Soil is not only the largest feature of the forest, but also is a source of its scent

A serious problem, however, yet lies in the early identification of dispersive soils . In spite of all the knowledge obtained over the years, there is still no fast, simple and dependable mean of conclusively recognizing dispersive soils. Many methods have been suggested including the pinhole, double hydrometer, crumb and chemical tests, individually or in group. These, but, have not always been totally credible and it looks like that the cause sets in the factual testing procedures. The standard testing procedures for the Soil Conservation Service double hydrometer test, the pinhole test, crumb test and chemical analyses have lately been studied and problems/abnormalities identified. Although no discussion concerning these anomalies has been discovered in the literature, the recent testing proposes that many of these deficiencies may have been looked out during past routine investigations. This paper summarizes a proportional study including the testing of three specimen utilizing one standard laboratory test, namely the SCS double hydrometer test and discusses some potential means of conquering the problems identified.

The other tests have been discussed separately. SCS double hydrometer or dispersion soil test has been identified as one of the most suitable tests for classifying dispersive soils. The test assesses the dispersibility of a soil by measuring the natural propensity of the clay fraction to go into annotate in water. The procedure involves the estimation of the percentage of particles in the soil that are finer than 0.005 mm utilizing the standard hydrometer test. A parallel test is also carried out, in which no chemical dispersant is added and the solution is not mechanically excited. The quantity of particles finer than 0.005 mm in the parallel test is explicit as a percentage of this fraction determined in the standard test, which is defined as the dispersion ratio or dispersivity of the soil . Dispersion ratios greater than 50% are observed extremely dispersive, between 30% and 50% are moderately dispersive, between 15% and 30% are a little dispersive and less than 15% are non-dispersive . Similar systems with various limits were used by, and the dispersion test was first described by Volk  as a means of determining the potential dispersive of soils.

The test has since been utilized extensively in this concern with minor modifications. Volk’s test contrasts the weight of soil grains, 0.005 mm or smaller that slaked free when air-dried lumps of soil were soaked in silent distilled water with that of the complete soil. This was shown as the percentage dispersion. The pipette method itself was announced by Middleton in 1930 as a means of determining the erosion potential of a soil. The difference in the methods was that the samples collected in the pipette depend on particles of a maximum diameter of 0.05 mm . Volk’s method was, however, chosen because studies in the southwest of the United States point out that the dispersion of the clay fraction was more significant in assessing the piping potential of soils . The SCS involvement in earth dam construction in the United States reproduces in the 1940’s and early 1950’s. It was during this time that the test procedure was appropriate to utilize a hydrometer to instate a pipette .This study was performed in Sulaimani Governorate to determine the effect of ten land use and clay content on dispersion ratio. The soil samples from 0 – 30 cm depth were collected from different locations. All soil samples were air dried, sieved through a 2 mm physical properties were measured such as particle size distribution by the pipette method, bulk density by Clod method. A single point using water under isothermal condition was measured the according to . Chemical properties were measured like soil organic matter which determined by the Walkley-Black method  and calcium carbonate by titration method. Correlation and regression were used to analyze the relationship between land use and some soil parameters of the samples .

Analysis of variance for complete randomized design was used to compare the influence of the land usage types on the measured soil properties. DUNCAN at P < 0.5 level was used to separate the mean where applicable.The soil texture of the study area was significantly affected by land use. Data obtained in Table 1 showed the variation in sand, silt and clay fraction of the soil. The result shows that the textural class across all the land use types of the study area is different soil texture, indicating the different of parent material. The result is in agreement with . However, over a very long period of time, paedogenesis processes such as erosion, deposition, eluviations, and weathering can change the soil texture.

