Slope Steepness And Crop Vegetative Cover Impact On Soil And Water Losses Under High Rainfall Zone Of Pothowar

Abstract

The sloping lands are considered to be challenging one in terms of cultivating field crops. The undulated slopes pose hindrances in field operations and aggravate soil and water losses. A study was carried out to demonstrate feasible measures in improving cultivation at sloppy lands of Sohawa, district Jhelum, Pakistan. The objectives were to evaluate, under different vegetative covers and slope gradients, the runoff water and soil sediment loss in comparison to bare land on each slope gradient. Three summer crops Mung bean, Mash bean and Millet were grown on 1 %, 5 % and 10 % slope gradient. Slope steepness induced soil and runoff losses were gauged against each summer crop. Overall soil losses were reduced by 6.3, 8.3 and 4.5 % from mung, mash and millet respectively against bare soil. While water losses were lowered by 11.9, 12.5, 9.8 % from mung, mash and millet respectively as compared to bare soil. The sediment and runoff losses were at the maximum with 10 %, then by 5 % and the least with 1 % slope gradients.