Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management
Vol 6, No 2 (2019)

Land and water conservation practices in tropical agricultural watershed

Chandra Setyawan (National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan)
Sahid Susanto (Department of Agricultural and Biosystem Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Technology)
Chin-Yu Lee (Department of Soil and Water Conservation, College of Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 91201)



Article Info

Publish Date
01 Jan 2019

Abstract

Large-scale land cultivation practices for agriculture which disregard conservation principles are resulting in land degradation problems in tropical regions. The differences of environmental condition become the main concern for determining proper strategies to overcome this problem. The present study aimed to evaluate the application of land and water conservation (LWC) practices in tropical agricultural watersheds. The conservation practices (in the form of regreening bare areas and construction of LWC structures i.e. small-scale dam, terrace and stone weir) were performed in a partnership scheme involving government, higher education institution, local inhabitant and private party. The result showed that the partnership approach made conservation activities possible in a shorter time and a lower risk of failure. Economically, it reduced the unit cost of the conservation structures construction up to 70%. We also assessed the dam performance for LWC purpose. The assessment indicated the dam can effectively increase soil water storage and control the river sedimentation. The use of local resources (community and materials for conservation structures) enabled the sustainable of LWC practices on a watershed scale.

Copyrights © 2019






Journal Info

Abbrev

jdmlm

Publisher

Subject

Agriculture, Biological Sciences & Forestry Biochemistry, Genetics & Molecular Biology

Description

Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management is managed by the International Research Centre for the Management of Degraded and Mining Lands (IRC-MEDMIND), research collaboration between Brawijaya University, Mataram University, Massey University, and Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of ...