Effects of Soil Bund and Stone-Faced Soil Bund on Soil Physicochemical Properties and Crop Yield Under Rain-Fed Conditions of Northwest Ethiopia

Mulat Guadie,Eyayu Molla,Mulatie Mekonnen,Artemi Cerdà

doi:10.3390/land9010013

Abstract

Research-based evidence on the effects of soil and water conservation practices (SWCPs) on soil physicochemical properties and crop yield is vital either to adopt the practices or design alternative land management strategies. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of about 10-year-old soil bund (SB) and stone-faced soil bund (SFSB) structures on selected soil physicochemical properties, slope gradient, barley grain yield, and yield components in the Lole watershed, in the northwest highlands of Ethiopia. The experiment consisted of three treatments: (i) fields treated with SB, (ii) fields treated with SFSB, and (iii) fields without conservation practices (control) with three replications at three slope classes. A total of 27 composite soil samples from 0 to 20 cm depth and barley grain yield samples from 27 locations were collected. The soil samples were analyzed for bulk density, soil texture, porosity, soil reaction, cation exchange capacity, organic carbon, total nitrogen, available phosphorous, and potassium. Barley grain yield was analyzed using different agronomic parameters. The result indicated that SB and SFSB positively influenced the physicochemical properties of soils and barley grain yield. The interslope gradient between the successive SBs and SFSBs was reducing. Moreover, the untreated fields showed significantly lower barley grain yield, plant height, and straw biomass. Hence, SB and SFSB practices were found to be effective in changing slope gradient, improving soil fertility, and increasing crop yield. Therefore, this finding is vital to create awareness and convince farmers to construct SWCPs on their farmlands for sustainable land management.

Highlights

Land and the fertility of its soil are critical natural capitals essential for sustainably ensuring food security, renewable energy, and water availability while eradicating rural poverty, conserving terrestrial biodiversity, and building the resilience of agricultural systems to climatic shocks [1,2,3,4]
Fields treated with soil bund (SB) and stone-faced soil bund (SFSB) showed a statistically significant positive correlation in barely grain yield, plant height, and straw biomass compared with the untreated fields
Barley grain yield obtained on fields treated with SB (22.22 q ha−1 ) was high compared to the control (15.10 q ha−1 )

Summary

Introduction

Land and the fertility of its soil are critical natural capitals essential for sustainably ensuring food security, renewable energy, and water availability while eradicating rural poverty, conserving terrestrial biodiversity, and building the resilience of agricultural systems to climatic shocks [1,2,3,4]. Land is becoming vulnerable to soil fertility declination and associated changes in physical and chemical properties [5,6]. Due to these and other significant factors, soil need to be protected in a sustainable manner. Soil conservation is a need to reduce soil fertility depletion and achieve sustainable land management, which is non-negotiable in developing countries where agriculture is the main source of labor and supplies the food for a growing population. Agriculture is the mainstay of the Ethiopian economy, contributing approximately 41% of the gross domestic product (GDP), 84% of the total exports, and

Methods

Results

Conclusion