Estimation of soil losses within plots as affected by different agricultural land management

Abstract

Proper agricultural land management strategies improve soil structural properties, thereby reducing soil loss by water erosion. This study was conducted to estimate soil losses from plots of different agricultural land management using the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) (95.7) model. The study took place in a semiarid region in Kenya. The mean annual rainfall was 694 mm. The WEPP (95.7) model was initially used to estimate total sediment loading from the catchment into a reservoir. The estimate was about 2871 t corresponding to an average sedimentation rate of 1063 t km^?2 year^?1, which was about 76% of the measured total sediment inflow into the reservoir. Soil losses were estimated within 10 plots on the catchment of different sizes and slopes with the following treatments: conventional tillage (hand hoeing) with maize and soybean intercropping (HOCOBE); conservation tillage (disc plough) with maize and soybean intercropping (COBEAN); conservation tillage with only maize cultivation (CNTCORN); and conservation tillage with only soybean cultivation (CNTBEAN). The soil loss reduction of COBEAN, CNTCORN and CNTBEAN relative to HOCOBE ranged between 27–47%, 16–29% and 12–25%, respectively, depending on the size and slope of the plot. In general, conservation tillage reduced soil loss relative to conventional tillage. However, with conservation tillage, the single cropping system resulted in greater soil loss than the intercropping system. In the case of single cropping with conservation tillage, the soil loss reduction for maize ranged between 4 and 9%, relative to soybean. Overall, the study showed that there would be a significant reduction of soil losses from plots if conservation tillage with an intercropping system (maize and soybean) were to be adopted on agricultural lands in semiarid regions.