Assessment and Classification of Surface Soil Erosion Impact around Dutse Jigawa State Nigeria

Surface soil condition from erosion-affected sites of Dutse is physically damaged by gully erosion. Book for Describing and Sampling Soils version 3.0 was used to evaluate soil texture, soil structure, soil consistency, and vegetation pattern of the 9 different study sites. The impact of soil erosion was measured on gully channels and calculated based on USDA soil erosion method. Soil quality (P-Sq) and land suitability (P-Ls) classes were evaluated by Visual Soil Erosion Approach (VSEA). Eroded soil volumes of 42.2 m3 and 33.5 m3 at Fagoji (FGJ) and Gidan Sarkin Askira (GSA) compared to those recorded at KRG sites (23.9 m3). There was no reasonable variation between the sites for the condition of soil in terms of soil texture, soil structure, soil consistency and vegetation. However, a correlation analysis between the sites for the calculated values of depth and width observed that five sites (FGJ2, FGJ3, KRG1, KRG2 and GSA3) are significant (P < 5%) whereas the other four sites (FGJ1, KRG3, GSA1 and GSA2) were not significant (P = 5%). Soil quality and land suitability classes were evaluated as Sq2, Sq3 and Ls2, Ls3 which can be managed under careful soil conservation application whereas Sq4, Ls4 and Sq5, Ls5 are lands not suitable for agronomic production. These land conditions of the study sites were attributed to weak soil structural condition, poor vegetation and inadequate soil management. This study suggested the use of advanced soil conservation approaches such as orchard plantation, water harvesting system and drainage application in the affected sites.