7.6 Explaining Farmers’ Current Use of Soil Conservation
Techniques
To investigate farmers’ current use of SCT, data were collected from a random
sample of 300 households, representative of Yen Chau district, in 2007/2008.
5,6
Apart from household-level data on resource endowment and agricultural and nonagricultural activities, the database developed contained the socio-economic
characteristics of individual household members and the basic characteristics of
2,279 agricultural plots, of which 1,190 were upland rain-fed plots dedicated to
crop production other than paddy rice. Both the household and plot samples were
representative at the district and village levels. In the following section, we will
briefly summarize our empirical findings regarding farmers’ awareness of soil
erosion plus their knowledge and use of SCT, as presented in more detail in
Chap. 5. We will then explore the reasons why farmers did or did not adopt SCT,
and where on their farms they adopted such practices.
7.6.1 Awareness of Soil Erosion and Related Conservation
Practices
Our representative household survey revealed that farmers in Yen Chau were well
aware of the problem of soil erosion. On a scale from 0 (¼ no erosion problem) to 10
(¼ very severe erosion problem), they assigned an average soil erosion severity
score of 4.5 to their upland maize plots. We further found that three quarters of the
sample farmers knew of at least one SCT, and 53 % applied at least one such
measure in 2007. Among these, the digging of small ditches to channel run-off water
away from the plot was the most common practice (34 % of the sample households),
followed by agroforestry (12 %). Very few households practiced any other soil
conservation measures, such as the building of terraces (2 %), or different forms of
vegetative barriers to protect the soil against erosive rainfall (around 1 % each).
Interestingly, there was no significant difference between wealth groups, neither
regarding awareness of soil erosion as a problem or knowledge of soil conservation
techniques, nor the use of these techniques (cf. Chap. 5 for more details).
5 This section was written by Alwin Keil, Camille Saint-Macary and Manfred Zeller. It draws
heavily on Saint-Macary et al. (2010).
6 In selecting the households, a cluster sampling procedure was followed in which a village-level
sampling frame was constructed encompassing all villages in the district, except for villages in
four communes bordering Laos for which research permits could not be obtained. First, 20 villages
were randomly selected using the Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) method, after which 15
households were randomly selected in each selected village using updated village-level household
lists. Since the PPS method accounts for differences in the number of resident households between
villages during the first stage, this sampling procedure resulted in a self-weighting sample
(Carletto 1999).
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T. Hilger et al.
Techniques
To investigate farmers’ current use of SCT, data were collected from a random
sample of 300 households, representative of Yen Chau district, in 2007/2008.
5,6
Apart from household-level data on resource endowment and agricultural and nonagricultural activities, the database developed contained the socio-economic
characteristics of individual household members and the basic characteristics of
2,279 agricultural plots, of which 1,190 were upland rain-fed plots dedicated to
crop production other than paddy rice. Both the household and plot samples were
representative at the district and village levels. In the following section, we will
briefly summarize our empirical findings regarding farmers’ awareness of soil
erosion plus their knowledge and use of SCT, as presented in more detail in
Chap. 5. We will then explore the reasons why farmers did or did not adopt SCT,
and where on their farms they adopted such practices.
7.6.1 Awareness of Soil Erosion and Related Conservation
Practices
Our representative household survey revealed that farmers in Yen Chau were well
aware of the problem of soil erosion. On a scale from 0 (¼ no erosion problem) to 10
(¼ very severe erosion problem), they assigned an average soil erosion severity
score of 4.5 to their upland maize plots. We further found that three quarters of the
sample farmers knew of at least one SCT, and 53 % applied at least one such
measure in 2007. Among these, the digging of small ditches to channel run-off water
away from the plot was the most common practice (34 % of the sample households),
followed by agroforestry (12 %). Very few households practiced any other soil
conservation measures, such as the building of terraces (2 %), or different forms of
vegetative barriers to protect the soil against erosive rainfall (around 1 % each).
Interestingly, there was no significant difference between wealth groups, neither
regarding awareness of soil erosion as a problem or knowledge of soil conservation
techniques, nor the use of these techniques (cf. Chap. 5 for more details).
5 This section was written by Alwin Keil, Camille Saint-Macary and Manfred Zeller. It draws
heavily on Saint-Macary et al. (2010).
6 In selecting the households, a cluster sampling procedure was followed in which a village-level
sampling frame was constructed encompassing all villages in the district, except for villages in
four communes bordering Laos for which research permits could not be obtained. First, 20 villages
were randomly selected using the Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) method, after which 15
households were randomly selected in each selected village using updated village-level household
lists. Since the PPS method accounts for differences in the number of resident households between
villages during the first stage, this sampling procedure resulted in a self-weighting sample
(Carletto 1999).
260
T. Hilger et al.