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This paper analyses factors influencing the adoption of land management practices in two mountain watersheds of Nepal based on information collected through a questionnaire survey of 300 households
. Farmers in both watersheds have adopted several types of structural and biological land management practices to control land degradation. The stepwise multiple linear regression model ran using SPSS revealed 10 variables significantly influencing the adoption of land management technologies. The variables found significant are: extension service, caste affiliation of farmers, household agricultural labor force, landholdings with fluvents, dystrochrepts,and rhodustalfs soils,training on land management,schooling period of the household head,participation in joint land management activities,and landslide density in farmlands. The predicted R value of 0.62, R square of 0.37,and adjusted R square of 0.35 indicate moderate explanatory power of the model as a whole. However,the acceptance of the variables included in the model helps us to draw very useful policy conclusions for sustainable land management. All above mentioned variables have positive influence on the adoption of land management technologies,but remarkably,ex tension services were revealed as the strongest factor influencing the adoption of technologies. This indicates the positive influence of the extension service provided by the Phewatal Management Project and the need for provision of similar type extension service for farmers elsewhere in the hills of Nepal
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This paper sheds light on changing farmers? land management practices in two mountain watersheds, with and without external assistance, in the western hills of Nepal
. Information used in the analysis were obtained through a survey of 300 households, group discussion, key informant interviews, and field observation conducted during April?September 1999. Confronted with ever-decreasing landholding size due to a steadily growing population and scarcity of nonfarming employment opportunities, farmers in both watersheds have increasingly adopted assorted types of structural and biological measures to control soil erosion, landslides, gully expansion, and soil nutrient loss to maintain or even enhance land productivity. Adoption of gully control measures, construction of the retention walls, alley cropping, use of vegetative measures for landslide control, mulching, and use of green manure and chemical fertilizers are found significantly high in the project area due to the provision of technical and financial support, whereas composting is found significantly high in the nonproject area. Different from the traditionally held beliefs, population pressure on a finite land resource has brought positive change in land management. However, the experience from both watersheds indicates that there is limit to the extent that resource poor farmers can respond to land degradation without any external assistance. Required is the arrangement for appropriate polices and support services and facilities enabling farmers to adopt locationally suitable and economically attractive land management technologies
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