Description of the study area

Guduru District is one of the 11 districts found in Horo Guduru Zone in the Oromia region, western Ethiopia. It is 275km far from the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. Geographically, it is located between 8o54’0”N to 9042’0” N Latitude and 37o16’0” to 37040’0” E Longitude (Fig.1 ). The major soil type are Nitisols characterized by low pH. The topography of the area is characterized by mountainous (1288.5ha), flat (45,189.70 ha) and undulating (44,177.3 ha) of land (GDANRO, 2019)
The district experiences two rainy seasons, Belg and Kiremt. Belg is the short rainy season and lasts between March and May. Kiremt season (June –August) is very intensive and, hence, the severity of soil erosion is high during these three months. The mean annual rainfall ranged 1500mm-1896mm (Guduru district natural resources management office, 2019). The temperature range is from 10 to 15 in a wet season and 15 to 25 in a dry season and the average temperature is 19 degrees centigrade (Guduru meteorology office, 2005). The major land uses in the area are cultivated land (34365ha), forest (20365ha), grazing land (10161.29ha) and the rest are swampy area, water body, and wasteland.
The total population of the district was 98,622 (Guduru district finance economic development office, 2019). Out of this 48,848 were males and 49,084 were females. Besides more than 85% of its population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods and practiced mixed crop-livestock farming systems.
Methods of Data Collection
For conducting the study two main data sources were used. These were primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected through field observation, focus group discussion, key informant interview, and household survey. The household survey was used to collect qualitative data. Before conducting the questionnaire survey, the draft questionnaire was given considerable attention to develop understandable, unambiguous, and well-targeted questionnaires by avoiding confusing and incomprehensible terms that can erode the confidence of the respondents. The testing of the questionnaire was done in the actual study area to cross-check the relevance of its contents. The secondary data were collected by reviewing the available project documents, reports, and research papers.
Determination of sample size
The basic sampling unit was the farmer’s household who derive their livelihood entirely from agricultural activities. The sample households were selected from the sampling frame by using simple random sampling methods. The total population of the three kebeles was 716 households (Table 1). A sample size of 117 households out of the total population was considered for data collection because of their homogenous characters. The estimation of sample size from the total population was done according to Naing et al. ( 2007)

Sampling technique

Guduru District has 25 kebeles and from these, three kebeles were selected. The selection of the kebeles was based on the severity of land degradation and the implementation of SWC and management practices, and farmers’ awareness of land degradation in the area. Thirty-nine (39) household heads from each kebele (i.e., Dilalo Bero, Hula Guto, and Gudane Sirba) which account for a total of 117 sample households from the three kebeles were selected randomly.

Data analysis

The collected data were coded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics like percentages and means. Chi-square was also used to see the relationship between farmers’ perception and the affecting factors.