Characteristics of soil quality attributes under different agroecosystems and its implications for agriculture in the Choke Mountain watershed in Ethiopia

Highlights

● Soil properties varied within coefficients of variation ranging from 7% to 169%.

● High variation in available phosphorus was caused by different management practices.

● Midland plains are dominated by Vertisol and Nitosols more suitable for agriculture.

● Lowland and mountainous highland area of the watershed are neither fertile nor suitable for agriculture.

● Lime application and organic fertilizer are fundamental to reversing soil acidity.

Abstract

Awareness of how soil properties vary over agroecosystems (AES) is essential for understanding soil potentials and improving site-specific agricultural management strategies for a sustainable ecosystem. This study examined the characteristics of soil quality attributes and implications for agriculture in the Choke Mountain watershed in Ethiopia. Forty-seven composite soil samples (0–20 cm deep) were collected from lowland and valley fragmented (AES 1), midland plain with black soil (AES 2), midland plain with brown soil (AES 3), sloppy midland land (AES 4), and hilly and mountainous highlands (AES 5). Ten of 15 soil quality properties were significant (P < 0.05 or 0.01), including silt, exchangeable bases, cation exchange capacity, percent base saturation, pH, organic matter, total nitrogen and available phosphorous (P) across the five AES. However, all properties were variable with coefficients of variation from 7% (total porosity) to 169% (available P) across the AES. Although AES 2 and 3 are affected by waterlogging and acidity, these two have better prospects for agriculture, but AES 1, 4, and 5 are unsuitable for agriculture because of soil erosion. Therefore, appropriate and applicable soil management strategies, particularly lime application and organic fertilizer, are fundamental to reversing soil acidity and improving soil fertility.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Agroecosystem / Choke Mountain watershed / coefficients of variation / Ethiopia / soil quality indicator

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the farmers who agreed to let us sample their soil and the East Gojjam Zone Agricultural Development office staff for their assistance. The help of national soil testing center with soil testing is also acknowledged.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Demeku Mesfin, Engdawork Assefa, and Belay Simane declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2023. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)