Soil Quality Impacts of Oil Development in Southern Chad.

A $3.7 billion oil well field and pipeline project has been underway in southern Chad since 2000. A collaborative project between with public health scientists and soil scientists is studying impacts of the oil development on interrelations among patterns of household food consumption, nutrition and community health status, land tenure, agricultural production practices, soil quality changes and degradation. This paper reports on a set of protocols used to assess soil quality changes in 40 farmer fields resulting from the increases in cropping intensity and reductions in “bush fallow” associated with the oilfield impacts on the agricultural land base near the town of Bebedja in southern Chad. Methods had to be robust and easily learned by a non-technical staff. Subsoil compaction, near surface hardened plinthite, extremely low levels of soil P, S, and Zn, low total and labile organic carbon and low water holding capacities were some of the limitations identified.  Relationships between soil quality status and household health and wealth characteristics are explored. Possible short and long term interventions to improve agricultural productivity and human health are considered.