Impact of Land Use System on Soil Quality in Southwest Nigeria

A soil quality (SQ) evaluation was conducted on three different farm locations in the Ijebu-Igbo region of Ogun State Nigeria to ascertain the health status of the soils. The farmlands have been subjected to different land use systems (LUS) for over ten years including plantain/banana orchard, arable farming and fallow/secondary forest. Soil samples were obtained at 0-30 cm and 30-60 cm depths from each farmland. The SQ of the farms was evaluated quantitatively using the SQ index equation proposed by Bajracharya et al. (2006). The results revealed that at 0-30cm depth, the LUS had significant (P