Profitability of sustainable land management practices in the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

Despite many years of efforts on the adoption of sustainable land management (SLM) approaches in order to tackle land degradation problems in Ethiopian agriculture, little has been done about the long-run economic efficiency of SLM practices. This paper examines the profitability of alternative SLM practices such as soil bund, soil bund with grass, stone bund, and stone-faced soil bund in three watersheds of the Upper Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia using cross-sectional data from 385 households and 726 plots. The cost-benefit analysis framework is applied for estimating the economic benefits of the practices over their lifetime based on the prevailing agroecology. Results show significant variation in the economic benefits across the watersheds in relation to SLM practices. Soil bund and stone bund are found to be relatively more economically beneficial than other practices in the lowland watershed. However, soil bund with grass practice is found to be economically more beneficial in the midland and highland watersheds. Stone bund practice appears not to be economically feasible in the midland watershed. The profitability of SLM practices is also found to be highly sensitive to changes in productivity, production, and investment costs. These results underscore the significance of SLM interventions targeted at agroecology, policy instruments that lower the costs of establishment and maintenance, as well as agricultural intensification efforts aimed at increasing the productivity of land in order to increase the financial feasibility of implementing SLM measures in Ethiopia.