Getachew Asamenew, S.C. Jutzi, J. McIntire and Abate TedlaInternational Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA)
PO Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Results of farm surveys carried out in three important Vertisol areas in the Ethiopian highlands are reported. The main objective of the surveys was to establish a reference data base for on-farm verification of improved Vertisol management technologies. The surveys covered a total of 353 smallholder farms.
Landholdings in the surveyed areas are small. Almost all land is cultivated with food crops for subsistence production. On the Inewari plateau, 75% of the average 2.5 ha landholding is cultivated with food crops, while in Wereilu and in the Fogera plain the ploughed areas amount to 82 and 86% of 1.7 and 2.1 ha average landholdings, respectively.
The average household size ranges from 4.7 to 6.0. Grazing pressure is very high with a TLU (tropical livestock unit) density of 14. Due to the limited extent of grazing land, most of the animal feed in Inewari and Wereilu is in the form of crop residues. The average draught-animal holding in the Fogera plain is considerably higher than in the other two survey reas. The animal condition, however, is far better in these latter two areas.
Waterlogging is the most important production problem in the surveyed Vertisol areas. A conventional implement to improve surface drainage does not exist in the traditional production system. Farmers' traditional strategies to overcome deficient surface soil drainage have generally not been effective; the exception is the handmade broadbeds-and-furrows, which are almost confined to the Inewari plateau, where about 20 000 ha crop land are treated by this method.
