This document discusses soil and water conservation. It notes that water is essential for life but that soil erosion and water pollution threaten both. It provides facts on soil erosion and lists major threats to water quality like chemicals, manure, and excessive fertilizers. The document recommends conservation practices like crop rotation, contour farming, and terracing to reduce soil erosion and protect water resources. Proper land and water management can improve water quality.
2. Objectives
Nature of Soil and Water
Water Conservation
Soil Erosion
Protective measures
3. Most of the Earth’s surface is covered with water.
Our bodies, plants and animals are about 90% water.
Water is an essential nutrient for all plants & animals.
4. WATER
Water has been described
as the Universal Solvent
Water transports
nutrients & carries away
waste products
5. LAND
Land provides solid foundations for
buildings, nutrition & support for plants and space
for work & play and storage for water.
7. SOIL EROSION FACTS
Soil scientists report it takes 300-500 years for
nature to develop 1 inch of topsoil from bedrock.
There are 50 acres of tropical rain forest lost every
minute through “slash & burn”
Amount of soil dumped into the Mississippi River
Delta every day would fill a freight train 150 miles
long.
9. removal of soil to form relatively narrow and deep
trenches known as gullies.
10. – loss of soil on sloping land where small channels
are formed by running water
11. Major Threats to Water Quality
Chemicals
Manure
Household products – paint, varnish, household
cleaning products.
Excessive amounts of fertilizer
Pesticides
Gas, fuel or oil dumping
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15. Keep soil covered with growing plants
Utilize terrace farming methods
Use contour practices in farming, nursery
production and gardening
Use strip cropping on hilly land
Rotate crops.
Provide the correct balance of lime and fertilizer
Establish permanent grass waterways
Avoid overgrazing
Use land according to a conservation plan
16. Contour practice
— operations such as
ploughing, disking, planting, cultivating, and
harvesting across the slope and on the level.
23. Improvement of water quality can be achieved by:
Proper Land Management
Careful Water Storage and Handling
Appropriate Use of Water
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26. Demands are increasing every year for water while
resources are becoming more and more limited.
Huge amounts of money going out every year
for recycling, cleaning and purification of the water.
Rising instances of erosion of land because of
increased demand of agricultural land and irrigation.