Factor Affecting Rain-Water-Harvesting Technology Adoption and Farmers Practices against Drought and Water Shortage in Eastern Hararghe Low Land, Ethiopia

Rain-water-harvesting is one of the means by which agricultural production can be increased to meet the growing food demands in all regions. The study indentified the factor affecting rain-water-harvesting technology adoption for irrigation and farmers practice in water harvesting against drought in lowland woreda, Eastern Hararghe, Oromia Region. Both primary and secondary data were collected for the study. Primary data were collected from 190 sample households using questionnaire prepared during june15-july20/2014. The study implemented logistic regression model to identify factor affecting rain water harvesting adoption. Logistic regression estimation revealed that age of household head, education level, number of livestock in TLU, size of land holding, distance between home and farmers extension center and labor force the member are significantly affected the rain water harvesting adoption decision of household in study area. The results also show that on average rain water harvesting adopter households and non-adopter households had around 5043 and 2962 ETB respectively. This means, households that adopted rain-water-harvesting ponds were better off in total farm income compared to non-adopter households.