ABSTRACT
Keeping cropland productivity and increasing field crops production is very crucial in the world as well as in Thrace region of Turkey. If countries have productive cropland they are self sufficient for agricultural food, and they also export their extra agricultural products to other countries. Especially today those countries rich for national income per capita and live in high prosperity.
A few centimeters deep soil layer formation take along time (1000 years). Therefore, productive cropland is very valuable and natural richness for all living creatures. The conservation of cropland is vital for everybody.
The high erosion rate on cropland in Thrace region can leave the land less productive in 2000’s. Definition of erosion can made for agriculturally as wear away by gradual action, especially of water, wind, and gravity. There are very sensitive relation and balance among soil, water and plant cover. If plant cover is destroyed by farmers in wrong cultivation practices on the high slope land, erosion rate can be increased due to high rainfall, wind, and gravity.
Kırklareli, Edirne, and Tekirdağ provinces in Thrace have high erosive cropland (315,041 ha). The largest erosive cropland in Kırklareli 197,581 ha, second in Edirne 60,164 ha, and third in Tekirdağ 57,306 ha. In Thrace basin farmers can[U1] not change the weather, the kind of soil, or the slope of their land, but they can change the way they farm the land. Soil erosion threatens the future of farming in the Thrace cropland and quality of water. But it can be controlled and reduced by conservation practices. Minimum tillage 35 %, field strip cropping 15 to 28 %, terraces 8 to 13 % can reduce erosion rates. Retiring steep, highly erodible land to grass or other protective cover such as legumes cover would greatly reduce erosion and would benefit wildlife.
Key words: Conservation, erosion, soil
