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Abstract
Jolly,
C.M, D. Shannon, M. Bannister, G. Flauretin,
J. Dale, A. Bins and P. Lindo. 2007. Income generation efficiency from soil conservation
techniques in Haiti. JEMREST 3:1-9.
DOI:
10.4029/2007jemrest3no11
Intensive cultivation of
marginal lands and market demand for food and fuel by a rapidly growing
population placed immense pressure on environmental sustainability in Haiti.
The government of Haiti
and donor agencies encouraged adoption of soil conservation techniques to
address the problem, but the success as been mixed. Hence we evaluate the
impact of soil conservation techniques on farm income and environmental
sustainability in Haiti.
A survey of 951 farmers was conducted in 1997. Survey participants were
composed of 83.7% males and 16.3% females. About 53.3% were illiterate and
46.7% received up to eight years of schooling. The age group ranged from 22
to 85 years. The soil conservation techniques adopted included rock walls,
hedge-rows, gully plugs, contour canals and crop bands. Logistic regression
models indicated that if the soil conservation technique was leguminous
hedge-rows the farmer was 0.8 less likely to encounter average to severe
erosion than if the conservation technique was one of the others. If the
conservation technique was a crop band the farmer was 0.7% less likely to
declare having average to severe erosion than if the conservation technique
was a live hedge. If the slope was estimated as less than 20 degrees, the
farmers were 0.9 times less likely to declare that he/she encountered average
or severe erosion. There was a significant difference in income among
adopters of crop bands and the other soil conservation techniques. The income
of farmers depended on the combination of crops produced and the size of the
area cultivated.
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