The results of analysis of income-inequality revealed existence of income inequality

They analysed their data using conventional qualitative content analysis and they found that female-headed households faced many challenges that could become a big threat or an opportunity.A study was conducted to investigate the nature and determinants of income inequality in mountain areas using the case of Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania. Specifically, the study used the cross-sectional research design, income percentile shares, Gini coefficient and Lorenz curves, as well as, the coefficient of variation , to pinpoint the nature of income inequality in the study area using both pooled and disaggregated data. The determinants of income inequality were investigated using the step by step multiple linear regression model. At the 50 percentile, the mean incomes for disaggregated analysis were the highest for farmers with farmland located far from homestead, followed by those of farmers who accessed extension services during the past two years and farmers who were members of community-based financial institutions.

The mean incomes were the lowest for female-headed households, followed by farmers who did not access extension services as well as farmers with farmland located close to homestead. The farmlands located far from homestead were mostly found along the footsteps of the mountains or lowland areas where landholdings were relatively larger allowing for more intensification and crop revenues than the farmlands located in the upper gradients. Membership to community-based financial institutions had the most equalizing effect on income. Unexpectedly however, income inequality amongst farmers who accessed extension services was higher than that of their counterpart farmers who did not access the services. We attribute this to variations in personal household characteristics , and economic characteristics . Overall, crop production was the main source of income in the agroforestry systems of the study area, followed by timber products. The contribution of income from non-farm income generating activities was the lowest but these sources constituted a major income-inequality increasing component in the pooled sample. However, the results of disaggregated analysis showed that “non-farm sources” were decreasing income-inequality for farmers with farmlands located close to homestead, for female-headed households, for farmers who did not access extension services, and for farmers who were members of community-based financial institutions.

This implies that diversification of income sources is an important strategy for reducing income inequality in mountain areas. Accordingly, policies and initiatives that aim to promote diversification of livelihoods are more likely to reduce income inequality in these areas and are therefore recommended. The values of coefficients in our step by step multiple linear regression model suggested that household assets, size of farmland, and age of household head positively influenced household income and household size negatively influenced household income. Our results also suggest that, gender disparity remains one of the key issues to be addressed, and it should be taken into account in formulating future policies, especially those aiming to reduce inequality among populations in mountain areas and thus, improving living standards and well-being of smallholder farmers in these areas. In addition to promoting livelihood diversification, we therefore recommend tailor-made training and farm financing mechanism to help the less resource endowed farmers, including the female-headed households in mountain areas to raise their economic portfolios and social status.This paper is based on a postgraduate research conducted under the Department of Forest and Environmental Economics of the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania.

The author would therefore wish to extend his sincere gratitude to Ms. Willickister R. Kadigi for allowing her raw data to be used for analysis in this paper, to the former and current heads of the Department of Forest and Environmental Economics at SUA, Prof. Jumanne Abdallah and Dr. Greyson Z. Nyamoga respectively, as well as the other academic staff in the Department for their enormous academic support. My sincere acknowledgements are also due to Mr. Raymond R. Kilenga, the Programme Officer of the Eastern Arc Mountains Conservation Endowment Fund; Ms. Bernadetha Chille, the Principle Forest Officer of the Uluguru Forest Nature Reserve; the respondents and village/hamlet leaders in the study area for their hands of support as well as excellent cooperation and inputs during data collection.

Home gardens allow all family members to be involved in some form or another

The 2007 national census reported a total population of 140,080 of whom 70,967 were men and 69,113 were women; 12,615 or 9.01% of its population were urban dwellers. The majority of the inhabitants are Muslim, with 98.29% and the remaining are follower of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. A Reconnaissance survey of the study area was conducted on October 2016 to see whether the area is suitable to meet the objectives stated during that period, overall information on the study area was obtained and representative sampling site were identified by consulting the elders and the residents of the town. The town was divided in to three representative sampling sites for data collection was based on the presence of traditional home garden practices. House holders in shaping and rented houses were purposively excluded since they do not have space to cultivate home garden plants. Therefore only households who have their own compounds and have access to and control over gardens plants were considered for study.

