This study was conducted with the aim of determining the influence of tillage techniques on depth, furrow slice and water retention in Maugo Smallholder Rice Scheme in Kenya. Treatments were arranged in randomized complete block design with four replicates. Four tillage treatments were used. The first one was conventional ox plough practiced by farmers where they first flood the field with water before ploughing. The other three treatments were ox plough, hand hoe and tractor ploughing all with no flooding before ploughing. Data collected included depth of ploughing and harrowing during land preparation. Furrow slices during ploughing and harrowing as well as water retention were recorded. Tractor ploughing had the highest mean depth of ploughing of 42.00 ± 0.81 cm followed by conventional ox ploughing with 17.75 ± 0.75 cm, ox ploughing15.75 ± 0.62 cm and hand hoe ploughing had the lowest mean depth 15.50 ± 0.28 cm. Tractor ploughing had the largest mean furrow size of 62.00 ± 0.91cm followed by conventional ox ploughing 32.25 ± 0.85 cm, ox ploughing 30.25 ± 0.85 cm while hand hoe ploughing had the smallest mean furrow slice of 16.5 ± 0.50 cm. Highest mean of retained water was recorded in week 4 in paddy rice fields prepared using conventional ox ploughing (10.5 cm), ox ploughing (10 cm), hand hoe ploughing (11.5 cm) and tractor ploughing (11.5 cm) while the lowest was recorded in week 15 for conventional plots. There were significant differences in mean depths during both ploughing and harrowing. Tractor ploughing mean depths were significantly different from the other treatments. The weekly mean water depths retained in the plots were more than 6 cm for the entire growing period of rice.

Evaluation of soil hydro-physical properties is very important in agriculture and for sustainable management of the land resources. This investigation was conducted to assess some hydro-physical properties of soils in different land use types (LUT) selected (i.e., dry upper land (UD), lowland (LL) and residential area (RA)) at 0-15cm and 15-30cm depths in Bade Local Government Area of Northeastern, Nigeria. Soils were randomly sampled at four points in each LUT and analyzed according to standard soil analysis procedures. Results of the analyses of variance showed that LL had recorded significantly higher clay content, larger soil porosities and high-water retention properties than the other LUT. Soil structural stability index (SSI) and organic carbon (OC) were below optimal range and statistically not different across the land uses. The results also indicated non-significant differences in the hydro-physical properties within the sampling depths. The coefficient of variation (CV) revealed that, slight variation (CV