Effect Of Soil And Water Conservation Practices On Selected Soil Physicochemical Properties And Farmers` Adoption Perception On The Practices In Derra, District North Shewa Zone Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Soil erosion is one of the major causes of land degradation in Ethiopia, resulting in low agricultural productivity, and interventions have been made by introducing soil and water conservation practices. However, adoption rates of these practices continue to be lower than expected in Ethiopia, particularly in the study area. As a result, the goal of this study was to identify the effect of Soil and water conservation practices on selected soil physicochemical properties, as well as the factors that affecting farmers' adoption of soil conservation practices in Derra District Gendekere micro watershed. Gendekere micro watershed was selected based on more appropriate to get Information for the purpose of data collection and valuable perception of society about Soil erosion and soil and water conservation through purposively sampling techniques. 85 households were selected the selection was done by proportional allocation of sample from the micro watershed. For personal interview the households were selected using a simple random sampling method. A total of 18 composite soil samples were collected from the upper, middle, and lower slopes of the watershed at 30 cm depth from both conserved and non-conserved farm land randomly selected from voluntary farmers’ farm plot. The physicochemical properties of soil samples were investigated, and data were analysed with SPSS software version 23. For laboratory soil analysis, the data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), t test done to check whether the difference in soil physicochemical properties under soil conserved and non-conserved farm land the significance might be affected by the treatments and separated using one way ANOVA at 5% level of significance. The result of soil analysis indicated that the mean values of Bulk density 1.19 gcm-3 , 1.34 gcm-3 ,clay was (39.73,35.94%,), sand (42.02 and 51.76%), silt (22.37 and 23.39%) and moisture content was (7.34,6.20%) in conserved and non-conserved farm land respectively. pH was 6.13 and 5.17 in the conserved and non-conserved parts of the watersheds, respectively. soil organic matter was (4.39%, 3.02 %), soil organic carbon was (2.54, 1.76%), average available phosphorus was (14.81,9.97 ppm), available potassium (0.66, 0.52 Cmol (+)/Kg), total nitrogen was (0.21, 0.15%) and cation exchange capacity 20.61, 18.04(Cmol (+)/Kg) in conserved and non-conserved farm land respectively. On the other hands, CEC, pH, OM, OC, SMC, TN, Av. P and Av. K value obtained were significantly affected (p<0.05) and all increased from upper to Lower slope. Soil BD and Sand content increase from lower to upper slope. The finding of the study showed that the major soil and water conservation practices implemented by farmers were soil bunds, stone bund, cut-off drains, water ways, crop rotation, and manuring or composting. The main factors that affect to apply soil conservations practices in Gendekere micro watershed were Demographic, physical institutional and socio economic. Soil and water conservation practices have restored soil fertility and improved soil physicochemical properties in conserved farm plot. Awareness creation for farmers about integrated soil and water conservation practice in sustainable manner is recommended for improving land productivity, restoration degraded lands and increasing land productivity by improving soil fertility