THE ROLE OF SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN WATERSHED MANAGEMENT IN KIDAYA NGERENYI, TAITA TAVETA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Watershed protection provides an integrated framework of management systems which seek to protect multiple natural resources including forests, water and soil. An in-depth understanding on resource characteristics of individual watershed ecosystems is necessary to guide decision making in sustainable watershed management. This research was conducted at Kidaya Ngerenyi watershed in Taita Taveta County. The primary objective was to determine the role of Sustainable Land Management Practices in promoting watershed protection through soil health indicator analysis. Essential information on watershed management was obtained by conducting semi structured interviews on 15 key informants and 72 land users. A total of 40 soil samples were collected from different management practices across the watershed and analyzed for various potential soil health indicators. The strata of the study included: upper, mid and lower zones under management practices as well as cultivated and protected vegetative buffer strips and forests in the watershed. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze adoption and non-adoption of the Sustainable Land Management practices using Microsoft Excel. Analysis of Variance was used to compare soil health indicators under Sustainable Land Management Practices between the three zones of the watershed at 5 % level of significance. Two sample t-test was used to compare soil health between protected and cultivated sites of the buffer protection practices at 5 % level of significance. Results showed that Sustainable Land Management Practices are mainly implemented to boost agricultural production and not to meet watershed objectives. The most common Sustainable Land management Practices implemented across the watershed include integrated soil fertility management and cross slope barriers. Results from laboratory soil analysis showed no significant difference in soil pH and particle distribution between the zones with p values of 0.43 and 0.538, respectively. However, vi there was a significant variation (p = 0.001) in the soil organic carbon (%) among the upper, mid and lower zones with a mean of 4.1, 2.8 and 2.5, respectively. This was attributed to the spillover of organic matter through litter carried by runoff from forests along the ridges which was often trapped by the cross slope barriers put in place. Infiltration rate decreased towards the lower zones of the watershed with a significant difference (p = 0.008). There was no significant difference observed in soil health indicators between protected and cultivated buffer management practices. This study demonstrates that, land users need to focus on long term goals of managing lands sustainably to protect the soil’s and watershed’s integrity at large