Soil erosion due to settled upland farming in the Himalaya: a case study in Pranmati watershed

SUMMARY A common concept is that upland agriculture undertaken by local communities is a major factor causing large-scale soil erosion and other environmental problems in the Himalaya. Attempts to measure soil loss from farm fields are limited. This study was undertaken to measure the rate of soil loss from fields sown with crops during the rainy season and to examine the factors determining the erosion rates in the Pranmati watershed which is characterised by settled organic farming on terraced slopes. About 43% of the total agricultural land in the watershed was on low sloping terraces (< 2°), 32% on medium sloping terraces (2-6°) and 25% on highly sloping terraces (6-10°). Potato was the most dominant crop, occupying 50.2% of the total cropped area, followed by Amaranthus paniculatus (22.6%), Eleusine coracana (11.2%), Echinocloa frumentacea (10%) and Oryza sativa (6%). Soil loss from different crop covers was in the range of 0.300-0.658 t/ha/yr on low sloping terraces, 1–7 t/ha/yr on medium sloping te...

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