ASSESSMENT OF IMPACT OF LAND USE TYPES ON SOIL ORGANIC CARBON CONTENT IN SOUTH WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The present study attempts to relate the soil organic carbon content with four different land uses (Faculty of Agriculture Teaching and Research farm, cashew plantation and Agricultural and Bioresources experimental farm and oil palm plantation) which come under South west, Nigeria. The objective of the study was to assess the effects of different land uses on soil organic carbon. The sampled soils were collected from different land uses at 0–15 cm (surface), 15 – 30 cm and 30 - 45 cm (sub-surface) depth and were analyzed for soil physical properties with standard procedures. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results indicated that the oil palm plantation land use recorded the highest mean of soil organic carbon content compared with other land use types at 0 – 15 cm soil depth (23 ±4 g kg-1), which was 1.5, 2.6 and 53.3 % more than in the Faculty of Agriculture Teaching and Research farm land, the cashew plantation land and the Agricultural and Bioresources experimental farm land. This is attributed to more inputs of litter fall and reduced decomposition of organic matter. Similarly, the lowest soil organic carbon content under Agricultural and Bioresorces engineering as compared to others was attributed to reduce of organic matter and frequent tillage which encouraged oxidation of organic matter. The finding indicated that the means of soil organic carbon were significantly different (P < 0.05) between the land use types. Conservation farming should be practiced