Socio-economic determinants that affect investment on degraded lands Biruk Birhan1, Gizachew Zeleke1 ,Fekadu Dule1, Wondimagegn Amanuel1, Solomon Mulat1, Abu Mulatu2, Gonche Girma2, Alayu Haile2, Belay Manjur2 Logistic regression result for dependent variables to investment on rehabilitation of degraded land (N=92 , Enda-mehoni and Ofla) Introduction Results Variables B S.E Wald Odd P-value Gender -2.076 .772 7.235 .125 0.007* Age 0.399 .046 7.30 1.040 0.393 Family Size -4.3 .186 5.319 .650 0.021** Education background -3.94 .387 1.037 .675 0.309 Long term benefit .00 000 3.613 1.000 0.057* Livestock ownership -0.28 0.82 .115 .973 0.734 Distance to market -.537 343 2.458 1.711 0.117 Year-lived .664 526 1.594 1.943 0.207 Wealth status .849 487 3.034 2.336 0.082* Farm size 2.277 1.095 4.327 9.752 0.038** Constant -2.009 2.721 .545 .143 0.460 Land degradation is “any reduction or loss in the biological or economic productive capacity of the land resource base and generally caused by human activities, exacerbated by natural processes, and often magnified by and closely intertwined with climate change and biodiversity loss” (UNCCD, 2014). Land degradation is a major factor that affect agricultural productivity in Africa (UNEP, 2015). Ethiopia has experienced rampant land degradation problems over many centuries, both in the lowland and highland areas (Teshome et al., 2014; Assefa and Hans-Rudolf, 2015). Farmers’ investment on degraded land remain limited due to various reasons (Temesgen et al., 2014). According to the result from Enda-mehoni and Ofla districts , 63% of the respondents participated on rehabilitation of degraded lands. The logistic regression result revealed that gender, family size, long term benefit from the investment and wealth status are socioeconomic factors that exert significant influence investment on degraded lands. Conclusion From the result of the study, it can be concluded that, factors like gender, family size, wealth status, awareness about SWC , etc. are some of the important factors that affect farmers investment on rehabilitation of degraded lands. Note: * = significant at 10%, ** = significant at 5%, *** = significant at 1%, Number of obs = 92, Log likelihood = -83.959, Wald Chi2 (8) = 37.246, Prob > Chi2 = 0.0000, Pseudo R2 = 0.455 Recommendation The result from the Wulbareg district revealed that most of the respondents (96%) have participated in the rehabilitation program regardless of age, gender, educational background, wealth status and access to basic infrastructures. On the other hand, it is found that lack of awareness, reluctance to invest, conflict between neighboring communities, lack of uniformity of SWC structures, lack of materials, site difficulty and absence of incentive are the factors that prevent farmers from investing on rehabilitation of degraded lands. Government programs and projects of rehabilitation of degraded lands that are being carried out through participatory soil and water conservation and tree planting activities need to consider the above mentioned socio-economic factors and address problems accordingly for them to be successful and sustainable . Objective To investigate the social and economic factors that determine farmers’ decision to invest on degraded lands. Materials and Methods This study was conducted at Wulbareg district (N= 100) of SNNPRS and Endamehoni and Ofla districts of Tigray region (N= 92) households. Semi-structured questionnaire and KI interview were used for data collection. Secondary data sources were also assessed. SPSS V.20.0 was used for data analysis. References UNCCD (2014), Land Degradation Neutrality: Resilience at local, national and regional levels, s.l.: United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. UNEP (2015), The Economics of Land Degradation in Africa, ELD Initiative, Bonn, Germany Available from www.eld-initiative.org