Soil and water conservation agriculture in subsistence systems: Determinants of adoption in southwestern Uganda

The quality of the country's arable land in terms of productivity is declining fast, and this is mainly attributed to the fact that Uganda's agricultural land in has not been utilized in sustainable and optimal ways. The adoption rates of soil and water conservation technologies that have been suggested and disseminated to farmers in order curb degradation are still below expectation in some areas. This study was conducted among the subsistence households in Kabale district, in southwestern Uganda, to establish the factors that influence the technology adoption decisions. A logistic regression model was used both at household and parcel levels. Results indicate that household size, gender of the household head and whether the latter has a leadership position in the community, livestock holding, total land operated and parcel size, proportion of operated land that has title, perceived slope of the parcel, farmers' perception of parcel fertility status, neighbors' parcels having soil and water conservation technologies on them, distance of the parcel from the homestead, perceived risk in terms of possibility of a slide on a parcel, and expectation to still use the land in future are some of the main factors that influence adoption of soil and water conservation technologies. This study recommends enhancement of resource access for farmers and use of technology dissemination methods that target key and fellow farmers, in addition to more comprehensive training programs and putting incentives in place, especially for highly degraded parcels.