Determinants of farmers' tree planting investment decision as a degraded landscape management strategy in the central highlands of Ethiopia.

Land degradation due to lack of sustainable land management practices are one of the critical challenges in many developing countries including Ethiopia. This study explores the major determinants of farm level tree planting decision as a land manage- ment strategy in a typical framing and degraded landscape of the Modjo watershed, Ethiopia. The main data were generated from household surveys and analysed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression model. The model significantly predicted farmers' tree planting decision (Chi-square=37.29, df=15, P < 0.001). Besides, the computed significant value of the model suggests that all the considered predictor variables jointly influenced the farmers' decision to plant trees as a land management strategy. In this regard, the finding of the study show that local land-users' willingness to adopt tree growing decision is a function of a wide range of biophysical, institutional, socioeconomic and household level factors, however, the likelihood of household size, productive labour force availability, the disparity of schooling age, level of perception of the process of deforestation and the current land tenure system have positively and significantly influence on tree growing investment decisions in the study watershed. Eventually, the processes of land use conversion and land degradation are serious which in turn have had adverse effects on agricultural productivity, local food security and poverty trap nexus. Hence, devising sustainable and integrated land man agement policy options and implementing them would enhance ecological restoration and livelihood sustainability in the study watershed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]