MAJOR FEATURES OF SOIL DEGRADATION AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF ETHIOPIA: THE CASE OF BAKO TIBE WEREDA, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE

Abstract

The study focuses mainly on the Major Features of Soil Degradation and Management practices in West Shoa Zone, BakoTibe district, Oromia Regional state, Ethiopia. Among the 1600 total household heads of the 3 sample kebeles, a sample size of 181 household heads were selected. The sample kebeles were selected purposively based on the extent of soil degradations. The data for this study was collected through Questionnaire Interviews, focus group discussion and field observations and secondary sources such as three periods of satellite images (1984, 2000 and 2016) of the area were acquired from Ethiopian Mapping Authority and supervised classification was used to categorize LULC types. The qualitative data obtained through key informant interviews and focus group discussion were narrated and summarized. The quantitative data that were obtained from HHHs survey were analyzed by means of SPSS software version 20. The findings showed that soil degradation was mainly caused by human activity such as deforestation, overgrazing, Agricultural activities, unwise management of forests and natural cause like steep slope, rain fall, wind and nature of the soil. The study was also identified that soil degradation had very high negative impact on soil fertility, crop yield (productivity) and environment. The results from satellite images also showed a continuous increase in the areas of cultivated land in both study periods while decrease in forest and shrub land. Cultivated land increase at an annual rate of 1.23% in the period 1984-2000 and at 0.86% in the period 2000-2016. However, forest land was diminishing from its 8.1% original coverage to 6.1% in the whole study period. Shrub land area also reduced from 21.4% to 16.2 %. Grassland was increase in the first period at the rate of 1.19% per annual and decrease in the second period at the rate of 0.62%. Also settlement continuously expands in both study periods. Wetland which exists on the map of 1973 totally disappeared on the other two maps. The major driver of land use and land cover change is the population pressure. Economic factors and the physical factors are the major constraints for the implementation of soil management practices. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that there is a need of modifying training programs which was provided for farmers by considering the existing knowledge and practices in a particular area and community participation and creating opportunities for alternative means of livelihood help to solve the problem in the study area.