Evaluation of soil and water conservation measures on soil property and wheat productivity at bore district, southern Ethiopia

In Ethiopia different soil and water conservation technologies with different approaches have been implemented focusing on the highlands of the country where the problem is more threatening. With the aim of decreasing land degradation problems, efforts are underway on the implementation of soil and water conservation (SWC) measures. The purpose of this study is to investigate Effect of Soil and Water conservation measures on Soil property and Wheat productivity at Bore District, Southern Ethiopia. Data were collected from six different measures through Non-conserved land, Vetivary grass hedge row conservation, Graded soil bund (10) conservation, Graded Fanyajuu (10) conservation, Integrated graded soil bund (10) with vetivar grass hedge row conservation, and Integrated graded Fanyajuu (10) with vetivary hedge row grass conservation. Agronomic analysis indicted that SWC measures significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced plant height, tiller formation, spike length and grain yield of wheat. Soil analysis also revealed that integrated soil bund increased soil pH (4.577 to 5.053), organic carbon (5.10 to 6.73%) and available phosphorous (5.77 to 25.18 mg kg−1) by 90.6%, 75.8% and 229% compared to non-conserved cultivated land, respectively. Fanyajuu SWC measure increased cation exchange capacity (CEC) by 79.2% than control. It is concluded that SWC measures have positive impacts on soil and wheat productivity of cultivated lands; however, their effect is more pronounced when physical SWC measures are integrated with biological SWC measures