IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jasjnl/v5y2013i8p97.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Expansion of Eucalyptus Woodlots in the Fertile Soils of the Highlands of Ethiopia: Could It Be a Treat on Future Cropland Use?

Author

Listed:
  • Birru Yitaferu
  • Anteneh Abewa
  • Tadele Amare

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess the effect of land use change from eucalyptus to cropland on soil physico-chemical properties and perceptions of farmers in Koga irrigation area, Amhara Region. Soil samples were taken from 4 sites of three land uses (eucalyptus woodlots, cropland, and eucalyptus land use changed to cropping) and at 0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm depths. The three depths were used for analysis of soil chemical properties, whereas the first two depths for physical properties. Furthermore, randomly selected 15 farmers were interviewed for their perception on the state of soil fertility and crop yield conditions on lands that were recently changed from eucalyptus to cropland. The result showed that except for available P, sampled plots that were changed from eucalyptus to cropland were found better in soil chemical properties (pH, N, CEC) and SOM contents as compared to croplands. As compared to the other two land uses, total N was found larger at eucalyptus woodlots. Regarding soil physical properties (bulk density and texture), little or no difference was recorded among the different land use types. On top of that, farmers perceived that plots that were under eucalyptus have better fertility, require less nitrogen fertilizer and crops perform well compared to plots that are contineously under cropping. Thus, results of this study confirmed that changing land use from eucalyptus to cropland is possible without detrimental effect on soil properties and without affecting productivity of lands to raise crops.

Suggested Citation

  • Birru Yitaferu & Anteneh Abewa & Tadele Amare, 2013. "Expansion of Eucalyptus Woodlots in the Fertile Soils of the Highlands of Ethiopia: Could It Be a Treat on Future Cropland Use?," Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 5(8), pages 1-97, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jasjnl:v:5:y:2013:i:8:p:97
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/download/27671/17266
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/view/27671
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:jasjnl:v:5:y:2013:i:8:p:97. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.