Abstract:
The objective of this study was to assess along the slope ploughing practices and its impacts on
soil erosion and crop productivity. Until recently, traditional up and down ploughing and row
planting farming practice problems for soil erosion and crop productivity have no attention by
concerned bodies. Primary and secondary data collection technique was used. The sampling
technique employed in this study was simple random sampling and purposively sampling to
select 138 household heads and three sample kebeles. The collected data was analyzed using
descriptive statistics, quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Among the most common
traditional farming practices in the study area this thesis focused on along the slope ploughing,
row planting and land residue laid line on cultivated farm plots. The study showed that factors
such as; slope of the farm, education status of households, scattered land plots, frequency of
ploughing, perception of farmers on along the slope farming, DA and SWC expert extension
service provision, lack of awareness, etc; are influence the practices of traditional inappropriate
farming techniques. The findings of the study suggest that for appropriate farming practices
inter-household farming practices should be considered in giving attention regarding the
appropriate farming practices. Thus, the recommendations which are found to be of most
important from the finding of the study include: Intensive appropriate farming training and
promotion of farmers training should be given due to attention to strengthen its institutional
capacity: integrating the promotion of yield enhancing inputs together with contour farming
practices: any concerned body Should disseminate education to the whole farmers about the
introduced traditional important farming techniques: the district agricultural and other sector
officers, local administrative leaders and farmers should drown rules and regulations that
govern farmers to ignore inappropriate farming practice.
