The Incidence of Soil Erosion in Zing Local Government Area of Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study sought to find out the extent of soil erosion on farmlands in Zing local government area, particularly rill and gully erosions. Ten years rainfall data (1996-2005); were obtained, while rill and gully parameters of 10 farms on the hill slopes, and 10 farms on flat lands were measured. Also laboratory analysis of the soils sampled from the 20 farms sites was conducted. The study revealed that rainfall in the area is erosive, while analysis of data on rills and gullies using the student t-test shows that greater length and depth of erosion occurs on the hill slope farmlands than on the flat land farmlands. This could be because though the hill slopes are steep and erosion can easily occur, in addition is that, farmers also practice arable farming extensively on them. The laboratory analysis however, established that there was no significant difference at P= 0.05 in most of the physical and chemical properties of soils between the farmlands on the hill slopes and those on the plains .This could be because soils in this vicinity are from the same parent material.

Keywords: Erosion, Farmlands, Hill slope, Flatland, Zing.