Aggregate Stability: An Indicator of Quality and Resistivity of Arable Soil

Oil palm is the world leading vegetable oil. It is an important player in the economic development of the country, both as a contributor to gross national product (GDP), foreign earnings and job creation. With high yields per hectare, cheap to produce and its application to food and non-food industries makes it an important product both locally and internationally. The demand for palm oil has lead to expansion of oil palm plantation around the world over the past several decades, with Indonesia and Malaysia accounting for more than 85 percent of the global palm oil market. Smallholders are important players in the world oil palm industry as they contribute about 40 percent of the planted areas in the two most important oil palm countries. Current study investigated the knowledge level of certification amongst the independent smallholders in Malaysia. The study revealed that most of the independent smallholders do not have certification, with a reasonable number of them having little or no knowledge of certification bodies (RSPO/MSPO). The study revealed that though policies are in place to support smallholders to participate in certification for them to reap the enormous benefits; including wider market access, quality fresh bunches and technical skills, more should be done in terms of implementation in reaching out to the smallholders especially through sensitization programs, including, workshops and extension services to properly educate smallholders on the benefits of certification since they are important player in the global palm oil market.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oil palm smallholders and certification: exploring the knowledge level of independent oil palm smallholders to certification

Abazue¹,

Choy²,

Lydon³

2019

“…should be communicated adequately with the farmers and community. It is expected ideally that every farm would be sampled and evaluated for soil analysis and evaluated against soil properties such as soil aggregate stability (Siddique et al 2017). Any application of chemical fertilizers in cropping system should be justified based on the requirement of crops (plant nutrients requirements) and soils (for example pH, OM status, N mineralization, total N and cation exchange capacity of soils) (Siddique, 2015;Ahmed et al 2014) Recent agricultural practices with high yielding varieties obviously increase yields and profitability but these practices are responsible for land degradation, soil acidity, water pollution, safe water scarcity, pesticide residual in farm produce, atmospheric and water pollution (Khan et Nduwumuremyi, 2013).…”

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confidence: 99%

Evaluation of soil fertility status for available sulphur in various location of Myorpur block, district Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, India

Singh¹,

Verma²,

Singh³

et al. 2019

Available sulphur status in soils of Myorpur block, district Shonbhadra, Utter Pradesh, India was studied to evaluate soil fertility. For this purpose, thirty soil samples (0-15 cm depth) were randomly collected from 30 different GPS locations. All the collected soil samples were analyzed for pH, Electrical Conductivity, Organic Carbon, available sulphur as per standard procedures. The available S content in soils of shonbhadra district varied from 11.60-33.30 kgha-1 with a mean value 21.39 kgha-1. Results reveal that the 90 percent of the soil samples were found under low category (< 22.4 kgha-1) as per nutrients index value. Nutrient Index Value (NIV) of Shonbhadra district was below 1.67 due to acidic soil reaction and low content of organic matter in soil and also due to continuous removal of sulphur by the crops for intense cultivation without using sulphur fertilization. For this reason, enrichment and or modification of soil acidity and organic matter content at desired level, as well as frequent application of sulphur fertilizer during crop growing seasons is essential for reducing or changing sulphur deficiency or status for agricultural crops. Soils would highly need sulphur management through addition of inorganic sulphur, organic manures or sulphonated compost and biocomposts or gypsum, sulphur-solubilizing microbes.

“…by water erosion, is an important factor in both the long term decline and the seasonal reduction in food crop production (FAO, 1986;Siddique et. al., 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of brush wood with stone check dam on gully rehabilitation

Adugna¹,

Alemu²,

Melkamu³

2017

Gullies are common features throughout the Ethiopian Highlands. Induced environmental degradation comprises not only the loss of soil volume and of arable lands but also the triggering of landslides or off-site sedimentation problems. This experiment was initiated with the aim of evaluating the effect of brush (bamboo) wood with stone check dam on soil and water conservation (gully rehabilitation) at Benishangulgumuz region of Assosa zone (Assosa district of selga-19 for two consecutive research years (2013/14-2014/15) on farm land. The gully site was selected purposively based on the prevalence of gully erosion. Biophysical and socioeconomic data were collected from the gully and participant farmers to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures. The potential of the check dam to conserve the soil was evaluated by using the pin installed in front the check dam to observe the change of gully depth, cross sectional area and soil loss data were collected. A total of 22 households were sampled to assess the perception, acceptance and adoption level of the farmers using simple random sampling technique. Result indicates that the gully depth and volume of soil loss were reduced from 0.94m to 0.58m and volume of soil loss from 468 ton/ha/yr to 204 ton/ha/y. The interviewed farmers response also indicated that all (100%) of them were mentioned the presence and severity of soil erosion on their farm land and which is increasing from time to time in alarming rate and where all of the farmers mentioned loss of fertile top soil and in turn yield reduction as its integral effect. 95.5% of the farmers were confident enough to rehabilitate the gully using bamboo with stone check dam by supplementing with other biological measures and all (100%) of the farmers ratified the effectiveness of the measures to rehabilitate the gully and willing to implement on their farm land thereby to disseminate the technology to non-participant farmers.