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Effect of filter press mud (FPM) application on nutrient availability in Aquert and Fluvent soils at Wonji-Shoa Sugarcane Plantation, located at central part of the East African Rift Valley, was studied during the 2003/04 growing season. The rate of FPM application was 0, 60 and 120 ton/h. Field monitoring was made for ninety days. As per the management practice of the Sugar Estate, the Aquert soil was green manured with Crotalarea junceae prior to the treatment application. Soil samples were collected and analyzed every fortnight for organic carbon (OC) and available N. Available P, exchangeable bases, Fe, and Mn content of the soil were monitored at the beginning and end of the experiment. Incorporation of FPM significantly increased the OC content in both soils. Nonetheless, the accumulation of OC was more in Aquert than Fluvent soils, due to the initial higher OC obtained from Crotalatea j., higher clay content and moist condition of the Aquert soil. The application of FPM promoted the available N though the availability of N ion, however, in both soils, the content declined during the first 45 days after application. Gradually, significant increase in the available N was observed (starting from 45th day of application up to the 90th day). This indicates that FPM having C/N ratio of 27 resulted in priming effect. The trend analysis made indicated that proportional increase in available P can be obtained with increasing rate of FPM application, though available K was found to be lower in FPM treated soils. The application of FPM buffered (reduced) the soil pH to 7.6. The highest rate of FPM application (120 ton/ha) slightly improved the soil electrical conductivity (EC). Furthermore, the study indicated that the application of FPM had the ability to reduce the soils exchangeable Na content. Thus, FPM has A. Fantaye

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Human’s unwise and ineffective exploitation behavior has caused losses of the vital natural resources, soil and water, which will definitely leave the future of the next generation in jeopardy. As a result of human intervention and natural causes most lakes in Ethiopia are shrinking in size while others are showing increase in volume. The intensive exploitation, beyond its regeneration rate, of the Lake Haramaya for water supply and agricultural purposes by the community within and outside its catchment boundary has led to its extinction. Although, some studies have been conducted on land use/land cover dynamics, the focus given to quantification of temporal variability lake surface area and the impact of weather variability on the lake water was inadequate. Hence, this study was conducted with the prime objective of mapping/quantifying the temporal lake surface area fluctuation using time series remote sensing images and investigating the impact of weather/climate variability on the lake. After acquiring Landsat images of the years 1985, 1995, 2003, 2010 and 2016 over the dry Haramaya Lake basin (path/row 166/54), the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were used for enhancing and extracting the open water surface of the lake. All of the enhanced images display a trend of decreasing lake surface water area with an average shrinkage of 23.6% between the year 1985 and up to its disappearance. After 2000 the lake surface area shrinkage was at its maximum which has a direct relation with the occurrence of dry weather as a result ofrelatively higher temperature and low rainfall between the years 2000 to 2003.