After the domain of the households to be considered for the study is demarcated as stated above sampling frame was made based on the study aims and available budget. According to , the site of the sample depends on available fund,time and other reasons and not necessarily the total population. Hence a total of a 180 households were randomly selected to determine the frequency of home gardens and to identify those types the list of all households that fell in the domain were received from the town residences and workers after which the total number of those households divided by a sample size to determine sampling intervals for each sample site during the random selection. For data collection and analysis 60 home gardens were preferentially selected from houses as pointed out by 11. When recording indigenous knowledge held by certain social groups the choice of key informants for the study was done through available sampling. Accordingly a total of 16 persons which are believed to be knowledgeable persons between the ages of were selected from different sites .Home gardens observations were made using observation checklist having columns of recording homegarden direction, plant diversity, and other important parameters and by laying quadrants in each homegarden.

Semi structured interview was made with systematically selected key informants and with home garden owners in each site during ethno botanical data collection.Questions were used during data collection included local name of the gardens species and purpose of the home gardens grown plants management’s practices. The importance of these home gardens for in-situ conservation of plants diversity and others data related to environmental change indicators. The key informants were selected based on the number of years they live in the area and the states of their homegarden and dependency. They were encouraged to discuss the cultural and ecological knowledge , to identify the plants with their use including the functions of the plants and parts used.A market survey was conducted to record the variety and amounts of food and other home garden plant products produced and supplied to the local market. Plants that have market values in Kombolcha market were identified through observation on the market survey, and interview by interacting with producers, seller, and buyer by using the starter question.Following Ethnobotanical data collection, descriptive statistical methods such as densities, frequencies, relative densities, Shannon and wiener index for species diversity and Sorensen’s index of similarities were used to analyze the data collected in the sites. Vegetation data collection carried out according to Whittaker 1993 principle.

According to the observation made out of 180 household 128 practiced home gardening in case of spatial arrangement of the homegardens 60 gardens were found in the back yard of their houses where as 18 were side gardens in some cases the gardens found on both front and side or side and back sides Table 1. Distinct variations in site diversity and composition were encountered increasingly with increasingly in holding site. As the site of home gardens increase, as diversity of plant species increases. Home gardens on the study area are composed of trees, shrubs, herbs, and climbing plants in different strata. They consist of trees approximately 10 – 15 m on the upper strata, fruit crops 1 m to 10 m middle strata and herbaceous plants up to 1 m from the ground strata.Local peoples have developed a general home garden structure with considerable diversity and flexibility that facilitates production of the major livelihood necessities. They have managed to select crops that are co-adapted and that give multiple benefits. Home garden are found surrounding the home of the owner where he/she gets daily requirement of fruit, vegetables, fodder, medicinal plants and some plants with cultural values. According to the information during semi structured interview of homegarden owners of home gardens in the study area most of them grow vegetables during the rainy season of the year and also in the time of water scarcity byfetching water and watering home garden cultivated plants at least twice a week, as it was mentioned by some of the owners of home gardens continuous production of plants for the house hold benefits, maintains the ecological system and makes the gardens sustainable.

Planting shrubs near the homegarden in erosion prone areas were management’s practices done by owners of home gardens in the study area. Home gardens were near house hold or further away 2 – 4 minutes walking distance with living houses in some study sites to get more cultivable land for home gardening and cope up with shortage of land. Home gardens could be observed with open areas, fenced or semi-fenced. Live fences with trees and shrubs to protect home garden species from predators were more frequently observed activity as management’s practices.It allows for greater participation by female members. According to , link between the local communities and plant resource is essential for conservation and as a part of biodiversity conservation.Homegardens are typically populated by a wide Varity of plants, varying from small herbs total trees. From this study 78 species which are under 35 families were recorded from 18 homegardens surveyed . The representative families and number of species under each family were found families like Solonaceae, and Rutaceae ranks top of the list 6 species each followed by Fabaceae and Lamiaceae consistes of 5 specieseach and Asteraceae, Poaceae, Rosaceae and Brassicaceae represented by 4 species each.