Influence of Simulated Erosion on Soil Properties and Maize Yield in the Southern Guinea Savanah Zone of Nigeria II

Aims: Long-term studies have been launched to assess the influence of artificial topsoil loss and its effects on soil properties and grain yield of cultivated maize.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted during the 2016 to 2019 agricultural seasons at the Federal University of Agriculture in Makurdi, Nigeria.

Methodology: Three geo- referenced sites within the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, Nigeria namely: Site 1, Site_2 and Site_3 was used for the experiment. Erosion levels were established in June 2016 only by the incremental removal of topsoil at various depths. The study of crop productivity using simulated erosion was carried out using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with desurfaced soil depths of 0cm (control), 5cm, 10cm, 15cm and 20cm as treatments. One profile pit was also dug in each of the three sites for soil characterization and soil type establishment. Data collected on soil physical and chemical properties as well as crop growth parameters and grain yield was subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using R core Statistical Software.

Results: The study revealed that the soils of the three sites were classified as Kandic Paleustepts for Site_1, Typic Plinthustalfs for Site_2 and Typic Hapluderts for Site_3. These has brrn reported in drtail in paper I. In comparison with the 0cm (control), maize grain yield was reduced by 7%, 89%, 100% and 100% at Site_1, 5%, 64%, 82% and 85% at Site_2 and 6%, 71%, 82% and 92% at Site_3 for the 5cm, 10cm, 15cm and 20cm topsoil depth removal respectively. The topsoil loss greatly lowered the grain yield of maize. We report the effects of topsoil loss on crop productivity for two years.