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Soils, Ecosystem Processes, and Agricultural Development pp 309–321Cite as

Control of Wind Erosion, Loss of Soils, and Organic Matter Using the “Fallow Band System” in Semiarid Sandy Soils of the Sahel

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Abstract

In the Sahel region of West Africa, wind erosion has a significant impact on soil nutrient dynamics. However, they had not been accurately evaluated because of the disadvantages of the conventional sediment samplers. Therefore, the Aeolian Materials Sampler (AMS) was developed to compensate for the disadvantages, and field scale nutrient flow by wind erosion was measured using the AMSs. It was revealed that (1) the annual loss of soil nitrogen from a cultivated field by wind erosion was two to three times greater than the annual absorption by the staple crop; (2) however, when there was a herbaceous fallow land (more than 5-m wide in the east-west direction) at the west side of the field, most of the blown soil nutrients were captured by the fallow land. On the basis of this high trapping capacity of the fallow land, “Fallow Band System” was designed to control nutrient dynamics as well as improve the crop production. A field experiment showed that (a) a single fallow band with a width of 5 m trapped 74 % of annual incoming soil particles and 58 % of annual incoming coarse organic matter (COM), suggesting that the “Fallow Band System” can control the nutrient flow by wind erosion and (b) owing to the enormous deposition of the trapped soil materials by the fallow band, soil nutrient status and hydraulic conductivity of the surface soil were greatly improved in the former fallow band, which resulted in the improved crop yield compared with the field without the system.

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  1. Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, 1-1 Ohwashi Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8686, Japan

    Kenta Ikazaki

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  1. Kenta Ikazaki
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Correspondence to Kenta Ikazaki .

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  1. Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Shinya Funakawa

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Ikazaki, K. (2017). Control of Wind Erosion, Loss of Soils, and Organic Matter Using the “Fallow Band System” in Semiarid Sandy Soils of the Sahel. In: Funakawa, S. (eds) Soils, Ecosystem Processes, and Agricultural Development. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56484-3_15

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