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Article History

Received: 26 September 2025

Accepted: 13 March 2026

First Online: 28 March 2026

Declarations

:

: The study was approved by the South Ethiopia Agricultural Research Institute (SEARI) Ethical Review Committee (Reference: SEARI/ERC/2023/045, dated 12 March 2021). The field experiment involved only agronomic treatments on research station land and did not involve human or animal subjects, and all referenced data sources were properly acknowledged. The participatory survey component adhered to ethical standards for social research in pastoral communities, including voluntary participation and confidentiality. All 90 pastoralists who participated in the semi-structured interviews and preference ranking exercises provided verbal informed consent prior to data collection. Consent was obtained in the local Hamer language by trained enumerators fluent in the dialect, following culturally appropriate protocols. Participants were informed of the study’s purpose, voluntary nature, and right to withdraw at any time without consequence. No personal identifiers were recorded to ensure anonymity, in accordance with the journal’s guidelines. In the case of the participants under 16, we didn’t use them as we do with households that were mature and have families.

: All participants in the community survey were informed that aggregated, anonymized results would be used for scientific publication and dissemination. Verbal consent to publish non-identifiable findings was obtained from each respondent during the consent process. No individual-level data or identifiable information is included in this manuscript.

: not applicable.

: Soil sampling was limited to baseline characterization and focused on moisture content during the experiment. No post-experiment physicochemical analyses were conducted, preventing assessment of potential improvements in soil fertility (e.g., organic carbon, available nutrients) under the different micro-catchment types. Future long-term studies should include annual or end-of-study soil chemical analyses to quantify these broader soil health benefits. Also, the absence of on-site daily rainfall records during the study period prevented direct correlation of moisture retention with specific rain events.

: The authors declare no competing interests.