Prime
The danger of soil erosion in agriculture
Michael J Ssali
What you need to know:
When the fertile topsoil is lost it goes with nutrients and living organisms that would be useful in crop production.
Those of us who lived in Kenya in the eighties remember clearly that fighting soil erosion was one of the major preoccupations of the government of that country in those days. The late Daniel Arap Moi, former president of Kenya, was often seen on TV personally placing stones and other barriers across gardens on steep slopes to teach farmers how to fight soil erosion.
He also led the tree planting campaign as one of the measures to fight soil erosion by wind. He was fighting a big problem in farming which many of us have tended to ignore to our peril. The process is defined as the removal of the fertile top soil by running water and wind. When fertile soil is driven from the garden and taken elsewhere the garden becomes less productive and less profitable to the farmer.
The biggest challenge for farmers today might not really be lack of start-up capital but ignorance about the impact of soil erosion. When the fertile topsoil is lost it goes with nutrients and living organisms that would be useful in crop production. What is left behind is a bare, hard, surface that is useless for farming. In some cases it is infertile soil that is carried and deposited on good soil and makes it hard to grow crops on it.
Merely pumping money into peasant farmers in the form of Emyooga, operation wealth creation, and Parish Development Model, might not work if we ignore soil erosion. According to a study report titled: “Soil Erosion Risk Assessment in Uganda” authored by Fidele Karamage, Chi Zhang, Ton Liu, Andrew Maganda and Alain Isabwe, predictions obtained using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model indicated that Uganda lost about 62 million tonnes of soil in 2014. The most soil erosion-prone districts were named as Bududa, Kasese, Bundibugyo, Bulambuli, Sironko, and Kotido.
However soil erosion is a widespread problem across all parts of Uganda. Every crop farmer must take soil and water conservation very seriously by fighting the agents of soil erosion. Planting trees is one good way of minimising soil erosion by wind. The tree branches impede the speed and force of the wind, reducing its capacity to carry away soil particles. The tree roots act as binding wires that hold the soil together and minimise the chances of its being driven away by either wind or running water.
