scholarly journals Rethinking Eucalyptus globulus Labill. Based Land Use Systems in Smallholder Farmers Livelihoods: A Case of Kolobo Watershed, West Shewa, Ethiopia

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dadi Feyisa ◽  
Endalkachew Kissi ◽  
Zerihun Kebebew

AbstractDespite their restriction, smallholder farmers have been continuing growing Eucalyptus globulus in the cultivated land in the central highland of Ethiopia. Literature has shown controversial issues against E. globulus. Therefore, the objective of the study was to investigate the compatibility of E. globulus in the smallholder farmers’ land use system. Soil samples were collected from five different land uses and analysed for selected physical and chemical properties. The socioeconomic contribution of E. globulus was collected through household surveys from 110 households. Analysis of soil showed that organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN) and cation exchange capacity (CEC) were significantly higher (P<0.05) under E. globulus compared to the cultivated land. The survey results also showed that the largest proportion (58%) of households was interested in growing E. globulus because of its multiple uses. About 83% of households responded that E. globulus help them to attain food security through increasing the purchasing power of smallholder farmers to buy agricultural inputs and food. This study has substantiated the role of E. globulus in the land use system of smallholder farmers. Most of the soil fertility indicators were better under E. globulus. The present finding reveals that E. globulus degrade the soil seemingly difficult to generalise. Growing E. globulus must be promoted under appealing land use to enhance smallholder farmers’ livelihoods. Removing E. globulus from the land use system may jeopardise the food security situation of many households.

Author(s):  
. Khushboo ◽  
Mohammad Auyoub Bhat ◽  
Mushtaq Ahmad Wani ◽  
Shabir Ahmed Bangroo

Surface (0-20 cm) and sub-surface (20-40 cm) soil samples were collected from five locations under horticulture land use system of District Ganderbal. The distribution of potassium forms (water soluble, available, exchangeable, non-exchangeable, fixed, lattice and total) were investigated. Soil samples were analyzed for different physical and chemical properties and fractions of potassium. The soils were slightly acidic to neutral in reaction  and soil texture varied from silty clay loam to silt loam. Irrespective of soil depth sequential order of potassium fractions were TK>LK>FK>NEK>AK>EK>WSK. The trend of decrease in water soluble and exchangeable K was noticed in these soils from surface to sub-surface layers. All forms were in dynamic equilibrium with one another and  positively  and significantly correlated with  Organic carbon, CEC, Silt and clay and negatively to sand.


SOIL ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alemayehu Adugna ◽  
Assefa Abegaz

Abstract. Land use change can have negative or positive effects on soil quality. Our objective was to assess the effects of land uses changes on the dynamics of selected soil physical and chemical properties. Soil samples were collected from three adjacent soil plots under different land uses, namely forestland, grazing land, and cultivated land at 0–15 cm depth. Changes in soil properties on cultivated and grazing land were computed and compared to forestland, and ANOVA (analysis of variance) was used to test the significance of the changes. Sand and silt proportions, soil organic content, total nitrogen content, acidity, cation exchange capacity, and exchangeable Ca2+ content were higher in forestlands. Exchangeable Mg2+ was highest in grazing land, while clay, available phosphorous, and exchangeable K+ were highest in cultivated land. The percentage changes in sand, clay, soil organic matter, cation exchange capacity, and exchangeable Ca2+ and Mg2+ were higher in cultivated land than in grazing land and forestland. In terms of the relation between soil properties, soil organic matter, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity, and exchangeable Ca2+ were strongly positively correlated with most of soil properties, while available phosphorous and silt have no significant relationship with any of the other considered soil properties. Clay has a negative correlation with all soil properties. Generally, cultivated land has the least concentration of soil physical and chemical properties except clay and available phosphorous, which suggests an increasing degradation rate in soils of cultivated land. So as to increase soil organic matter and other nutrients in the soil of cultivated land, the integrated implementation of land management through compost, cover crops, manures, minimum tillage, crop rotation, and liming to decrease soil acidity are suggested.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
mengistu welemariam ◽  
Deginet Wako ◽  
Getahun Kitila

Abstract Background: Land-use change is one of the major factors affecting soil degradation. The pressures of the human population on land resources have increased land-use change with more negative effects on soil carbon storage and soil properties. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of land-use changes on soil organic carbon (SOC) stock and selected soil physicochemical properties in Gobu Sayyo, Western Ethiopia. Soil samples were collected from three adjacent land uses i.e., forest land, grazing land, and cultivated lands at 0-20cm and 20cm-40cm soil depths. A total of 36 composite soil samples were collected and the major soil properties and SOC storage of the area were analyzed and computed based on their standard procedures.Results: Soil organic carbon stock was significantly (p<0.05) higher (43.09-81.86 tone ha-1) in forest land and was significantly lower (38.08-43.09 tone ha-1) in cultivated land at the of depth of 0-20cm. SOC stock decreased with dept in all land uses. Changes in land use and soil depth affected the physical and chemical properties of soil. The physical soil property such as bulk density (BD) was higher (1.62 gcm-3) in the cultivated land whereas, the lowest (1.08 gcm-3) was recorded in the forest at 0-20cm depth. Comparatively the moisture content was higher (25.89%) under forest land at the depth of 20-40cm and was lower (11.22%) under cultivated lands. The chemical soil properties like exchangeable Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+ were higher in forest lands. Organic carbon, avP, TN, ex.Ca2+, ex.Mg2+, ex.K+, and CEC were lower under cultivated lands. pH increased with depth and was higher under forest land and lower under cultivated land. Soils of the study area are in general acidic to slightly acid with pH value ranging from 4-6-6.02. The pH, SOC, TN, av. Phosphorus and CEC were higher under forest land as compared to cultivated and grazing lands. Conclusion: It can be concluded that soil organic carbon stocks, the physical and chemical properties were affected by land-use change and depth. Therefore, reducing the intensity of cultivation, adopting integrated soil fertility management, and maintaining forest land must be practiced to save the soil of the area from degradation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1075-1101
Author(s):  
A. Adugna ◽  
A. Abegaz

