Soil erosion control and wheat productivity are improved by a developed ridge-furrow and reservoir tillage systems

ABSTRACT

Soil erosion and drought are significant environmental hazards for crop production in the northwestern coastal zone of Egypt, leading to increased soil resources degradation. In-situ rainwater harvesting techniques by changing the micro-topography of soil via tillage practices can increase runoff retention and improve soil productivity. In this study, field trials were conducted on a sandy loam soil to determine the effects of four tillage systems [integrated ridge-furrow tillage (RFT), integrated reservoir tillage (RT), conventional tillage (CT), and No tillage (NT)] on soil bulk density, volumetric water content, runoff, soil loss, precipitation use efficiency, and winter wheat yield during two growing seasons under-rainfed conditions. The results indicated that tillage systems significantly affected soil properties, precipitation use efficiency and wheat yield in the order of: RFT > RT > CT > NT. Compared with the CT, the mean runoff with the developed RFT and RT was significantly decreased by 55.4% and 40.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, the precipitation use efficiency increased by 18.1% and 9.5%, respectively. By taking into account the stability of soil productivity along with environmental protection, it is suggested that the RFT and RT are the tillage systems that can efficiently increase the availability of soil water and, consequently, wheat yield.

KEYWORDS:

• Tillage practices
• Rainfed agriculture
• Soil erosion
• Soil properties

Acknowledgments

This study was financed and supported by the East China University of Technology, Nanchang China through the Research Startup Funding to Haytham Salem through grant number (110/1410000475), as well as by the Desert Research Center, Egypt. Special thanks to workers and technicians at the Sustainable Development Center, Marsa Matruh, Egypt for their efforts as well as material support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.