SOIL CONSERVATION AND MAIZE CROPPING SYSTEMS ON SLOPING LOESS SOILS IN THE NETHERLANDS

During the last three decades, damage by rainfall induced accelerated erosion with associated off-site effects (flooding, sedimentation), ha s increased in Dutch South-Limbourg. Damage affects a hilly area with 40,000 ha of loess soils. In 1985, a plot study started to evaluate th e effects of various conservation cropping systems of fodder maize on runoff, erosion and crop yield under natural and simulated rainfall. I n this paper, 1992 and 1993 results are presented. It can be concluded that (a) conservation cropping systems are much more effective in red ucing soil loss than runoff on a plot scale and (b) a surface mulch of straw was the most effective measure to reduce runoff and erosion, by 46.5 and 89.5% respectively, compared with the conventional system. ( C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.