Almost every year there is always news of ongoing soil erosion everywhere. The slow handling of related parties causes the ecosystem to deteriorate around the erosion. The results of research that has been done shows the level of soil damage in almost all areas of the country is classified as severe and it has occurred since the beginning of the 20th century. The lack of knowledge of erosion control among farmers is one of the main causes, therefore conservative efforts are needed to prevent soil erosion.
In general erosion can occur due to water and wind, for Indonesia erosion is more common due to the erosion of the soil by water. Erosion occurs when the absence of vegetation growing on the soil, whereas with the vegetation makes the water stuck in the roots so it does not go down, especially on sloping land. Material and non-material losses incurred are very large, no wonder the impact will be felt until several years. Here’s How To Prevent Land Erosion:
- Do Soil Conservation
The basic understanding of soil conservation is a series of efforts and strategies to prevent and inhibit the process of soil erosion and changes in biological and chemical structures due to errors in soil processing such as acidification, salinization and contamination of other harmful substances.
- Making Terraces
Terraces is one form of erosion prevention is most often done by making the terrace after terrace like a ladder on a sloping ground so that when it rains the water does not just drift away so that the chance of soil erosion can be minimized. By creating such a terraced land system it will make the soil more stable as well as excellent for the crops grown on the land. But terracing making will also affect the Earth’s atmosphere because it will make soil conservation that will alter the structure of the soil.
- Counting Farming
Is a planting system based on the contour line of a soil so that the root system of plants will be more solid and able to hold the ground when heavy rains occur. The making of this soil contour system is like making a soil trap so it is not easy to drift away from water, making the porch of a bench or deer. Contour planting system has been widely introduced to farmers in Indonesia to develop sustainable agriculture.
- Creating a Spouse Embankment
Every sloping land must be made of a kind of dike that is aligned and parallel to the contour of the soil, thus the rainwater can be accommodated from directly absorb into the soil, reducing the occurrence of Run Off or surface flow. In the embankment area is better planted by plants such as corn that has a high stem, thus the water will not be too long stagnant in the dike area.
- Optimize Drainage
The purpose of this drainage to be a water release path so that the remaining water that is not absorbed by vegetation cover or buffering, can immediately flow to a lower place. To using erosion control with this method, it is also necessary to cut the slope length shorter by using the terrace to slow the flow of water. In addition, it is also necessary to regularly review the quality of drainage of a field by checking to see if any part of it is damaged, so such a step can further optimize the function of a drainage.
- Make Crop Rotation
Is one effort that aims to maintain the preservation of nutrients contained in the soil by way of rotating the planting schedule of plant species so that substances useful for soil fertility is not absorbed by one type of plant. If the nutrient is exhausted it will be more vulnerable to the occlusion of the topsoil, where humus is and will not be the cause of global warming.
Growth of a plant will be inhibited if not do the crop rotation, because each plant has different characteristics in absorbing nutrients, if only plant one type of plant then the chemical balance of the soil will be disturbed, the plant will be difficult to grow well so that eventually no longer sturdy in holding the ground and absorbing water.