scholarly journals Impacts of soil and water conservation practices on soil property and wheat productivity in Southern Ethiopia

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tesfaye Tanto ◽  
Fanuel Laekemariam
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Mamush Masha ◽  
Teshome Yirgu ◽  
Mulugeta Debele ◽  
Mengie Belayneh

Soil and water conservation (SWC) is being advocated as an integral part of agricultural land management as it not only controls/minimizes soil erosion but also restores/rehabilitates the degraded lands. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of soil and water conservation practices in improving soil fertility in the agricultural landscapes of the Damota area, southern Ethiopia. Forty-eight soil samples (both disturbed and core samples) were collected from the conserved and adjacent nonconserved plots. The significance analysis test was performed using analysis of variance. The result of the study showed that higher mean values of soil physicochemical properties were observed in the conserved plot than its nonconserved counterpart. The mean differences of organic carbon, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity, and exchangeable K+ and Ca2+ between conserved and nonconserved plots were statistically significant at the P < 0.01 level. Besides, available phosphorous and bulk density were significant at P < 0.05 , but the effect of SWC practices was not found significant on soil texture, soil pH, and exchangeable Na+ and Mg2+ content of the soil in the Damota area. Community-based soil and water conservation practices have improved the soil fertility in agricultural landscapes, although significant results have been observed in some fertility indicators. Therefore, strengthening the implementation of conservation measures by participating in all stakeholders is recommended. Supporting physical structures by agronomic and vegetative measures and continued maintenance can bring better results.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawit Kanito ◽  
Tsegaye Bekele ◽  
Tesfaye Dawit ◽  
Seyfu T/yohannes

Abstract BackgroundIn Ethiopia, soil and water conservation activities were started after the famines of 1973 and 1985. Following this, different conservation measures were implemented by the government, non-government organizations, and the community to facilitate the optimum level of production from a given area of land while keeping soil loss below a critical value. This study was conducted at Wolaita, Hadiya, Kambata Tambaro, and Dawro Zones of Southern Ethiopia. It was designed to identify indigenous and introduced soil and water conservation practices, measure and describe identified practices, and document the identified practice for further reference. ResultsThe result revealed that three types of soil and water conservation practices namely biological, physical, and agronomical were implementing in the study areas. The result from the technical evaluation showed that soil bund and fanya juu has channel depth and embankment height lower than the recommended dimension. The result also indicated that less attention was given to indigenous soil and water conservation practices. Besides, the sustainability gap in constructed conservation practices was widely perceived.ConclusionsFarmers in the study area are well acquainted with soil erosion, its cause, and consequent reduction in land productivity. They confirm that implementing SWC measures are insurance to sustain and boost soil fertility and land productivity. In southern Ethiopia government and peoples were invested much more time, money, knowledge, and manpower to construct SWC measures. But, year by year structures get damage and yet seem not substantial to achieve the sector of sustainable agriculture. Besides, the study revealed that identified practices such as traditional cutoff drain, fanya juu, soil bund, stone-faced soil bund, fanya juu, brushwood, and gabion check-dams have technical, social, and institutional difficulties. The major gap observed with indigenous conservation practices is, it had been taken less attention by different stakeholders including GOs, NGOs, and research institutes. As a result, their respective dimension was not modified, effective measures were not up-scaled and circulated to other areas having similar agroecology and farming system. Thus, apparently, traditional conservation measures are aggravating soil erosion and their construction did not consider the downstream effect on dwelling community, water bodies, and aquatic lives.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawit Kanito Kassa ◽  
Tsegaye Bekele ◽  
Tesfaye Dawit ◽  
Seyfu T/yohannes

Abstract BackgroundIn Ethiopia, soil and water conservation activities were started after the famines of 1973 and 1985. Following this, different conservation measures were implemented by the government, non-government organizations, and the community to facilitate the optimum level of production from a given area of land while keeping soil loss below a critical value. This study was conducted at Wolaita, Hadiya, Kambata Tambaro, and Dawro Zones of Southern Ethiopia. It was designed to identify indigenous and introduced soil and water conservation practices, measure and describe identified practices, and document the identified practice for further reference. ResultsThe result revealed that three types of soil and water conservation practices namely biological, physical, and agronomical were implementing in the study areas. The result from the technical evaluation showed that soil bund and fanya juu has channel depth and embankment height lower than the recommended dimension. The result also indicated that less attention was given to indigenous soil and water conservation practices. Besides, the sustainability gap in constructed conservation practices was widely perceived. ConclusionsFarmers in the study area are well acquainted with soil erosion, its cause, and consequent reduction in land productivity. They confirm that implementing SWC measures are insurance to sustain and boost soil fertility and land productivity. In southern Ethiopia government and peoples were invested much more time, money, knowledge, and manpower to construct SWC measures. But, year by year structures get damage and yet seem not substantial to achieve the sector of sustainable agriculture. Besides, the study revealed that identified practices such as traditional cutoff drain, fanya juu, soil bund, stone-faced soil bund, fanya juu, brushwood, and gabion check-dams have technical, social, and institutional difficulties. The major gap observed with indigenous conservation practices is, it had been taken less attention by different stakeholders including GOs, NGOs, and research institutes. As a result, their respective dimension was not modified, effective measures were not up-scaled and circulated to other areas having similar agroecology and farming system. Thus, apparently, traditional conservation measures are aggravating soil erosion and their construction did not consider the downstream effect on dwelling community, water bodies, and aquatic lives.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawit Kanito ◽  
Tsegaye Bekele ◽  
Tesfaye Dawit ◽  
Seyfu T/yohannes

Abstract BackgroundIn Ethiopia, soil and water conservation activities were started after the famines of 1973 and 1985. Following this, different conservation measures were implemented by the government, non-government organizations, and the community to facilitate the optimum level of production from a given area of land while keeping soil loss below a critical value. This study was conducted at Wolaita, Hadiya, Kambata Tambaro, and Dawro Zones of Southern Ethiopia. It was designed to identify indigenous and introduced soil and water conservation practices, measure and describe identified practices, and document the identified practice for further reference. ResultsThe result revealed that three types of soil and water conservation practices namely biological, physical, and agronomical were implementing in the study areas. The result from the technical evaluation showed that soil bund and fanya juu has channel depth and embankment height lower than the recommended dimension. The result also indicated that less attention was given to indigenous soil and water conservation practices. Besides, the sustainability gap in constructed conservation practices was widely perceived.ConclusionsFarmers in the study area are well acquainted with soil erosion, its cause, and consequent reduction in land productivity. They confirm that implementing SWC measures are insurance to sustain and boost soil fertility and land productivity. In southern Ethiopia government and peoples were invested much more time, money, knowledge, and manpower to construct SWC measures. But, year by year structures get damage and yet seem not substantial to achieve the sector of sustainable agriculture. Besides, the study revealed that identified practices such as traditional cutoff drain, fanya juu, soil bund, stone-faced soil bund, fanya juu, brushwood, and gabion check-dams have technical, social, and institutional difficulties. The major gap observed with indigenous conservation practices is, it had been taken less attention by different stakeholders including GOs, NGOs, and research institutes. As a result, their respective dimension was not modified, effective measures were not up-scaled and circulated to other areas having similar agroecology and farming system. Thus, apparently, traditional conservation measures are aggravating soil erosion and their construction did not consider the downstream effect on dwelling community, water bodies, and aquatic lives.


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