The Effect of Agroforestry System on Reducing Soil Erosion in Upstream Ciliwung Watershed

Abstract

Land cover has a big role in determining soil erosion and watershed quality. Watershed quality in a lot of cases is being considered and used in a regional planning. It determines productivity, environmental pollution in a region. Upstream Ciliwung Watershed (UCW) is categorizes as critical watershed. The agroforestry development has great potential to decline soil erosion along with to improve agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability and watershed quality. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of agroforestry systems in reducing soil erosion in the UCW. It was found 21 agroforestry types in the UCW. Agroforestry system cannot be automatically expected to prevent soil erosion in the agricultural land and protect the corresponding watershed from destructive soil erosion. Under existing or actual agroforestry types, majority of them (16 types or 76.1 per cent) still have a destructive soil erosion effect. Only five agroforestry types which have EHI lower than 1 and safe from the destructive soil erosion. After applying a set of soil conservation practices, soil erosion of all agroforestry types became lower than E-tol. It shows that improved agroforestry system has a potential and can be used to reduce soil erosion lower than E-tol to maintain watershed quality and support sustainable agriculture.