EFFECT OF LAND USE ON SELECTED SOIL PROPERTIES IN DIFFERENT SOIL TYPES AT HARAR GITA WATERSHED, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

The goal of the study was to see how different land-use systems affected soil physical and chemical properties at Dengawura and Abushura, Harar Gita sub watershed in southern Ethiopia. Ten composites of representative soil samples from two depths (0-20 and 20-40cm) were collected from four land use (enset land, forest land, grassland and Wheatfield). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to determine differences in soil parameters among land-use types. Treatment means comparison was determined using the least significant difference (LSD) at 0.05 levels of significances. The result indicated that there were significant (P < 0.05) differences among the four Land use for soil characteristics. For most parameters evaluated, the most favorable soil properties were observed in the forest land, followed by Enset fields, while the least favorable soil properties were found in intensively wheat fields. Enset (enset Ventricosum) fields had higher pH, available P, Cu and Zn, exchangeable Ca and K which is attributed due to the addition of manure, whereas wheat fields had the lowest pH, available P, Cu and Zn, average K and Mg, cation exchange capacity (CEC), total N and OC. Overall, this study confirms that the use of Land use increases the status of soil fertility and adopting proper management practices of the soil commonly used in enset fields are very crucial to improve soil fertility in wheat fields.