Study of soil loss due to various root crops harvesting in irrigated fields

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant professor, Range & Watershed Management, Behbahan Khatamolanbia Universiry

2 Assistant professor, Behbahan Khatamoalanbia Technology University

Abstract

Abstract
Water and wind erosion are the main processes most often considered in erosion and sediment budget studies. While soil loss due to crop harvesting (SLCH) is another type of land degradation which is usually not considered in these studies. During root crops harvesting, a significant amount of soil adhering to the roots is exported from the fields. Despite these crops are widely harvested in the world, a few studies have been done on SLCH and no attempt has been presented to investigate SLCH in Iran. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the values of SLCH for potatoes, garlic, sugar beet, radish and beet root in 47 selected fields located in Khuzestan province. Crops together with the adhering soils were collected from three 2*2 plots in each field. Soil tares were separated from the roots and dried at 105OC. Result showed SLCH values for potatoes, garlic, sugar beet, radish and beet root were 6273.74, 2525.32, 2264.88, 4101.94 and 6952.50 Kg ha-1 respectively and there were significant differences in SLCH between crops types. The average of SLCH for all crops was 4.31 Mg ha-1 which results in a denudation rate of 0.3 mm yr-1 and is of the order of magnitude as soil losses caused by water erosion in watershed catchments of Iran. Given the harvested areas, total SLCH was estimated for Khuzestan province and whole country at 26800.10 and 731807.84 ton, respectively. In general, because of the importance of SLCH, farmers should be educated to reduce SLCH and it should be considered when calculating soil denudation rates and sediment budgets.

Keywords

References

References
 
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Journal of Arid Biome
Volume 5, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
February 2016
Pages 55-65

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