The Impact of Farming and Land Ownership on Soil Erosion

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to compare two methods of farming, especially their effect on water soil erosion. The examined methods were (1) large-scale farming, where more than 50% of the land was leased, and (2) small-scale farming, where the land was almost exclusively privately owned. The research area was 8 cadastres in the district of Hodonín, South Moravia, Czech Republic. In these cadastres 48 land blocks representing both large-scale and small-scale farming (i.e. owners and tenants) were chosen. The long-term average annual soil loss caused by water erosion (G) was calculated using the erosion model USLE 2D and ArcGIS 10.1. The nonparametric Mann-Whitney test was used for the statistical evaluation of the data. The difference between the soil loss (G) on land blocks farmed by small producers (owners) and large producers (tenants) was significant (p < 0.05). Differences between the values of the cropping-management factor (C) were not statistically significant (p = 0.054). Based on the analysis of other variables in the USLE equation it can be stated that a continuous slope length, conditioned by the size of land blocks, played an important role in the amount of soil loss caused by water erosion. Above all, to protect the soil from erosion and maintain soil quality it is necessary to reduce the size of land blocks farmed by tenants and improve the crop rotation systems.