East African Agriculture and Forestry Research Organization, Muguga, Kenya

Abstract

In comparison with the resources devoted to chemical studies of soil nutrients, remarkably little field and laboratory time has been devoted to soil moisture studies in East Africa. Water supplies are, however, the limiting factor in much of the agricultural and forestry development, and also of the industrial expansion, in these territories; a knowledge of the water use by field’s crops, pastures, tea or coffee plantations, forest plantations and indigenous vegetation is essential to efficient land-use planning. Many of the techniques of soil physics are comparatively recent, and have been developed in temperate climates and soil conditions. In this paper techniques found suitable to East African conditions, as experienced by the author over the past eight years, are briefly discussed.