Biophysical and econometric analysis of adoption of soil and water conservation techniques in the semiarid region of Sidi Bouzid (Central Tunisia) BOUBAKER DHEHIBI*, CLAUDIO ZUCCA**, AYMEN FRIJA***, SHINAN N. KASSAM**** * Resilient Agricultural Livelihood Systems Program (RALSP), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Amman, Jordan. ** Integrated Land and Water Management Program (ILWMP), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), North-Africa Platform, Rabat, Morocco. *** Resilient Agricultural Livelihood Systems Program (RALSP), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Tunis, Tunisia. **** Caritas Switzerland, Tajikistan. Corresponding author: b.dhehibi@cgiar.org. DOI: 10.30682/nm1802b JEL codes: Q24, Q25, C25 Abstract Soil and water conservation technologies (SWCT) are important to farmers, to the research community, as well as to the policy makers, given that declining soil health, and increasing erosion and moisture stress have implications for agricultural livelihoods, national food security, and more generally for well- being within rural communities. Yet, despite Tunisia was at forefront of introducing them, the uptake of SWCT by farmers has been less broad than desired. This study aims to identify and analyze those factors that have affected the rate of adoption of SWCT within the Sidi Bouzid governorate of Central Tunisia; a region that is representative of resource-poor environments within the country, and one where land degradation is of both historical and contemporary concern. Employing a binary logistic regression model, with data obtained from a survey of 250 farmers, our results suggest that socio-economic and institutional factors play an important role in the adoption of SWCT. Membership within an agricultural cooperative was positively correlated with adoption. Surprisingly, however, participation in organized trainings for SWCT was negatively correlated with adoption, similarly to livestock holdings. We provide plausible explanations for this counterintuitive fnding, together with an argument that conventional processes for knowledge transfer and dissemination are in need of reform. Keywords: Soil and water conservation, Physical conservation, Biological conservation, Logistic regression, Tunisia. 1. Introduction Land degradation is a major challenge to effec- tive agricultural production within dry land areas. This is especially true for countries such as Tu- nisia where land degradation has been of signif- icant historical and contemporary concern (FAO, 2011), and is a constraint to the sustainability of rain-fed agricultural production within rural communities (CNEA, 2008). Recent estimates suggest that the livelihood of 35% of the popula-