Physiographic characteristics of agricultural lands and farmers’ soil fertility management practices in Wolaita zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Understanding the landscape features of agricultural lands and soil management practices is pertinent\rto verify the potential and limitations of the soil resources; and devise relevant land management strategies. However,\rinformation is lacking in Wolaita, Southern Ethiopia. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the physiographic characteristics\rof agricultural lands, farmers’ soil fertility management practices and their influences on soil fertility and crop\rproductivity was conducted. The survey involved 789 randomly sampled agricultural lands. Soil sample as well as data\ron slope, topography, land use, crop rotation, fallowing, cropping intensity, crop residue management, fertilizer use\rand farmers’ estimated crop yield were collected and evaluated.\rResults: The result indicated that agriculture has been practiced under diverse slope positions (1–58%). This significantly\rinfluenced most of soil physico-chemical properties in which an increase in soil bulk density, and decrease\rin available phosphorous, exchangeable calcium, extractable boron, copper, iron and zinc with an increase in slope\rpositions were recorded. Furthermore, continuous cultivation without any fallow periods and complete crop residue\rremoval (96%) were common practices. Fertilizer use was not sufficient. The average use (kg ha−1\r) was 30 and 9 for diammonium\rphosphate (DAP) and urea, respectively, and about 89% of study area received manure below 1.5 t ha−1\r.\rAll these limitations made farmers to experience lower crop yield than the national average estimates.\rConclusion: Based on the result, it is possible to conclude that the following soil management interventions such as\rsoil conservation, application of sufficient organic and inorganic fertilizers are recommended to restore the soil fertility\rand improve crop productivity.