Influence of Oil Palm Cultivation on Topsoil Properties in Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research, Akwa Ibom State

The thin layer of soil covering the surface of the earth represents the difference between survival and extinction for most land-based life. Four oil palm blocks of varying ages: 57 years (B-57), 39 years (B-39), 17 years (B-17), and no oil palm block (B-0), which served as the control, were identified and used for the study. The result showed that in B-0, B-17, B-39 and B-57, 7 (22.58%), 10 (32.26%), 8 (25.81%) and 5 (16.13%) soil properties, out of the 31 soil properties, had higher values when compared to one another respectively. Also, the means of the topsoil depths for the different blocks were: B-0 (30cm), B-17 (23cm), B-39 (24cm) and B-57 (28cm). The result showed that oil palm influenced most of the topsoil properties in the study area, especially in B-17, compared to the no oil palm block. B-17 had the highest mean values in most topsoil properties, followed by B-39, B-0 and B-57. The topsoil depth also increased with the age of the oil palm. This has shown that the age of oil palm had a major influence on the topsoil depth and their properties. Oil palm can be used as a soil management technique seeing it improves soil status with time.