A Quick Assessment of Soil Conditions through Focus Group Discussions, Participatory Rural Appraisals, and Soil Sampling in the Mid-Hills Region of Nepal.

Soil conditions are changing rapidly in the mid-hills region of Nepal. Understanding the changes on soil condition and then implementing appropriate soil management practices to conserve soils and improve soil quality is critical for enhancing the sustainability of smallholder mixed-farming production systems in this region.  As a part of a larger project on livestock climate change adaptation, six Farmers’ Focus Group discussions, three Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRAs), and soil samplings and laboratory determinations were done in 2012 for quick assessment of soil conditions in the Thulokhola watershed of Nuwakot district in Nepal. For this study, the watershed was divided into three elevations:  upper (1,150 m asl – 1,585 m asl), middle (640 m asl – 1,150 m asl), and lower (<640 m asl). By involving farmers in collecting soil samples from their lands, ninety-six random soil samples were collected from irrigated and non-irrigated lands representing the three elevations and were analyzed for soil physical and chemical properties. Forty-one core samples were also collected for bulk density determination. Based on the results from focus group discussions and PRAs, soil productivity in the watershed has declined in recent years, soils have turned more clayey, they have degraded soil structures,  and non-irrigated lands have exposed pebbles and rocks  on their soil surfaces.  Soils in non-irrigated lands do not sufficiently support root growth and more soil borne diseases are noticed in recent years.  Increasing drought conditions, erratic rain events, and drying-up water sources have severely impacted agricultural production. For 0-15 cm depth, 20% of soil samples representing irrigated lands had soil pH < 4.5, and 32% had soil pH between 4.5 and 5.0.  Similarly, for non-irrigated lands 24% of the samples had soil pH < 5.  Bulk density values ranged between 1.19 g cm^-3  and 1.80 g cm^-3 for the lower elevation, 1.17 g cm^-3  and 1.78 g cm^-3 for middle elevation, and 1.07 g cm^-3  and 1.63 g cm^-3 for the upper elevation. These results clearly suggest that soil acidity, soil compaction, soil erosion, and declining soil productivity are major problems in this watershed.  A participatory soil assessment approach such as this offers a great potential for quick assessment of soil conditions and community capacity-building on soil resource management especially in the regions where information on soils are lacking and the climate change impacts are severe.

Key words: Soil sampling and analyses, focus group discussion,  Participatory Rural Appraisals, soil acidity, soil compaction, climate change impacts, watershed, Nepal