Abstract. Land use change can have negative or positive effects on soil quality. Our objective was to assess the effects of land uses changes on the dynamics of selected soil physical and chemical properties. Soil samples were collected from three adjacent land uses, namely forestland, grazing land and cultivated land at 0–15 cm depth, and tested in National Soil Testing Center, Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia. Percentage changes of soil properties on cultivated and grazing land was computed and compared to forestland, and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the significance of the changes. The results indicate that sand, silt, SOM, N, pH, CEC and Ca were the highest in forestlands. Mg was the highest in grazing land while clay, P and K were the highest in cultivated land. The percentage changes in sand, clay, SOM, pH, CEC, Ca and Mg were higher in cultivated land than the change in grazing land compared to forestland, except P. In terms of relationship between soil properties; SOM, N, CEC and Ca were strongly positively correlated with most of soil properties while P and silt have no significant relationship with any of other considered soil properties. Clay has negative correlation with all of soil properties. Generally, cultivated land has the least concentration of soil physical and chemical properties except clay and AP which suggest increasing degradation rate in soils of cultivated land. So as to increase SOM and other nutrients in the soil of cultivated land, integrated implementation of land management through compost, cover crops, manures, minimum tillage and crop rotation; and liming to increase soil pH are suggested.


Author(s):  
T. Y. Gebeyaw

The study was conducted at the degraded land soils of the Abuhoy Gara Catchment, which is located in the Gidan District of North Wello Zone, Ethiopia to determine the impact of land use type and soil depth on the distribution of soil physical and chemical properties. Soil samples were collected from representative locations with four replications at two depths, surface (0-15 cm) and subsurface (15-30 cm) of cultivated, grazing and bush land use types. One hundred eighty soil samples were collected from the depths of 0-15 and 15-30 cm each in a radial sampling scheme using an auger. Totally, twelve composite soil samples were collected using flexible grid survey method of 1:30,000 scales. The collected samples were air-dried, homogenized and sieved to pass a 2 mm mesh sieve for the standard physical and chemical analyses. Results showed that the soil physical and chemical properties were significantly affected by the interaction of land uses and soil depths. Silt content decreases while clay content increases across depth from surface to subsurface soils. The lowest pH-H2O was registered at the subsurface soils of the grazing lands, while the highest was recorded at the surface soils of the bush land. The interaction effect of land use by soil depth on the variability of soil organic matter was significantly higher at surface layer of the grazing land and lower at surface layer of cultivated land. Similarly, soil total nitrogen was highest in surface layer of the grazing land, while it was lowest in subsurface layer of the bush land. Exchangeable bases were highest in surface soils of the bush land and lowest in the surface soils of cultivated land. The contents of both exchangeable bases were decreasing with soil depth in all land uses except the bush land. Significant difference in cation exchange capacity contents was observed as highest in surface soil layer of the bush land and lowest in surface soil layer of the cultivated land. From the results of the study, it can be concluded that the interaction of land use with soil depth showed negative effects especially disturbance of soil nutrient status on cultivated land in surface soils. In general, the spatial variability of soil properties indicates the soil conditions were strongly affected by inappropriate land use and soil management practices including soil depth. Therefore, reducing intensity of cultivation, adopting integrated soil fertility management and application of organic fertilizers could maintain the existing soil condition and replenish degraded soil properties.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Quanfeng Li ◽  
Zhe Dong ◽  
Guoming Du ◽  
Aizheng Yang

The intensified use of cultivated land is essential for optimizing crop planting practices and protecting food security. This study employed a telecoupling framework to evaluate the cultivated land use intensification rates in typical Chinese villages (village cultivated land use intensifications—VCLUIs). The pressure–state–response (PSR) model organizes the VCLUI indexes including the intensity press, output state, and structural response of cultivated land use. Empirical analysis conducted in Baiquan County, China, indicating that the cultivated land use intensification levels of the whole county were low. However, the intensifications of villages influenced by physical and geographic locations and socioeconomic development levels varied significantly. This paper also found that variations in the VCLUIs were mainly dependent on new labor-driven social subsystem differences. Thus, the expanding per capita farmland scales and increasing numbers of new agricultural business entities were critical in improving the VCLUI. Overall, the theoretical framework proposed in this study was demonstrated to be effective in analyzing interactions among the natural, social, and economic subsystems of the VCLUI. The findings obtained in this study potentially have important implications for future regional food security, natural stability, and agricultural land use sustainability.


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