Production systems, land cover change and soil factors affecting pastur e production in semi1arid Nakasongola
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Date
2011Author
Zziwa, E
Kironchi, G.
Gachene, C.K.
. Mugerwa, S
Mpairwe, D.
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The current pace of rangeland degradation imparted by appalling land use and management systems is greatly
limiting the potential of the soil resource to support pasture production in semi
-
arid rangeland
s of Uganda. Our
objectives were to determine the effects of land cover change and production systems on pasture biomass yield
and to identify the critical soil factors affecting pasture production in Nakasongola. The area was stratified into
three product
ion systems and three land cover types from which six pasture and soil samples were collected
following a Modified
-
Whittaker sampling method. Pasture biomass was significantly high (p < 0.0001) under
herbaceous cover (2019 kg/ha) compared to woody (1302 kg
/ha) and bare which had no pasture biomass. The
settled production system had a significantly
(p = 0.013)
high pasture biomass (1266 kg/ha) compared to non
settled (1102 kg/ha) and semi settled systems (953 kg/ha). Biomass yield was more associated with hi
gh levels of
organic matter (r = 0.91), calcium (r = 0.91), magnesium (0.83), nitrogen (r = 0.77) and base saturation (r =
0.88). It can be concluded that maintaining native vegetation cover of the rangelands and increasing levels of
limiting nutrients are
the major strategies for increasing pasture production in semi
-
arid rangelands of
Nakasongola
URI
http://www.innspub.net/wp-content/uploads/IJAAR-V2No5-p1-12.pdfttp://www.scihub.org/ABJN A
http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/52120
Citation
Zziwa, E., G. Kironchi , C.K. Gachene, S. Mugerwa and D. Mpairwe. 2011. Production systems, land cover change and soil factors affecting pastur e production in semi1arid Nakasongola. Agriculture and Biology Journal of North America . ISSN Print: 215117517, ISSN Online: 21511 7525 © 2011,Publisher
University of Nairobi Department Of Land Resource Management And Agricultural Technology