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Assessing the impacts of sustainable land management practices using soil water hydraulic properties, penetration resistance, organic matter and visual quality
  • Roza Belayneh,
  • Tesfay Araya,
  • Wim Cornelis
Roza Belayneh
Hebrew University of Jerusalem Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture Food and Environment
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Tesfay Araya
University of the Free State - South Campus

Corresponding Author:weldeslassieta@ufs.ac.za

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Wim Cornelis
Universiteit Gent
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Abstract

Sustainable land management practices (SLMP) were evaluated for their impact on soil hydrophysical properties, soil organic matter (SOM), and structural quality in Vertisols and Leptosols in Adi-Gudem, Tigray, Ethiopia, in a region heavily affected by land degradation and recently impacted by civil war, exacerbating land degradation. The SLMPs were evaluated across six land use types: area closure (AC), fallow land (FL), grazing land (GL), conventional tillage (CT), conservation agriculture (CA), and crop rotation (CR). The highest SOM was recorded in AC (6.56% in Vertisols, 3.64% in Leptosols), followed by CA and GL in Vertisols. The lowest SOM levels were observed in CT (2.09% in Vertisols) and GL (1.32% in Leptosols). Highest infiltration rate, field-saturated hydraulic conductivity and saturated hydraulic conductivity were found in AC (1.55, 0.29, and 0.093 cm min -1 in Vertisols; 1.39, 0.504, and 0.011 cm min -1 in Leptosols), followed by CA (1.05, 0.16, and 0.068 cm min -1) in Vertisols, while lowest in CT (0.4, 0.05, and 0.02 cm min -1 in Vertisols; 0.36, 0.07, and 0.011 cm min -1 in Leptosols). Significantly lower PR was found in AC, FL, and CA compared to other practices. The lowest bulk density (BD) was in CA, followed by CR and AC in Vertisols, while the highest was in GL and CT. Leptosols had no significant differences in BD. The findings emphasize that practices like AC and CA significantly improve soil health, demonstrating their potential to rehabilitate degraded lands and maintain resilience, which is critical for post-war recovery in the region.