Soil HydroPhysical Properties and Precipitation Concentration Index in Enhancing Runoff Under Vetiver Grass Strips

Soil Hydro-Physical Properties and Precipitation Concentration Index in Enhancing Runoff Under Vetiver Grass Strips

Project / Seminar Material
Reference ID: PS-1487-TM

DEDICATION

This research material titled “Soil Hydro-Physical Properties and Precipitation Concentration Index in Enhancing Runoff Under Vetiver Grass Strips” is dedicated to God for his enabling grace, and to all computer enthusiasts who contributed to make life a pleasant experience during my research documentation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I extend my sincere gratitude to all those who contributed to the completion of this project. Special thanks to my Supervisor (Name of your Supervisor), the Head of Department (Name of your HOD), the Lecturers in the department of Soil Science, Book Authors and Profound Scholars of existing or related project material on “Soil Hydro-Physical Properties and Precipitation Concentration Index in Enhancing Runoff Under Vetiver Grass Strips” for their invaluable guidance, support, and expertise throughout the journey.

I am also grateful to your study area (mention any funding organizations, if applicable) for their financial assistance. This research would not have been possible without the encouragement and assistance of some stakeholders (mention any mentors, teachers, or colleagues). Additionally, I would like to acknowledge the understanding and patience of my family and friends during this endeavor. Your unwavering support has been a constant source of motivation. Thank you all for being part of this meaningful endeavor.

Soil Hydro-Physical Properties and Precipitation Concentration Index in Enhancing Runoff Under Vetiver Grass Strips

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

As human populations have grown and living standards have raised, the requirement for agricultural products have increased enormously. More land have been brought under cultivation, including marginal lands that are particularly vulnerable to degradation (Johnson and Douglas, 2007) by such process as Erosion, depletion of organic matter and nutrients, pollution, water-logging, and salinization.

Consequently, the domain remaining for natural ecosystems has shrunk and has been divided into smaller enclaves, to the detriment of numerous species. Two alternative approaches have been proposed to prevent further destruction of the remaining natural ecosystems and to relieve pressure on fragile marginal lands (Hillel, 2004). One way is to restrict human activities to choice areas, where production can be intensified e.g. optimizing maximum efficiency in the utilization of soil, water, energy and other necessary inputs.

Another approach is to devise naturalistic modes of production that are compatible with the environment, soil hydro-physical properties conservation. Here vetiver grass technology becomes handy. Vetiver grass is a tropical plant from Thailand (Truong and baker, 2007) that is adopted to different environmental conditions and aimed at improving and conserving highly porous, hard or friable dispersed and eroded soil to favour various types of plants and other living organisms in production optimization.

According to Herber (2009) any practice that improves soil hydro-physical properties will enhance water entry into the soil. Therefore, the present study is carried out using erosion prone soil to determine the effect of Vetiver grass strip intervention at different spacing on the water and physical properties of the soil.

Vetiver grass is found in a wide range of areas from the highlands to lowlands, but is found only scantily in the wild in Nigeria. It appears in dense clumps and is fast growing through tillening. The clump diameter is about 30cm with a height of 50 — 150 cm; the narrow, erect and rather stiff leaf is about 75 cm long and 8 mm wide. There horizontal expansion of the root system being limited to only 50 cm imposes no obstacle to nearly plants and in particular is considered and effective measure for soil and water conservation (World Bank, 1995).

In other to improve soil physical properties, the use of vetiver grass was considered to be a major breakthrough in soil conservation (Blanco, 2009) when planting across the contour on slopes, it holds back eroded soil, while the clump stands above the ground and produces tillers forming a green hedges. Hence, this makes it capable to trapping eroded sediment, residues and runoff associated with heavy tropical rains, dispersing runoff and leading to the formation of natural earth terraces that eliminate the erosive power of the runoff.

Study in Nigeria and elsewhere have shown a reduction in runoff, soil loss and increase crop yield with the use of vetiver grass buffer strip (VGBS). Knowledge of soil water intake (infiltration) is required as an indicator in determining the vulnerability of an area to flood. Infiltration in soils is governed by other primary soil properties such as bulk density, porosity, soil permeability, hydrologic conductivity.

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CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter focuses on the review of related literature. A literature review includes the current knowledge as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. It documents the state of the art with respect to the topic you are writing. It surveys the literature in the topic selected. In this research work the literature review includes the …

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