VARIATION IN BULK DENSITIES, ORGANIC CARBON AND WATER TRANSMISSION PROPERTIES UNDER FIVE DIFFERENT LAND USE TYPES IN IKOLE LGA OF EKITI STATE

 ABSTRACT

Management practices to adopt in improving the land productivity has always been a challenge. The arable land used for farm practical year students and the fadama used for raising vegetable.s and maize during the dry season are spoken about as not very productive. This is due to the gross lack of information on both the physical and chemical properties of the soils under the different land use types in the Federal University Oye-Ekiti. These land use types continued for over three decades and now there is an urgent need to examine the variation in their physical properties of different soil type use. This research work was carried out on the variability in soils as indicated by analysis of the textural classes, organic carbon, bulk density and water transmission properties such as infiltration, porosity and hydraulic conductivity under five different land use types in Ikole Campus FUOYE. The Five land use types are Arable land, Fadama land, Cashew plantation, Oil palm plantation and Plantain plantation. The data obtained for the soil properties were subjected to statistical analysis using SAS package. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used compare the influence of the land use types on the measured soil properties using Tukey's Studentized Range (HSD) Test in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Duncan multiple range tests were used to separate and compare the mean, alongside with correlation. The result shows that land use influences the soil physical, chemical and water transmission properties research on. The SOC mean of the plantain and oil palm land was similar

but significantly differed from arable, fadama and cashew also cashew, arable and fadama soils are significantly different from each other respectively. Bulk density was highest soil under cashew land use type which did not differ from arable land. The plantain land and arable land was not significantly different from each other but differed from oilpalm and fadama land with similar values.

The saturated hydraulic conductivity was highest in soil under oil palm which differed significantly from other treatments, while arable land has the lowest which has resulted from continuous cultivation and livestock grazing. The cashew land has the lowest infiltration rate which is related to the high bulk density (compaction), soil texture, continuous cropping and other management practices. The correlation between hydraulic conductivity and clay was positive and significant (P=0.05). The relationship between bulk density' and porosity was negative and highly significant (P