Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Large areas of the soils under rainfed crop production in the semi-arid climate regions Southern Africa are of Aeolian origin with a sandy texture. These soils are prone to wind erosion, soil compaction and drought, which hamper sustainable crop production. Field experiments were conducted over three years in which 3 tillage practices were combined with 3 cropping practices. The tillage practices were: i) conventional mouldboard ploughing, ii) stubble mulch tillage, both in combination with deep ripping and controlled traffic, and iii) no-tillage with chemical weed control. Every tillage practice was combined with three cropping practices viz. i) continuous maize, ii) wheat with a 5-month fallow, and iii) maize and wheat in rotation allowing a 10-month fallow. It was found that continuously grown maize and wheat with conventional tillage gave the highest rainfall use efficiency. Conventionally grown maize and wheat in rotation with a longer fallow gave the highest yields, whereas no-tillage with continuous maize and wheat gave the lowest yields. The yields on stubble mulching were lower than those on conventional tillage.
Source: African Crop Science Journal
Authors: ATP Bennie, JE Hoffman, MJ Coetzee
Language: English
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1972008625