Soil quality evaluation under Khat (Catha edulis), Enset (Ensete ventricosum) alone and Enset-Khat intercropping in Hanshika sub-watershed, South Ethiopia
Keywords:
Soil quality, Khat, Enset, land use type, intercroppingAbstract
Background: Agricultural land use types can affect the soil physical, chemical, and biological properties of which leading to different soil deterioration. The overall objective of this study was to evaluate the impacts of different agricultural land use types on soil physical, chemical, and biological properties in Wondo Genet Area, South Ethiopia. Undisturbed soil samples were collected from a 30 cm depth of soil surface with the following agricultural land use types: Enset, Khat and Khat-Enset intercropping.
Results: The result indicated increasing of BD in the soils of Khat land use type when compared with Enset land use type. On the other hand, the results of soil pH (H2O), soil organic carbon, total N, available P, available K and cation exchange capacity decreased from the soil of Enset land use type to the soil of Khat mono-cropping land use type. Even though, exchangeable K, Ca and Mg showed changes in the soils of Enset land use type to Khat land use type, exchangeable Na did not indicate any significant difference among the considered land use types.
Conclusion: Based on the results obtained, it seems that the Khat cultivated land use type may lead to lower soil quality and increase its degradation with improper consequences when comparing with Enset land use type. In another way, using intercropping system of Enset with Khat seems improving of the soil quality than that of cultivating Khat alone.
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