About to Lose all the Soil in Zaka’s Ward 5, Zimbabwe: Rewards of Unsustainable Land Use

Abstract

Soil erosion which manifests itself in the form of gullies, rills and sheet wash is animmensely complicated process involving the interaction of many biological, social,economic, environmental and political factors. It varies in its occurrence bothspatially and temporally. The ultimate result of soil erosion is that it reduces cropyields and ruins agriculture, though the exact extent of soil erosion and landdegradation is not known.The study was carried out in Masvingo Province, ZakaDistrict, Ward 5 with 4502 households using the questionnaire survey, interviewand field observations as research methods. The study established that populationpressure ( people and livestock), as evidenced by, cultivation of steep slopes,stream bank cultivation, deforestation and overstocking are major problems .Fromthe results, it emerged that people continue to compound the problem by settlingand extending farmlands on steep slopes, stream banks, grazing land and dambos/veils. Therefore, there is need to educate people on conservation, proper tillage,proper or correct stocking rates, develop a proper land tenure system and avoidingland degradation. There are patches of abandoned land on account of failure tosupport crops or grazing. This means that there is need for soil conservationmeasures to be instituted so as to save the soil from further deterioration. This isnot to say nothing has been done before, rather it is the enormity of the problemthat dictates that form and decisive action needs be taken sooner rather than latter.Measures which have been implemented are fragmented and seem to have metwith very limited, if at all any, success so there might be need to revisit both theapproach ,methods, techniques and strategies which have been tried hitherto witha view to blend them with the yet untried and untested methods.

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