The effect of the soil cover management and conservation practice on soil and water losses caused by the erosivity of rainfall in Haplargid soil have been analyzed in this paper. The field data corresponding to the years 1983-1990 were collected at the Experimental Basin of Sumé, PB operated by the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB). The experimental data resulting from one erosion plot cleared bare of vegetation and continuously ploughed in, two cleared bare runoff plots, one runoff plot with native semiarid vegetation, two mulched runoff plots, one plot with cactus planted down the slope and one plot with cactus planted along contour lines were used in the analysis. The bare ploughed plot contributed with annual soil and water losses of 23.1 t ha-1 and 201 mm respectively. In the cleared runoff plots, the soil losses were of 35.7 and 58.5 t ha-1 and the water losses of 224.2 and 241.0 mm, respectively. The runoff plot with native semiarid vegetation when compared with the bare runoff plots, showed a reduction in the soil losses of about 99% and the water losses of around 89%, while in mulched runoff plots there was a reduction of approximately 99% of soil losses and 74% of water losses when compared with the bare plots. The contour planted cactus plot reduced the soil losses by about 53.4% compared with the down the slope planted cactus plot.
erosion; soil management; semiarid region
