Effect of tillage practices at different levels of soil moisture on some soil properties and maize productivity

A field experiment was carried out during the early summer seasons of 2018, at Agricultural Research Centre (ARC) Giza, Egypt. This study aims to examine the effect of three tillage treatments under three different moisture contents on some soil properties and on maize crop production. The experiments included three moisture contents of (MC1, 27.2 %), (MC2, 15.4 %) and (MC3, 7.2 %); as well as three tillage treatments, no-tillage control (NT), minimum tillage (MT) and conventional tillage (CT). The experimental was laid out in split-split plot design with four replications. The results showed that, there was significant effect of tillage at different moisture levels on soil physical and chemical properties. It was also indicated that the effect of tillage practices was significantly on soil bulk density, total porosity, hydraulic conductivity and moisture constants, where the conventional tillage at soil moisture level 15.4% (MC2) helped in improving soil bulk density, hydraulic conductivity and total porosity. Soil organic C, cations exchange capacity CEC, available N, P and K were improved in the soil surface layer of NT and decreased with depth. Clod mean weight diameter of soil was improved with 15.4-% of soil moisture content regardless of tillage depth and enhanced root proliferation by increasing density roots compared with minimum and no tillage in maize plant. The grain yields of maize were improving more under conventional tillage at moisture content 15.4% compared with other treatments. It was found that plant height and roots value increased by using conventional tillage compared with other tillage treatments.

The soil work ability status is considered as the optimum soil water content where the tillage operation has the desired effect of producing the greatest proportion of small aggregates (Dexter and Bird, 2001). Workability timing is related to land management planning at a farm level. Automating and application of procedures using soil resources survey data are used to predict soil moisture and workability timing. Several studies (Mueller et al., 2003) found the best disaggregating effect of tillage implements to occur at the water content corresponding to maximum proctor test which it is the density of a given soil can be compacted varies with water content and force of compaction.

