Effect of Land Use Intensification on Water-Related and other Soil Physical Properties in Asinge Village, Tororo District, Uganda

Abstract

There have been several land uses and management practices in the field of agriculture that have altered and led to the degradation of water related soil physical properties which has in turn largely affected food production in tropical ecosystems. This study was done to establish a deep understanding of the relationship between some of the land use intensities and the water related soil physical properties of Asinge village in the eastern region of Uganda. The emphasis was put on bulk density, porosity, saturated water conductivity, and the volumetric water content of the soil.The soil core samples were taken from different fields of land cover/land use including natural vegetation, semi-natural vegetation, sorghum monocrop, and sorghum-cow pea intercrop. The results showed that land use intensity has significant effect on buk density, porosity and water content of the soil. Bulk density increased with increase in land use intensity and was higher under cultivated soils compared to the fallowed soils. Soil total porosity and volumetric water content followed a different trend where they increased with a reduction in land use intensity and were both highest under fallowed land use compared to the cultivated land use. Soil saturated hydraulic conductivity was higher under fallowed soils compared to the cultivated soils, however there was no significant effect of land use or land cover on the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soils.