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| Titel |
Effects of Conservation Agriculture on Soil Physical Properties and Yield of Lentil in Northern Syria |
| VerfasserIn |
Ammar Wahbi, Hisham Miwak, Raphy Singh |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2014
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 16 (2014) |
| Datensatznummer |
250089091
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2014-3280.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Conservation agriculture (CA) aims to achieve sustainable and profitable agriculture and
subsequently improve livelihoods of farmers based on three main components,
i.e.minimum or no tillage, retention of crop residues and use of crop rotation.
However, to promote CA in semi-arid areas where precipitation is erratic, low,
and falls over short periods in winter, its effects on soil and crop yield have to be
investigated.
The present study was conducted at the main research station of the International Center for
Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria, during the agricultural season of
2010-2011, in the frame of a long term trial (2003-2011), where two treatments;
i.e.conservation versus conventional agriculture (replicated twice), and six varieties of lentil
(early, medium and late maturity genotypes; 2 each), selected from 100 varieties, were
used.
Soil samples were taken (before planting and after harvesting), to determine soil bulk density,
particle density and total porosity. Aggregate stability was also determined using dry and wet
sieving methods for the 0-15 cm soil depth, and the effective diameter of the aggregate was
calculated for both treatments of conservation agriculture (CA) and conventional tillage (CT).
Soil moisture was monitored in the top soil layer (0-15 cm) using Time Domain
Reflectometry (TDR) on a weekly or two weekly-intervals. Soil moisture release curve was
done for disturbed, 2 mm dry sieved soil at 0-15, 15-30, 30-45 and 45-60 cm depth using
pressure plate chamber.
Dry plant production (oven dry at 70°C) was estimated at the harvesting stage, and then
threshed to estimate grain yield.
CA showed higher (p = 0.001) soil moisture values than CT. The difference in volumetric soil
moisture content between CA and CT during the studied period ranged from 20 to 30 %.
Volumetric water content was higher for, CA compared with CT, at a given soil water
potential especially at the lower pressure; this observation was consistent for the four layers
(down to 60 cm). This could suggest that more water content could become available for CA
compared with CT.
The results showed that soils under CA had slightly lower total porosity compared with CT
(about 39 and 45% respectively; although no significant). However, CA improved soil
aggregate stability, as compared with CT, by about 20% (no significant). Higher effective
diameter in CA as compared with CT (although no significant, but, range of about 10 to 45%,
in dry and wet sieving respectively).
Genotypic differences were evident for the chickpea yields (grain and biomass) between
early, medium and late genotypes, with the medium maturity genotypes having the highest
yield compared with the rest (p=0.01). Results also showed that CA produced significant
higher grain yields of lentil of 20 to 30%, as compared with CT (p = 0.05), especially early
and late maturing genotypes.
This study proves the importance of CA in conserving soil moisture, and achieving higher
crop productivity after eight years of implementing the CA than CT. The data support
indications that CA systems may have the potential to mitigate the impact of climate change
on agricultural production. |
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