Abstract

Currently, soil degradation represents a severe problem for the forestry-agricultural sector in various regions of the world. Chile is not an exception to this trend since vast extensions of territory have been affected by erosive processes, which represent the leading cause of soil degradation levels. Therefore, to recover the productive potential of degraded agricultural soils, Chile has implemented 2010 the program incentive System for Agro-environmental Sustainability of Agricultural Soils”(SIRSD-S). In this context, this research aims to calculate the levels of potential soil erosion in the area of influence of the SIRSD-S, comparing the condition of the soils of the beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmers of the program. For this, the universal soil loss equation (USLE) was used in combination with information obtained from remote sensing (RS), which would allow to asses the impact of soil conservation programs. The database consisted of 112 beneficiary farmers (treated group) and 82 non-beneficiaries (control group) of the program, spatially distributed throughout the Biobío region. The results indicated that the levels of potential soil erosion are not statistically different between the beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmers of the SIRSD-S, however, there was an average difference of 0.2 tha−1yr−1 between both groups. The foregoing reflects the need to expand this research using broader time series of information in order to evaluate the impact of the program throughout its duration. Finally, it should be noted that using geospatial measurements in public policies is a reliable tool of significant impact for targeting and evaluating the efficiency of support programs for the agricultural sector, which would allow to make a more efficient use of resources granted by the government.