Morphometric Analysis and Prioritization of Watersheds for Soil Erosion Management in Upper Gibe Catchment

As morphometric investigation is connected to prioritization of watershed, morphometric analysis has got a significance role in light of soil and water conservation. In this study, an endeavour for the examination of point by point morphometric analyses of sub-basins was accomplished through the measurement of linear and shape parameters by using ArcGIS-9.3 software. Specifically, linear and shape morphometric parameters like stream length, stream order, drainage density, stream frequency, bifurcation ratio, Length of overland flow, basin perimeter, form factor, compactness coefficient, elongation ratio has been considered. The SRTM DEM (30 x 30 m) is processed for the delineation resulting in 61 sub-basins. The morphometric parameters which affect the soil erodibility are considered to organize the sub-basins and relegate positions on the premise of their association with erodibility to get compound parameter (Cp) esteem. Based on the value of Cp the sub-basin with the lowest Cp value was given the highest priority and then categorized the sub-basins into three classes as high, medium and low in terms of priority. Accordingly, high priority zone comprises 11 sub-basins, medium 19 and low 31 sub-basins. The sub-basins which are falling under high priority were a great deal more defenceless to soil disintegration and ought to be given high need for land preservation measures

Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LSDF): field guide

The field methods employed in the soil health component of the AfSIS (Africa Soil Information Service) project are referred to as the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF). This field guide outlines field protocols for measuring indicators of the “health” of an ecosystem, including vegetation cover, structure and floristic composition, historic land use, visible signs of soil degradation, and soil physical characteristics. It is designed to provide a biophysical baseline at landscape level, and a monitoring and evaluation framework for assessing processes of land degradation and the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures over time

Feeding your soil-nurturing the people

United States Agency for International Developmen

Natural resource management: Africa RISING science, innovations and technologies with scaling potential from the Ethiopian highlands

United States Agency for International Developmen

Decision support tools for fertilizer recommendation

United States Agency for International Developmen

Total elemental composition of soils in Sub-Saharan Africa and relationship with soil forming factors

AbstractA thorough understanding of the variation in total soil element concentrations is important especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) soil contexts for agricultural and environmental management at large scale. Fingerprinting of soil elemental composition may form a useful basis for evaluating soils in a way that relates to soil-forming factors and inherent soil functional properties. The objectives of this paper are to quantify the proportion of variability in total elemental composition by total X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) method of 1074 soil samples from the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS) Project baseline and to determine the relationships with soil forming factors. The samples were from 34 sentinel sites measuring 10×10km, randomized within major climate zones in SSA. Within each sentinel site there were sixteen spatially stratified 1km2 clusters, within which there were ten 100m2 plots. The within and between site patterns of variation in total element composition of 17 elements; Al, P, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Sr, Y, Ta, and Pb, were explored. Total element concentration values were within the range reported globally for soil Cr, Mn, Zn, Ni, V, Sr, and Y and higher than reported range for Al, Cu, Ta, Pb, and Ga. There were significant variations (P<0.05) in total element composition within and between the sites for all the elements analyzed with the greatest proportion of total variance and number of significant variance components occurring at the site (55–88%) followed by the cluster nested within site (10–40%) levels. The explorations of the relationships between element composition data and site factors using Random Forest regression demonstrated that soil-forming factors have important influence on total elemental composition in the soil. The fact that the soil-forming factors are related to the concentration of naturally occurring elements in the soil gives rise to the notion that they might be predicted from the soils' element composition. Results implied that >70% of variation in soil element composition patterns can be predicted using information in existing databases or readily observable features. Successful use of TXRF technique would open up possibilities for using total soil elemental composition fingerprints as a useful basis for characterizing soils in a way that relates to soil-forming factors and inherent soil functional properties

Fertility Desire and Intention of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania: A call for Restructuring Care and Treatment Services.

Scaling up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is currently underway in sub-Saharan Africa including, Tanzania, increasing survival of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Programmes pay little attention to PLWHA's reproductive health needs. Information on fertility desire and intention would assist in the integration of sexual and reproductive health in routine care and treatment clinics. A cross-sectional study of all PLWHA aged 15--49 residing in Kahe ward in rural Kilimanjaro Tanzania was conducted. Participants were recruited from the community and a local counselling centre located in the ward. Data on socio-demographic, medical and reproductive characteristics were collected through face-to-face interviews. Data were entered and analysed using STATA statistical software. A total of 410 PLWHA with a mean age of 34.2 and constituting 264 (64.4%) females participated. Fifty-one per cent reported to be married/cohabiting, 73.9% lived with their partners and 60.5% were sexually active. The rate of unprotected sex was 69.0% with 12.5% of women reporting to be pregnant at the time of the survey. Further biological children were desired by 37.1% of the participants and lifetime fertility intention was 2.4 children. Increased fertility desire was associated with living and having sex with a partner, HIV disclosure, good perceived health status and CD4 count >=200 cells for both sexes. Reduced desire was associated with havingmore than 2 children among females, divorce or separation, and having a child with the current partner among both males and females. Fertility desire and intention of PLWHA was substantially high though lower than that of the general population in Tanzania. Practice of unprotected sexual intercourse with higher pregnancy rate was observed. Fertility desire was determined by individual perceived health and socio-family related factors. With increasing ART coverage and subsequent improved quality of life of PLWHA, these findings underscore the importance of integrating reproductive health services in the routine care and treatment of HIV/AIDS worldwide. The results also highlight a group of PLWHA with potentially high desire for children who need to be targeted during care