Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 18 ISSUE 3
Written by Donald Nweze OSUJIEKE, Juliet Nnenna IGBOJIONU, Pedro Ezemon IMADOJEMU, Jude Nnanyere IROHA

The study was conducted to ascertain the influence of four land use types [plantain plantation (PP), cassava farm (CF), whistling pine forest (WPF) and fallow land (FL)] on soil properties of Egbeada in South-east, Nigeria. Stratified sampling technique was used in the collection of soil samples from the land-uses. Composite samples were collected from each land-use for routine and selected special laboratory analyses. Data generated were analyzed statistically using analysis of variance. Sand particles had a mean of 85.20 %, 85.80 %, 83.60 % and 78.80 % for soils under PP, CF, WPF, and FL, respectively. The pH(H₂O) had mean of 6.35, 6.42, 5.36 and 5.81 soils under PP, CF, WPF, and FL while organic matter had mean of 2.94 % for PP and FL, 1.47 % for CF and 2.79 % for WPF. However, available Zn of the studied soils had mean of 8.7 mg kg^-1, 6.8 mg kg^-1, 5.3 mg kg^-1 and 4.9 mg kg^-1 in decreasing order of fallow land > whistling pine forest > plantain plantation > cassava farm, respectively. The organic matter under soils of cassava farm differed significantly (P = 0.05) with that of plantain plantation, whistling pine forest, and fallow land. The available Zn and Cu differed non-significantly among soils of the various land-uses. However, the result obtained from the study indicated that the different land-uses have affected the soils at a various rate.

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