The land use system in the study area is not purely crop farming,
purely cattle rearing or purely forestry but an integration of these
components commonly known as agroforestry practice. Agroforestry
based conservation tillage is the most common type (which
cover around 78.5% of the total land area) of land management
practice. Currently, however, maize based conventional tillage is
expanding at the expense of agroforestry based conservation
tillage in the study area.
Maize is the most common cereal crop produced in the study
area. The local farmers use the traditional Maresha plow to prepare
their farm for maize production. The plowing system is simple and
shallow tilling up to soil depth of 15 cm on average. This traditional
Maresha (Fig. 3) with its full setup off course could be used in most
part of Ethiopia. The whole system of this implement is made up of
locally available wood, cattle skin as a strap on the rear side of the
beam and on the yoke (Fig. 3). This traditional tillage implement is
commonly drafted by oxen (Gebregziabher et al., 2006). The first
plowing time for maize crop here in the study area is done as soon
as on the onset of the first rain season. Because of its V-shaped
ploughing by Maresha, the local farmers have to do repeated tillage
with any two consecutive tillage operations carried out perpendicular
to each other. As a result, the soil is pulverized resulting in
weak soil structure and compact formation. Farmers plough 2–3