Land use change effect on soil health

Estimates indicate that a majority of the earth’s land has been seriously degraded. One of the key degradation problems is poor soil health, which has been identified as a key constraint in agricultural productivity and reducing rural poverty in many parts of the tropics, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ethiopia’s economy is primarily based on agriculture. However, this sector is increasingly being confronted with a rapidly growing population, and this has resulted in land use/cover changes. The changes in land use disturbs ecosystem balance and lead to a significant change in the physical, chemical, and biological soil health thereby yield declines. Half of the Ethiopian highland arable lands are moderately to severely degrade. Tigray, the Northern region of Ethiopia, suffers from extreme land degradation and soil health deterioration. Agulae catchment, the study area which is found in Eastern Tigray also has similar problems. Since previous studies on factors affecting soil health depletion has not been made at a catchment level, this study was conducted to fill the existing knowledge gap on the effects of and use change on soil health and its implication on soil management.