Assessment of Salinity Extent in Irrigated Agricultural Lands of Arbaminch Zuria and Mirab Abaya Districts in Gamo Zone, South Ethiopia Region

Abstract

Abstract

This study was aimed to assess the extent of salinity in irrigated agricultural lands and extract tangible information for soil and water sample collections in Arbaminch Zuria and Mirab Abaya Districts in Gamo Zone, South Ethiopia Region. The base line survey was collected totally from 114 households of irrigation users from both districts. The result acquired indicates that (83.27%) of the farm land was affected by salinity. According to the respondent, (73.3% ) of farm land salinity was occurred due to irrigation water quality problems as compared to other causes of salinity like parent material (45.6%), irrigation method (33.3%), climate condition (8.8%), land leveling (2.6%), irrigation frequency (32.5%), amount of irrigation water (15.8%) and drainage system (18.4%). Due the farm land suffers of salinity; agricultural productivity was decreasing from year to year. This as a yield reduction; the result indicates that (9.6%) of complete loss, (48.2%) of 50% loss (15.8%) of 10% of loss and (13.2%) of less than 10% of loss and which needs further solutions for the problem. Therefore, it was recommended that soil and water samples should be collected, analyzed and source of salinity should be identified for further reclamation measures of affected agricultural lands.