The Gerda catchment is situated in the north-western Ethiopian
Highlands in the upper Blue Nile basin. It is typical for the highpotential
ox-plough cereal belt (Bosshart, 1997) in one of the
country’s most productive agricultural areas (Liu et al., 2008). It has
a unimodal rainfall regime with a prolonged rainy season from May
to October (Hurni, 1998) and an average annual rainfall of almost
1700 mm. The Gerda catchment covers 4818 ha and includes the
Minchet sub-catchment (113 ha) (Fig. 1), where theWater and Land
Resource Centre (WLRC), formerly the Soil Conservation Research
Project, has collected hydro-meteorological data since 1984
(Table 1).