Strategies for Restoration of Soil Quality to Mitigate Land Degradation in Semi-Arid North Western Nigeria
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B A Raji
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilorin, PMB 1515, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria
Abstract
Soil degradation alone was reportedly estimated to affect approximately 485million Africans, with annual long-term costs of between US $ 95-279 billion. Increasing
agricultural productivity in Nigeria, with its over 70% marginal/problem land and a
decreasing per capital arable land (PCAL), would, therefore, need sound and adequate
information on soil quality enhancement. Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a crucial role
in influencing physical, chemical and biological properties, and the overall soil quality.
Some common strategies for restoration of SOC include conservation tillage which reduces
decomposition, fallow, agroforestry, improved pasture and optimal fertilization which
improves C levels through enhanced biomass production. After 6 years of natural fallow,
the un-amended soils in the Samaru experiment recorded slight decrease in soil organic
matter (SOC) content from 7.04 t C ha-1 to 6.83 t C ha-1 representing about 3% reduction.
This result shows that the resilient power of the un-amended soils (degraded) to selfrestoration
is low under natural fallow. The potential for carbon sequestration by the
use of eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) and neem (Azadirachta indica) trees in afforestation
in NW Nigeria is about 23 g C m-2 yr-1 to 305 g C m-2 yr-1 over rates in unstabilized
sand dune (control). These values would increase substantially if management practices
such as fertilization are introduced. The use of NPK between 1977 and 1995, a period
of 18 years in the Samaru experiment, improved SOC content from 4.95 t C ha-1 to 7.30
t C ha-1, reflecting a rate of 13 g C m-2 yr-1. This rate is about 50% less the rate using
manure alone and 75% less using manure with NPK. The use of N fertilization alone
for 18 years also resulted in an increase of about 2.83 t C ha-1 or 16 g C m-2 yr-1. In the
NE Nigeria, the use of manure along with the selected restorative strategies gave the
fastest options for restoring soil quality and productivity.
Key words: Land degradation, soil organic matter, soil quality, biomass production.
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