Impact of Disappearance of Lake Haramaya on the Livelihood of the Surrounding Community: The Case of Haramaya District in Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was initiated with the main objective of measuring the impact of disappearance of Lake Haramaya on the livelihood of the surrounding community; measuring in terms of annual income generated from agricultural production per household. Propensity score matching method was applied to measure the impact of this vanished lake on the outcome variable of the treated household ds. The study shows that the demised lake has resulted in a negative and significant effect on five specific outcomes variable indicators (i.e., income from vegetables, chat, overall irrigated crops, inter-crop cultivation, overall crop and livestock production). The result of the econometric model also revealed that out of 13 variables included in the model, six explanatory variables namely family size, frequency of extension visit, farm machinery ownership, education level, use of animal manure and membership in cooperatives were found to be significant at less than 10% probability level in determining household welfare and livelihood status in the study area. Finally, the sensitivity analysis also showed that the impact result estimates were insensitive to unobserved selection bias. Therefore, the study recommends alternative policy implications to reverse the demise lake Haramaya’s adverse effects on the livelihood of the district, mainly for the farming society as it is an alarming issue requiring a positive contribution of everybody in general and the district intellectuals in particular.

Keywords: Lake Haramaya, Livelihood, Impact, Propensity score matching.