Abstract:
Land degradation in the form of soil erosion is a major global issues as well as Ethiopian
concern given the strong negative impacts on crop productivity. To overcome the problem
the government and non-governmental organizations have invested the resources and effort
to promote soil and water conservation practices were implemented in every year. However
the impact of soil and water conservation practices in trapping sediment and reducing soil
transport, minimizing slope gradient,& improving crop productivity has notyet been studied
well to understand the impact at particular study watershed.Hence this study was conducted
to evaluate and draw conclusion on the effectiveness of the selected 8 years biophysical soil
and water conservation practicse on sediment trapping,slope gradient change soil moisture
conservation and crop yield and yield components in Gosh watershed north west highland of
Ethiopia as case study.Using field experiment three treatments were designed field treated
with fanya-juu fields treated with soil bund and fields treated with a combination of fanyajuu
ridge and treelucern with three replications at three slope classes.A total of 54 composite soil
samples from 20 cm depth were collected for soil moisture analysis and field measurement
for grain yield,slope gradient change and sediment trapping samples from 27 locations were
collected and analyzed by SAS software version 9.2.The result shows that sediment trapping,
slope gradient change soil moisture content bulk density and porosity have been significantly
(P<0.05) influenced by soil and water conservation practices and land scape positions.Astatis
tical;significant difference were observed from physical soil and water conservation practices
compared to fanyajuu bund stabilized by treelucrn.The higher sediment stocked soil, moisture
content, bulk density were obtained from integrated practices.in lower slope.On the contrary:
slope gradient change and porosity were higher in the upper slope .Moreover untreated field
showed significantly lower barley grain yieled & yield component,than the treated.From this
study it was possible to conclude that soil water conservation practices tested the study water
shed were appositive effect specially proper integration of physical soil & water conservation
structure stabilizedby treelucern can be more productive. Therefore all physical soil & water
conservations integrated with biological practices is better than physical alone.