The effect of surface management practices on runoff and soil loss under field conditions in Morogoro, Tanzania.
2000
Hailu, Y.(Ministry of planning and economic development , Department of Agricultureal, Addis Ethiopia) | Mtakwa, P.W.(Sokoine Univerity of Agriculture, Soil Science Department, Morogoro, Tanzania)
A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of cover and surface management practices on runoff and soil loss using 10 m X 5 m runoff plots. The surface manage¬ment practices consisted of bare fallow (BF), permanent grass (GP), flat cropping (CP), ridge cropping (RC), fine mesh (PM), medium mesh (MM), and coarse mesh (CM) that were established on 4 percent slope. The CP and RC were planted with maize (Kito variety). The FM, MM, and CM simulated canopy covers with net shading rates of 80, 55, and 40 percent, respectively. The runoff ranged from 143.9 m3/ha in the GP to 2398.6 m3/ha in the BF, respectively. Runoff from BF, GP, CP, and CM treatments and RC, FM, and MM treatments were sig¬nificantly different (P 0.05). Soil loss ranged from 0.09 Mg/ha in GP to 12.49 Mg/ha in CP. The soil loss from BF and CP treatments were the same but significantly different from all other treatments (P 0.05). Soil cover resulted in reduced amounts of runoff and soil loss. Ridge cropping was found to be more effective in checking runoff and soil loss than flat crop¬ping.
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