SOIL CONSERVATION AND

CONTROL OF EROSION
 SOIL CONSERVATION

Definition

Soil conservation is the use of land, within the limit of

economic practicability, according to its capabilities ( the
way Allah created land) in order to keep it permanently
productive. All adaptable methods utilized to achieve this
permanent productivity of the soil constitute the tools of soil
conservation, whether they are used singly or in
combination.

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 AIM OF SOIL CONSERVATION

Specific aims of soil conservation are as follows:

To reduce erosion to a rate where soil loss can be
replenished by natural soil development.
To retain or to improve the physical structure of the soil.
To maintain the organic matter content in the soil.
To make the best use of the available water.
To maintain the fertility of the soil by reducing nutrient
losses and to replace those that are lost.

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 MAIN APPROACH IN SOIL CONSERVATION
No matter what techniques employed, 4 different approach
are used to conserve soil.

Conditioning the soil to make it more resistant to

detachment and transportation and more absorptive of rain
water.
Covering the soil to protect it from rain fall impact.
Slowing down runoff.
Providing safe ways for the disposal of unavoidable
surface runoff.

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For effective erosion control:

 Maintain good soil structure

 Protect the soil surface by adequate crop and
residue cover
 Use special structural erosion control practices
where necessary

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• While protecting and improving land
investment, control erosion will:

 Sustain or improve crop yields

 Reduce drainage costs
 Retain nutrients and chemicals where applied
 Reduce hazards when working on eroding soil
 Help improve water quality

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Prevention is better than cure

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• More desirable to protect land from erosion and
nutrient depletion than to rehabilitate the land,

• It is easier and less expensive to implement

erosion preventive measures than to improve
and rehabilitate degraded land.

• In order to be able to plan and design effective

measures, it is necessary to have good idea of
the processes of the erosion that are most likely
to occur.

• It is also helpful to know the amount of soil loss

to be expected as well as the source and
courses of erosion
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• The basic objectives are to protect the soil surface from
the impact of raindrops and to reduce the velocity of
overland flow.

• However, the nature and details designs of the

measures are also greatly influenced by local factors
such as soil type, cropping system, topographic setting,
rain fall pattern, geographical features and socio-
economic circumstances.

• There are three major groups of erosion control

measures:
(i) biological measures
(ii) structural measures
(iii) Management practice
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 Biological measures
• Emphasizes the use of vegetative material
such as straw, leaves, twigs etc

• Agronomic practices such as

intercropping, strip cropping and cover
cropping

• e.g. leguminous cover crops in a rubber

holding 10
 Structural measures
• Relies on altering the shape and form of
the landscape through the construction of
barriers, drainage ways and planting
forms.

• Some common examples are terrace,

bunds and channels.

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 Management practice

• Immediate action taken to prevent further erosion

or landslide – example mulching.
• Action to roughened land surface for easing water
infiltration into soil and finally into ground water
system – example tillage.
• Use plant residue to cover soil and to replenish the
nutrient lost from soil. – manage plant residue.
• Re-vegetation – to replenish gully and rill erosion
 BIOLOGICAL MEASURES – agronomic
practices and use of vegetative materials

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 Vegetation
• Vegetation act as a protective layer or buffer between
the atmosphere and the soil.

• The above ground components, such as leaves and

stems, absorb some of the energy of falling raindrops,
running water and wind, so that less is directed at the
soil.

• The below ground components, comprising the root

system, contribute to the mechanical strength of the soil.

• Basically, vegetation will give effect on the rainfall,

runoff, airflow, slope stability.
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Selecting vegetation for erosion control
• Native species, adapted to local climatic and soil
conditions, to ensure integrity of the local
ecology;

• The availability of seeds and plants;

• Species with low fire risk;

• Species with appropriate engineering properties

for erosion control ( describe in next slide)
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 Plant Required properties
component
Roots Vigorous development close to the surface to
reinforce resistance to erosion

Shoots Dense uniform growth close to the soil surface to

impart roughness to flow and reduce its velocity

Growth cycle Provision of sufficient shoot and root growth to protect

the soil when erosion risk is greatest

Growth habit Uniform growth habit close to the ground to protect

the soil from raindrop impact

Growth rate Rapid establishment, especially for pioneer species, lo

maintenance

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 Crop & Residue Cover
• Crops help reduce the erosive forces of water
and wind by means of their canopy intercepting
rain, and acting as a windbreak.

• Root system stabilize the soil and reduce losses.

• Crop residues perform similar functions and, in

addition, from small dams that help retain runoff
water, thereby reducing erosion.

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 Cover cropping
• To be effective, the cover crop must be quick to
establish, provide an early canopy cover, be
aggressive enough to suppress weeds and
possess a deep root system to improve the
macro-porosity of the soil.

• Ground covers are grown under tree crops to

protect the soil from the impact of water drops
falling from the canopy.

• Particularly important with tall crops such as

rubber where the height fall is sufficient to cause
the drops to approach their terminal velocity
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 Crop rotation
• Extended crop rotation and permanent
cover crops effectively protect the soil from
the impact of raindrops.

• The thick, fibrous root systems associated

with cover crops also bind the soil particles
together.

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 Strip-cropping
• Row crops and forage are grown in
alternating strips aligned on the contour
and perpendicular to the slope.

• Erosion is largely limited to the row-crop

strips and soil removed from these is
trapped within and behind the next strip.

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 Multiple cropping
• The aim is to increase the production from
the land while providing protection of the soil
from erosion.

• The method involves sequential cropping,

growing two or more crops a year in
sequence, or intercropping, growing two or
more crops on the same piece of land at the
same time.

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 High density planting

• Try to obtain the same effect for a

monoculture that multiple cropping
achieves with two or more crops.

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Management Practice

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 Tillage Practices
• Proper tillage practices, employed
separately or in combination with crop
rotations

• The objective is to leave the soil surface in

a rough condition which will facilitate
easier infiltration of water by slowing
surface runoff, and minimize soil erosion.

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 Mulching
• Covering of the soil with crops residues
such as straw, stalks, fronds or stubble
• Most useful as an alternative to cover
crops
• Can also be use under the crops
• e.g. using of pruned fronds to cover
harvesting paths in oil palm plantation in
Johor – reduced annual soil loss.
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 Re-vegetation
• Vegetation plays a major role in the
process of erosion control on gullied
areas, landslides, sand dunes etc..

• Restoration of gullied land

• Restoration of landslide scars

• Afforestation
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 Residue management
• Plant residue controls soil erosion by
intercepting raindrops, blocking wind
erosion, reducing surface water runoff and
preventing soil detachment.

• When using a combination of conservation

tillage practices and surface residue
management, it is critical to maintain the
highest amount of residue cover possible.
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STRUCTURAL MEASURES

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 Terracing
• Form of mechanical soil conservation, intended
to control erosion and surface runoff

• Flat bench terraces, slopping bench terraces

and ridge terraces can all keep erosion at
tolerable level.

• Terraces break up slope lengths and reduce

steepness to reduce surface flow and sediment
transport.

• They are easily adapted to producers’ need, soil

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 Grassed waterways
• Wide, shallow waterways reduce speed of
water by providing a grass cushion and
preventing gully formation.

• They also act as a filter by trapping

sediment and protecting covered soil from
being detached and transported.

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 CONSERVATION BUFFER
• Buffers (area or strips of land in which
permanent vegetation is established
near row crops) are designed to intercept
sediment flow and protect the soil from
detachment.

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