MST-Department of Geography

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Browsing MST-Department of Geography by Author "Assani, Neville Mapenzi"

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    Analysis of Farmers’ Soil Conservation Practices in Cirhanyobwa Catchment, South-Kivu Province, DR Congo
    (Kenyatta University, 2019) Assani, Neville Mapenzi
    The livelihood of majority of south-Kivu population in Eastern DRC depends on agriculture. However, in many catchments within the province, especially where hillsides have been cultivated, land productivity is threated by erosion leading to soil nutrient loss and water pollution. The main objective of this study was to analyze farmers’ soil conservation practicesin South-Kivu Province. Specifically this study estimated annual soil loss from the Cirhanyobwa catchment, evaluated soil conservation practices being used by farmers and determined factors and challenges affectingthe adoption of SCP in the watershed.To achieve the above objectives, Revised Universal Loss Equation was used to estimate annual soil loss, random sample of 200 householdscomplemented by 3 Focus Group Discussions were used to analyze farmers’ soil conservation practices, factors and challenges influencing the adoption of Soil Conservation Practices. Data was analyzed by use of descriptive statistics (means,percentages and frequencies), chi-square, T-test and multinomial logit model. The resultsshowed that the areas having the natural forest show minimum soil erosion rate while areas having intense human intervention show high soil erosion rate (>30t h-1 y-1). The study identified the following Soil Conservation Practices: mulching, field trench, hedges, fanyajuu terraces, contour ploughing, minimum tillage operation and keeping the land fallow. Among those practices, mulching (50% of adoption level), hedges (15% of adoption level) and field trench (25% of adoption level) were more used by the farmers. Although the bench terrace was not more practiced in the catchment due to the lack of financing to use it, it was more preferred by farmers for its effectiveness in soil conservation. Critical factors affecting the adoption of SCP include lack of implementation of government regulation in farming system, insecure land tenure, lack of credit, small farm sizeas well as lack of knowledge or training on soil conservation practices. The study recommended the adoption of bench terracesfor reduction of soil erosion and improving soil productivity in the catchment.