| dc.description.abstract | This study measures the impact of fanya juu bunds (an important soil and water conservation
technology and the most popular type of contour bund in east Africa) on the value of crop production in
a high-rainfall area in the Ethiopian highlands using cross-sectional multiple plot observations. We
applied switching regression, stochastic dominance analysis (SDA), and decomposition and propensity
score matching methods to ensure robustness. The switching regression, SDA, and decomposition
analyses relied on matched observations, which was important because regression and SDA often do not
ensure that comparable plots with conservation technology (conserved) and plots without (unconserved)
actually exist in the distribution of covariates.
All models told a consistent story that the value of crop production for plots with bunds was
lower than for plots without bunds. In addition, the yield decomposition results showed that, although
there was little difference in endowments between conserved and unconserved plots, the returns to
endowments were substantially higher for unconserved plots. Based on these findings, it was hard to
avoid the conclusion that these technologies might reduce soil erosion and associated off-site effects,
but they did so at the expense of poor farmers in the Ethiopian highlands. We concluded that unless
productivity was increased—for example by increasing fodder grass production on bunds—fanya juu
bunds reduced on-farm production and therefore could not be characterized as a “win-win” measure to
reduce soil erosion. | en |
