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Friday, January 11, 2013
Sisal Growing for Soil Erosion prevention
Sisal is a tough plant. It can thrive in drought conditions and in rough land with very little nutrition. Kyuso district of Kitui county of Kenya is one of the district in Kenya which bear the above qualities. Farmers here are are not aware of more importance of Sisal but recently learnt that It helps to stop soil erosion and captures moisture from the atmosphere. It can be planted any time of the year and harvested throughout the year. It even survives fire.
Mr. Mwengi Musili started growing sisal in his 13 acres land, when he learnt that sisal could control erosion. he had been challenged by erosion in his farm for a very long time since he bought the piece of land as abandoned land and he had to reclaim it. He decided to use sisal for he has never heard in history of a drought that has ever killed the sisal plant and there fore its a drought resistant crop.
He plants the sisal along the terraces and he sisal has prevented erosion by 80%. "The rill erosion that existed are now filled and am now left with three gullies that are disturbing me seriously and am looking at ways of curbing this" Said Mr Mwengi
Sisal is naturally safe and environmental friendly . It has very few disease which in most cases doesn't need any pesticide. It can be inter-cropped with other crops and even protect the other crops from fire attack..
Glad to see the growing support for soil erosion and sediment control!
ReplyDeletesoil erosion has become a global issue. Unrestricted deforestion, overpopulation, global warming are all causes of soil erosion that we need to take care of.
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ReplyDeleteSoil erosion is the displacement of the upper layer of soil, the agents of soil erosion are the same as the agents of all types of erosion: water, wind, ice, or gravity. Running water is the leading cause of soil erosion because water is abundant and has a lot of power. The wind is also a leading cause of soil erosion because wind can pick up soil and blow it far away.
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