Social, Economic and Institutional Factors Affecting Utilization of Rainwater Harvesting Technology, Eastern Tigray, Ethiopia

The study is motivated by the belief that the constraints of the low productivity leads to poverty and famine cannot be overcome by simply concentrating on the rain fed agriculture therefore the rainwater issue needs to be addressed as well. In the course of this study primary data were collected from 201 households out of which 101 were users of RWHT while the rest 100 sampled households were engaged only in rainfed agriculture. In this study multistage sampling technique was employed. In the first stage two wereda were selected purposefully and six Tabias, selected randomly. Households in the sample Tabia were stratified as user and nonuser of RWHT. From the stratified households sample respondents were selected using probability proportional to size method. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and percentage were used to describe sampled respondents in terms of some desirable variables. A binary logit model was also used to analyze the determinants of the utilization of the RWHT. Fourteen variables were included in the model of which eight were found significant at (P<0.10) probability level. Extension contacts, training, animal product income, market distance, location, cash availability, farmland size and input were found to be highly important variables influencing utilization of RWHT. Additionally 18 items were selected and 16 of them were analyzed using attitude scale (1-5). As a result of this, RWHT demand of labour, cost, land, skill and knowledge were found to be highly important items related to utilization of RWHT. The item RWHT take large area & increase cost shows significance difference at (P<0.05) and (P<0.10) probability level. Moreover, the grand mean for both categories were found to be 3.46, which shows favorable attitude. The plausible explanation implies that for both group of the users and nonusers there may be some thresholds influencing RWHT utilization as the result of the favorable attitude. The forgoing discussion has revealed that RWHT activity, which includes trapezoidal pond and percolated pond, is widely undertaken in the study area. Households involved in those activities could benefit more if they got favorable environment for utilization the RWHT. The main bottlenecks that hamper the development of RWHT activities required by the farmer include knowledge, capital, raw material and access to market. The finding of this study indicates that the social economical psychological conditions of farmers differ from farmer to farmer.