributor.authorMhiret, D. A.
dc.contributor.authorAakle, A. T.
dc.contributor.authorDagnew, D. C.
dc.contributor.authorAdem, A. A.
dc.contributor.authorTilahun, Seifu A.
dc.date.accessioned2025-06-16T07:21:47Z
dc.date.available2025-06-16T07:21:47Z
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/175099
dc.titleEnhancing household food security through soil and water conservation practices: a case study in semi-arid areas of Ethiopiaen
dcterms.abstractOver recent decades, Ethiopia has substantially invested in soil and water conservation (SWC) practices, particularly in arid areas to strengthen environmental resilience, maintain agricultural productivity, and improve food security. Despite huge efforts, the impact of practices on improving households’ food security remains unexplored. This study, therefore, examines the impact of SWC practices on households’ food security in the semi-arid areas in Northwestern Ethiopia. The data collected from 546 households was analyzed using an endogenous switching regression (ESR). The findings showed that 52% of the surveyed households implemented SWC practices such as soil bunding, stone bunding, stone-faced soil bunding, and terracing on their farmlands. Adopters of SWC practices consumed more diversified foods with a higher dietary diversity score of 7.3 points and food consumption scores of 18.7 points compared with 0.63 and 4.02 points respectively for non-adopters. Adopters also reported lower scores on the Food Security Scale and Food Insecurity Experience Scale. The results suggest that adopting SWC practices improves utilization and stable access to food through enhancing soil fertility and restoring degraded farmlands to sustain existing and new food and fodder crops. This has led to an improved farm-level productivity and increased production diversity thereby contributing to household-level food security. The overall findings underscore the positive impact of SWC interventions on food security outcomes among adopter households in semi-arid areas of Ethiopia. However, the heterogeneity in treatment effects suggest that policymakers, extension agents, and local agricultural offices should consider individual and context specific conditions to effectively promote scaling SWC practices.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.available2025-06-09
dcterms.bibliographicCitationAyalew, M. W.; Teferi, E. T.; Wassie, S. B.; Mhiret, D. A.; Aakle, A. T.; Dagnew, D. C.; Adem, A. A.; Tilahun, Seifu A. 2025. Enhancing household food security through soil and water conservation practices: a case study in semi-arid areas of Ethiopia. Sustainable Futures, 9:100830. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sftr.2025.100830
dcterms.extent100830
dcterms.issued2025-06
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
dcterms.publisherElsevier
dcterms.subjecthousehold food security
dcterms.subjectsoil conservation
dcterms.subjectwater conservation
dcterms.subjectsemi-arid zones
dcterms.subjectdietary diversity
dcterms.subjectresilience
dcterms.subjectagricultural productivity
dcterms.subjectcase studies
dcterms.typeJournal Article

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