Changes in soil properties due to different soil and water conservation practices in a sloping land oil palm estate
2007
Goh, K.J. | Teh, C.B.S., | Law, C.C. | Seah, T.S.
The main objective of this study was to compare the relative effects of four treatments (control, Empty Fruit Bunch, Ecomat and silt pitting) on several soil chemicals and physical properties over a period of six months. Soil properties from soil depth 0-150 and 150-300 mm were measured monthly for six months, and they were : pH, CEC, exchangeable Ca, Mg and K, total N, P and organic C, C:N ratio, bulk density, aggregation, and aggregation stability. The soil water content up to 1 m soil depth was additionally measured daily. Of the four treatments, EFB, followed by Ecomat, gave the highest improvement in almost all the soil chemical properties. One reason why EFB is better than Ecomat is that the latter has less nutrients than EFB. Analyses revealed that only bulk density was not affected by the four treatments. Aggregate stability in all treatments increased with time, of which EFB, Ecomat and silt pit treatments had comparable aggregate stabilities. EFB, however, generally had the lowest aggregation as compared to other treatments. This could be due to high soil water content in the EFB treatment and the lack of drying and wetting cycles to encourage soil aggregation. Both EFB and Ecomat were better in conserving water in the 0-0.6 m soil depth. EFB concentrated water more in upper soil layers, whereas Ecomat tended to distribute the water more uniformly throughout the profile up to 0.7 m. Silt pit plots also concentrated water in the upper soil layers but its concentration of water was restricted to a shallower depth as compared to Ecomat and EFB. The control plots only conserved water in the upper soil layers during wet weather periods. This study showed that the silt pit treatment was not better than either EFB or Ecomat in improving the soil chemical and physical properties, as well as conserving soil water. The walls of the silt pits were found to be easily collapsible. This study concluded that EFB was the best overall treatment to improve soil properties and conserve soil water.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by Universiti Putra Malaysia