Physicochemical Properties of Soil Analysis under Rangeland Traditional Management Practice on Shilavo District, Somali Regional State, East Ethiopia

Abstract

Traditional management practice is emerging as one of the strategies to rehabilitate and restore degraded soils. In this study the important roles of area enclosure with comparison to an open sites were investigated for physicochemical properties of soil in rangeland of Shilabo district Somali region, east Ethiopia. The management types (5 yrs enclosures, 10 yrs enclosure and open grazing land) were taken as treatments. The sand, silt and clay content of CGL, 5E and 10E were 78, 76 and 75%; 8.67, 12.00 and 14.67% and 14.67, 10.33 and 10.33% respectively. Where the mean value of N, P and K for CGL, 5E and 10E were 0.04, 0.14 and 0.16%; 3.72, 3.91 and 5.96 mg/L and 0.16, 1.05 and 1.53 (cmol (+)/Kg soil respectively. The soil variable results revealed that soil organic matter, CECs, exchangeable Cat ions and soil moisture were significantly improved as a result of the enclosure. This study generally shows that area enclosure is a promising strategy to rehabilitate degraded environments as it is fast, cheap and lenient.