Refbacks

Abdollahi, L. and Munkholm, L. J. (2014) Tillage system and cover crop effects on soil quality: I. Chemical, mechanical, and biological properties, Soil Science Society of America, Abstract- 27(4): 869-877. Amit Tomar and D. K. Upadhyay package CPCS-1, Department of Statistics, PAU, Ludhiana. Cochran, W, G. and Cox, G. M. (1967) Experimental designs, John and Wiley Publishers, New York. Agbede, T. M. (2006) Effect of tillage on soil properties and yam yield on an Alfisol in southwestern Nigeria, Soil and Tillage Research 86(1): 1-8. Aikins, S. H. M. and Afuakwa, J. J. (2010) Effect of four different tillage practices on cowpea Performance, Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 6(6): 644-651. Arshad, M. A., Schnitzer, M. and Angers, A. D. (1990) Effects of till vs no-till on the quality of soil organic matter, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 22(5): 595-599. Astier, Calderon, M., Maass, Moreno, M., and Etchevers, Barra, J. D. (2002) Derivation of soil quality indicators in the context of sustainable agriculture, Agrociencia, 36: 605 - 620. Bhattacharyya, R., Prakash, V., Kundu, S. and Gupta, H. S. (2006) Effect of tillage and crop rotations on pore size distribution and soil hydraulic conductivity in sandy clay soil of the Indian Himalayas, Soil and Tillage Research, 82: 129-40. Birkas, M., Jolankai, M., Gyuricza, C. and Percze, A. (2004) Tillage effects on compaction, earthworms and other soil quality indicators in Hungary, Soil and Tillage Research, 78: 185-196. Bogunovic, I. and Kisic, I. (2017) Compaction of a clay loam soil in pannonian of Croatia under different tillage systems, J. Agr. Sci. Tech., 19(1): 475-486. Celik, I., Turgut, M. M. and Acir, N. (2012) Crop rotation and tillage effects on selected soil physical properties of a Typic Haploxerert in an irrigated semi-arid Mediterranean region, International Journal of Plant Production, 6(4): 457-480. Dexter, A. R., Bird, N. R. A. (2001) Methods for predicting the optimum and the range of soil contents for tillage based on the water retention curve, Soil and Tillage Research, 57: 203-212. Dellavalle, N. B. (1992) Determination of specific conductance in supernatant 1:2 soil: water solution, In” Handbook on Reference Methods for Soil Analysis”, Soil and Plant Analysis Council, pp: 44 50. Franzluebbers, A. J. and Hons, F. M. (1996) Soil profile distribution of primary and secondary plant available nutrients under conventional and no tillage, Soil and Tillage Research, 39(3-4): 229. Hajabbasi, M. A. and Hemmat A. (2000) Tillage impacts on aggregate stability and crop productivity in a clay-loam soil in central Iran, Soil and Till. Res. 56: 205-212. Hazarika, S., Parkinson, R., Bol, R., Dixon, L., Russel, P., Donovan, S. and Allen, D. (2009) Effect of tillage system and straw management on organic matter dynamics, Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 29: 525-33. Heinonen, R. (1985) Soil Management and Crop Water Supply, Department of Soil Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden, pp: 104. Javadi, A. and G. Spoor, (2006) The effect of spacing in dual wheel arrangements on surface load support and soil compaction, J. Agr. Sci. Tech., 8: 119-131. Jha, A. K. Biswas, Brij Lal Lakaria, R. Saha, Muneshwar Singh and Subba Rao A. (2014) Predicting Total Organic Carbon Content of Soils from Walkley and Black Analysis, Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 45: 713–725. Karathanasis, A. D. and K. L. Wells (1998) Conservation tillage effects on the potassium status of some kentucky soils, Soil Science Society of America Journal, Abstract, 54(3): 800-806. Response of Gladiolus Varieties to Different Planting Dates Amit Tomar and D. K. Upadhyay Millington, W., Misiewicz, P., Dickin, E., White, D. and Godwin, R. J. (2016) An investigation into the effect of soil compaction and tillage on plant growth and yield of winter barley, An ASABE Meeting Presentation, pp: 162461725. Karuku, G. N., Gachene, C. K. K., Karanja, N., Cornelis, W., Verplancke, H. and Kironchi, G. (2012) Soil hydraulic properties of a nitsol in kabete, Kenya, Tropical and Subtropical Agro ecosystems, 15(3): 595–609. Khurshid, K., Iqbal, M., Arif, M. S., Nawaz, A., (2006) Effect of tillage and mulch on soil physical properties and growth of maize, International Journal of Agriculture and Biology, 8: 593–596. Lal, R. and Stewart, B. A., (2013) Principles of sustainable soil management in agro ecosystems, CRC Press, New York, USA, pp: 552. Lal, R., Elder, J. W. (2008) Tillage effects on physical properties of agricultural organic soils of north central Ohio, Soil and Tillage Research, 98: 208-210. Legahri, N., Zehri, Q., Shah, A. R., Tagar, A., Riaz, A. L., Tahmina, M. (2016) Comparison of hallow and deep tillage practice at different soil moisture content levels under climatic conditions, Sci. Int. (Lahore), 28(3): 2661-2666. Liao, Y. C., Han, S. M. and Wen, X. X. (2002) Soil water content and crop yield effects of mechanized conservative tillage-cultivation system for dry and winter wheat in the loess tableland, Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, 18(4): 68–71. Licht, M. A. and Al-Kaisi, M. (2005) Strip-tillage effect on seedbed soil temperature and other soil physical properties, Soil and Tillage Research, 80: 233-249. Loghavi, A. M. A. and A. Khadem, A. M. A. (2006) A development of a soil bin compaction profile sensor, J. Agr. Sci. Tech., 8: 1-13. Memon, S. Q., Mirjat, M. S., Mughal, A. Q., Amjad, N. (2013) Effect of conventional and non conventional tillage practices on maize production, Pakistan Journal of Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering and Veterinary Sciences, 29: 155-63. Mueller L, Schindler U., Fausey N, Rattan L (2003) Comparison of methods for estimating maximum soil water content for optimum workability, Soil and Tillage Research, 72: 9-20. Moussa-Machraoui, Faïek-Errouissi, Moncef Ben Hammoud aand Saïd-Nouira (2010) Comparative effects of conventional and no-tillage management on some soil properties under Mediterranean semi arid conditions in northwestern Tunisia, Soil and Tillage Research, 106(2): 247-253. Palm, I. A., C. N., Delve, R. J., Cadisch, G. and Giller, K. E. (2001) Organic inputs for soil fertility management in tropical agro ecosystems: application of an organic resource database. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 83(1-2): 27-42. Patni, N. K.,L. Masse and P. Y. (1998) Groundwater quality under conventional and no tillage: I. nitrate, electrical conductivity, and pH, Journal of Environmental Quality, 27(4): 869-877. Rahman, S. M. and Islam, A. (1998) Water transmission properties of two Bangladesh soils as affected by tillage depths, Soil water flux and hydraulic conductivity, A. M. A. Research, 10: 307 312. Rashidi, M. and Keshavarzpour, F. (2007) Effect of different tillage methods on grain yield and yield components of maize (Zea mays L.), International Journal of Agriculture and Biology, 9(2): 274–277. Rashidi, M., Tabatabaeefar, A., Keyhani, A. and Attarnejad, R. (2007) Non-linear a modeling of pressure-sink age behavior in soils using the finite Element method, J. Agr. Sci. Tech., 9: 1-13. Xue, S. P. Yan, Q. Zhu, R. X, Wang, H. Q. and Yao, W. S. (2005) Experimental study on conservation tillage technology of complete corn stalk cover by mechanization and furrow sowing beside film mulching, Transactions of Chinese Agriculture and Engineering, 7: 81–83. Yoder, R. E. (1936) A direct method of aggregate analysis of soils and the study of the physical nature of erosion losses, Journal of American Society of Agronomy, 28: 337-51. Response of Gladiolus Varieties to Different Planting Dates Amit Tomar and D. K. Upadhyay Zentner, R. P., Lafond, G. P., Derksen, D. A. and Campbell, C. A. (2002) Tillage method and crop diversification: Effect on economic returns and riskiness of cropping systems in a thin black chernozem of the Canadian prairies, Soil and Tillage Research, 67: 9 -21. Zentner, R. P., Lafond, G. P., Derksen, D. A., Nagy, C. N. Wall, D. D. and May, W. E. (2004) Effects of tillage method and crop rotation on non renewable energy use efficiency for a thin Black Chernozem in the Canadian Prairies, Soil and Research, 77(2): 125-136. Zhang, S., LI., Q., Zhang, X, Wei., Che., I, Liang, W. (2012) Effect of conservation tillage on soil aggregation and aggregate binding agents in black soil of Northeast China, Soil and Tillage Research 124: 196-202.