| Abstrakt: |
Dryland farming, managed intensively, with the input of chemical fertilizers exceeding the dose threshold, can cause soil degradation. Degraded soil affects low environmental carrying capacity and soil and water conservation. Researchers conduct soil tests on agricultural land to address this issue, especially those that apply a continuous cropping system. This study aimed to examine soil properties to determine the conditions of soil degradation in dryland farming. The method integrates spatial analysis with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), field surveys, and laboratory soil samples analysis. The spatial data used to map the potential for soil degradation includes land use, slope, rainfall, and soil type. Integrating spatial and laboratory data, such as soil physical, chemical, and biological properties results in soil degradation status conditions representing the actual conditions in the field. This study found that there were three classes of soil degradation successively, namely mild, moderate, and high. There are two statuses of soil degradation, including non-degraded and light soil degradation status. The soils with a mild degree of degradation are due to the limiting factors of permeability, fractional composition, and total porosity. Some actions that can be taken include planning soil degradation prevention measures by utilizing soil degradation potential maps that have been made for areas with high soil degradation potential. For the sites with a status of soil degradation, efforts are made to start carrying out soil improvement actions in accordance with conservation principles to reduce the soil degradation that occurs. Moreover, organic matter is added to degraded and potentially degraded soils to increase the stability of soil aggregates and water-carrying capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
