Soil Moisture Concentration in Dryland Farming of SudanR06;

Abstract

The present study was conducted with the aim of collecting (harvesting) rainfall R06;water for cereals production under dryland farming areas. A laboratory R06;experiments were carried out in a sandy loam soil in the glass house of Silsoe R06;College - Cranfield University-U.K in a split-split plot design to investigate the R06;effect of compacted ridges on concentrating rainfall water for wheat crop R06;production. The treatments included four soil surface conditions (flat surface, R06;loose ridge/furrow, compact ridge/furrow and plastic covered ridge/furrow), three R06;levels of simulated rainfall (2.50, 5.00 and 10.00 mm) and two planting depths R06;R06;(20 and 35 mm). A soil bin laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate the R06;performance of a concrete conical press wheel which was used for compaction of R06;ridges. Results indicated that the number of seeds that germinated in the furrows R06;with compacted ridge sides was higher than in both furrows with loose ridge R06;sides and flat surface. The statistical analysis of the results showed significant R06;difference (p X05; 0.01) between soil surface treatments. Depth of sowing observed R06;had no significant effect on seed germination, but sowing at 35mm depth was R06;better than that at 20mm depth. The results showed that the amount of R06;simulated rainfall level have significant effect on seed germination (p X05; 0.01). R06;The highest amount of rainfall (10mm) was found to record the highest number R06;of germinated seeds in all treatments. The results revealed that compaction of R06;about 1.50 g/cm3 in a sandy loam soil was achieved when the press wheel was R06;loaded with a weight of 200 kg at 9.66% soil moisture content. This gave the R06;ridge a good finish as compared to a weight of 400 kg as the latter produced R06;cracks on the top and sides of the ridges. R06; A small field experiment was conducted at the Gedaref Research Station, in the R06;rainfed agricultural sector of Sudan, to investigate the effect of compact ridges R06;on sorghum crop production. The experiment was conducted in a completely R06;randomized block design with three blocks and three treatments. The treatments R06;included the wide level disc harrow (WLD), planting with a planter on flat surface R06;and manually planting in compacted ridge/furrow. The sides of the ridges were R06;compacted by dragging a piece of metal on the sides of ridges. The ridge/furrow R06;treatment recorded the highest soil bulk density (1.21 gm/cm3) as compared to R06;the planter (1.09 gm/cm3) and the WLD (1.02 g/cm3) treatments. It also gave R06;the highest sorghum grain yield (498 kg/fed) followed by the planter treatment R06;R06;(485 kg/fed) and the least yield was recorded in the WLD treatment (456 R06;kg/fed). The laboratory and field experiments confirmed that compacted ridges R06;technique can help in concentrating low rainfall water for dryland farming.R06;