ZEF Bonn

3.2.1 Impact of land use and management on soil erosion
One of ZEF's interdisciplinary, core research projects dealing
with these issues is located in Uzbekistan. “Economic and
Ecological Restructuring of Land and Water Use in the
Khorezm Region (Uzbekistan): A Pilot Project in Development
Research" is described in detail in a previous section.
The second interdisciplinary project deals with the “Policies for
Improved Land Management in Uganda". The long-term goal
of this project is to contribute to improved land management
in Uganda in order to increase agricultural productivity, reduce
poverty, and ensure sustainable use of natural resources. The
immediate purpose is to help policy-makers identify and assess
policy and institutional and technological strategies to improve
land management in Uganda.
The contribution of the department 'Ecology and Resource Management' includes:
● the stratification of land management domains throughout Uganda using geographical
information system (GIS),
● an assessment of nutrient balance and various technological options for sustainable
land use,
● the development of site-specific land management strategy utilising a deterministic
erosion model,
● the application of radio-nuclide techniques (Cs-137 and Pb-210) to assess longterm
soil degradation in Uganda and
● the development of the crop growth model (DSSAT) and Artificial Neural
Network (ANN) crop simulator to assess the influence of various technological
options on potential crop yield.
The integration of all these methodologies for a more sustainable landscape-based
resource management is currently under investigation.
The stratification of land management domains was performed at the beginning of
the project. This stratification procedure combines the potential for market access,
population density, and the agricultural potential to delineate spatial domains of
land management over Uganda as a whole. Its output provided the main selection
criteria for subsequent market, community, household and plot surveys. During the
field survey in 2000 and 2001, the mapping of natural resources and soil surveys
were also conducted to identify a large-scale natural resource distribution pattern
throughout Uganda.
Detailed surveys were carried out in seven districts of Eastern Uganda to estimate
nutrient balances at farm level. Comprehensive natural processes and farming activities
were included in the calculation of the nutrient balance. It turned out that the
balances were negative for all nutrients across the sites covered. The major avenues
of nutrient losses are through marketing of crops and soil erosion. On-farm research
was conducted at four sites each among 14 to 17 randomly selected farmers in
Eastern Uganda to evaluate the potential of various agronomic techniques to improve
maize and rice production in the region. In addition to examining various technological
options for resource-poor farmers in Eastern Uganda, the most suitable strate-
Research
The Minister of Agriculture
and Water Management of
the Republic of Uzbekistan
at his inaugural speech of
the Uzbekistan Project in
Taschkent, May 2002.
Detailed surveys were carried
out in seven districts of
Eastern Uganda to estimate
nutrient balances at the farm
level. It turned out that the
balances were negative for all
nutrients across the sites covered.
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