Gully erosion and its impacts on soil loss and crop yield in three decades, northwest Ethiopia
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Gully erosion and its impacts on soil loss and crop yield in three decades, northwest Ethiopia Tsegaye Yazie1 · Mulatie Mekonnen2 · Assefa Derebe3 Received: 31 July 2020 / Accepted: 17 October 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract This paper investigated the rate of gully formation and development, and its impacts on land competition and crop yield reduction in Genbo Wonze watershed, northwest highlands of Ethiopia. Geometrical gully dimension measurements, field observations and satellite imagery assessment have been performed selecting 22 gullies. The result shows that road construction and design problem of soil and water conservation practices (SWCPs) were found as important causes of gully formation and development. The total volume of soil lost from 22 gullies in three decades was ~ 340,957 t and ~ 10 ha productive agricultural land was changed to unproductive land. The annual rate of gully erosion was found to be 62 t ha−1 with an average gully density of 16.4 m ha−1. Gully erosion also results a loss of 24 t year−1 Teff grain yield (Eragrostis teff, E. abyssinica) and 14 t year−1 animals forage. In general, gully erosion is found to be a serious problem causing soil loss and crop yield reduction, and in shrinking the size of agricultural land. To arrest the problem, proper design of SWCPs within farmlands, proper runoff discharge mechanisms along roads, and controlled grazing systems within the grazing lands ought to be executed. Keywords Gully erosion · Gully density · Land loss · Genbo Wonze watershed
Introduction Gully erosion is one of the major global problems confronting agricultural production and sustainable use of natural resources. Although the problem is as old as the agricultural practices, its extent and adverse impact on crop production, land competition, ground water depletion, etc. is getting worse year after year. In Africa, ~ 29 million ha of land was affected by gully erosion (Hurni 2010), and productivity * Mulatie Mekonnen [email protected] Tsegaye Yazie [email protected] Assefa Derebe [email protected] 1
Bureau of Agriculture, Natural Resources Management, Adet, Ethiopia
2
College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES), Geospatial Data and Training Center (GDTC), Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
3
Adet Agricultural Research Center, Natural Resources Management Research, Adet, Ethiopia
of agricultural lands had significantly declined (Aga and Moges 2014; Rijkee and Sasskia 2015; Mekonnen et al. 2015; Mukai 2016). Gully erosion is a major form of soil erosion (Mekonnen 2020) and negatively affecting soil quality (Wubie and Assen 2019). Gully erosion is the most prevalent form of soil erosion in Ethiopia, which dissects farmlands, impedes tillage operations, damages agricultural and residential areas, and restricts free movement of animals and humans (Daba et al. 2003; Bewket and Tefferi 2009; Moges and Holden 2008; Mekonnen et al. 2015). In the Ethiopian highlands, gullies covered ~ 7.6 million ha
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