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Major Soil Types

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The Soils of Ethiopia

Part of the book series: World Soils Book Series ((WSBS))

Abstract

Ethiopia has diverse soil resources. Natural conditions, such as parent material, climate, topography, biotic and land use/land cover changes are largely responsible for creating regional and local differences in soil types and characteristics. In Ethiopia, the history of soil studies can go back as early as the 1920s although a well-organized and systematic soil survey was started in the 1960s. The soil survey works since 60 s can be broadly categorized into three: area specific, river basins, and general country-wide surveys. The area-specific studies concentrated on potential agricultural areas for either rainfed or irrigated agricultural development. Systematic area-specific and basin-wide soil surveys in the country were commenced in the late 1950s. So far, there is only one country-wide soil study carried out in Ethiopia, soil association map of Ethiopian (1:2 million scale). This was carried out in the early 1970s as a component of the Land Resources Inventory of Ethiopia for the preparation of the Master Land Use Plan for Ethiopia. Despite the presence of several types of soils, only nine soil types cover 90% of the land surface of Ethiopia. These major types of soils are Leptosols (30%), Nitisols (12%), Vertisols (11%), Cambisols (9%), Luvisols (8%), Calcisols (9%), Fluvisols (4%), Gypsisols (8%) and Alisols (3%).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Resources Management, Jimma University, P.O. Box 307, Jimma, Ethiopia

    Alemayehu Regassa, Mohammed Assen, Ashenafi Ali & Berhan Gessesse

  2. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Ashenafi Ali

  3. Entoto Observatory and Research Center (EORC), Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Berhan Gessesse

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  1. Alemayehu Regassa
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  2. Mohammed Assen
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  3. Ashenafi Ali
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  4. Berhan Gessesse
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Correspondence to Alemayehu Regassa .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Plant and Horticultural Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia

    Sheleme Beyene

  2. Department of Natural Resource Management, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia

    Alemayehu Regassa

  3. Department of Soil Science, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur, Bihar, India

    Bipin B. Mishra

  4. Department of Natural Resource Management and Environmental Protection, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Mitiku Haile

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Regassa, A., Assen, M., Ali, A., Gessesse, B. (2023). Major Soil Types. In: Beyene, S., Regassa, A., Mishra, B.B., Haile, M. (eds) The Soils of Ethiopia. World Soils Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17012-6_6

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