Damtie Yilebes A, Berlie Arega B, Gessese Gashaw M
Department of Development and Environment Management, University of Gondar, Ethiopia.
Institute of Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Studies, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia.
Heliyon. 2022 Mar 17;8(3):e09132. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09132. eCollection 2022 Mar.
Water hyacinth covers a significant portion of Lake Tana affecting the livelihoods of thousands of rural households. The general objective of the study was to assess the impact of water hyacinth on the livelihoods of rural households living around Lake Tana. Quasi-experimental research design was applied to achieve the specified objectives of the study. Data was collected from 413 survey households, thirteen key informants, six focus group discussions and field observation. Descriptive statistics and propensity score matching (PSM) using STATA 15.0 were used for data analysis. Results of the study revealed that crop, livestock, and fishery production are the most important livelihood strategies of the study area accounting for 99.3, 95.2 and 9% of the sample households, respectively. The average annual crop production of the households was 2629.1 kg of rice equivalent. However, the weed affected the crop production of 34.1% of the sample households through covering the agricultural land and making the land preparation difficult. In addition, the weed affected 36.6% of the households' livestock production. The impact was revealed in covering the grazing land, causing disease and/or death of the livestock and elevating the livestock production cost. Furthermore, water hyacinth was found as a reason for the reduction of fish population, blockage of fishing entry sites and disruption of the transport system. A statistically significant reduction of fish production, 45.7% in wet season and 49.9% in dry season, was generated because of water hyacinth. The PSM result showed that the water hyacinth significantly decreased the crop production (278.7-475.4kg of rice equivalent) and livestock production (0.083-0.114 TLU) of the affected households. The study recommended management of water hyacinth to control the impacts on rural livelihoods and further studies towards medication of water hyacinth cased livestock diseases and the possible ways of the weeds consumption as a feed.
水葫芦覆盖了塔纳湖的很大一部分，影响着数千个农村家庭的生计。该研究的总体目标是评估水葫芦对生活在塔纳湖周边农村家庭生计的影响。采用准实验研究设计来实现该研究的特定目标。数据收集自413户调查家庭、13名关键信息提供者、6次焦点小组讨论以及实地观察。使用STATA 15.0进行描述性统计和倾向得分匹配（PSM）来进行数据分析。研究结果显示，作物、牲畜和渔业生产是研究区域最重要的生计策略，分别占样本家庭的99.3%、95.2%和9%。家庭的年平均作物产量为2629.1公斤大米当量。然而，这种杂草通过覆盖农田和使土地准备困难，影响了34.1%的样本家庭的作物生产。此外，这种杂草影响了36.6%的家庭牲畜生产。影响表现为覆盖放牧地、导致牲畜疾病和/或死亡以及提高牲畜生产成本。此外，水葫芦被发现是鱼类数量减少、捕鱼入口点堵塞和运输系统中断的原因。由于水葫芦，湿季鱼类产量显著下降45.7%，干季下降49.9%。PSM结果表明，水葫芦显著降低了受影响家庭的作物产量（278.7 - 475.4公斤大米当量）和牲畜产量（0.083 - 0.114热带牲畜单位）。该研究建议对水葫芦进行管理，以控制其对农村生计的影响，并进一步研究治疗水葫芦引发的牲畜疾病以及将这种杂草作为饲料消耗的可能方式。
