**1. Introduction**

Methodologies for sustainable management of land degradation, economic growth and poverty reduction have become topical issues in present African research activities because of the danger posed by their neglect [1]. Land degradation especially the soil erosion aspect has been recognized as a serious threat to environmental sustainability. It impacts life on earth through degradation of land resources, loss of farmlands, decline in soil fertility due to top soil losses, contributes to climate change due to a compromise in soils C-sink potentials. In lowlands, eroded soils are often deposited as sediments on both land and river bodies. Thus further impoverishing rural communities who are often ill- equipped to manage the threat on land and water resources. As a result of the many implications of soil erosion on the environment, many efforts have been made to adequately understand the phenomenon so as to better manage it. Many of such efforts have failed due to little consideration of the several factors and their environmental peculiarities. The factors include: rainfall, soil properties, topography, and land-use and management. Since soil erosion begins in the farmer's field, scientific results could

**Figure 1.** *Location of the reviewed area showing the states*

be complemented by indigenous knowledge interventions in order to achieve better results. Local people have not only found nomenclatures for their soils, the indigenous knowledge has also extended to practices that have been through longterm observation of their interaction with the environment and transferred from generation to generation. Ezeaku and Salau [2] defined indigenous soil knowledge system as "the knowledge of soil properties and management possessed by people living in a particular environment for a long period of time. Soil conservation practices applicable to the North- Western zone of Nigeria include: contour farming, ridge tying, strip cropping, crop rotation, planted fallows, conservation pits, crop livestock farming and adequate fertilizer use [3, 4]. Howevever not much studies have been carried out in the Southeastern Nigeria (**Figure 1**) which is particularly an erosion prone zone.
