Effect of some soil and water management practices on soil profile moisture under rain-fed conditions in Hamelmalo Region, Eritrea

Effect of some soil and water management practices on soil profile moisture

Authors

  • Medhanie Mehrteab Department of Land Resources and Environment, Hamelmalo Agricultural College, P.O. Box 397, Keren, Eritrea.
  • Woldeselassie Ogbazghi Department of Land Resources and Environment, Hamelmalo Agricultural College, P.O. Box 397, Keren, Eritrea.
  • Balwan Singh Hamelmalo agricultural college Eritrea

Keywords:

Farmyard manure, Mulch, Tillage, Soil profile, Moisture content, Soil profile moisture distribution

Abstract

The irregular and torrential nature of rainfall in Eritrea necessitate improving the water storage capacity and its distribution in the soil profile to sustain livelihood of rural household; hence a field experiment was conducted in the watershed area of Hamelmalo Agricultural College during the cropping season of 2018, to study the effect of tillage, farm yard manure (FYM) and mulch on water retention capacity and its distribution in the soil profile under rainfed conditions with sorghum as test crop. A split-split plot experimental design was chosen with tillage (conventional tillage CT, reduced tillage RT and no-till NT)) as the main plot, FYM (0, 5, 10, 15 t ha-1) as sub-plot and mulch (0, 4 t ha-1) as sub-sub-plot with three replications. Each sub-sub-plot was 15 m2. The plots were well bunded to avoid any run-off or run-in. The distance between sub-plots and sub-sub-plots was 40 cm. The results showed that the soil moisture profile storage was affected by different soil management practices; mulch showed considerable effects on soil profile moisture content; tillage caused the reduction in moisture in the upper layers; reduced tillage with 15 t ha-1 FYM performed better than all other treatments in soil profile water storage and its distribution.

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Published

2022-10-01

How to Cite

Mehrteab, M., Ogbazghi , W., & Singh, B. (2022). Effect of some soil and water management practices on soil profile moisture under rain-fed conditions in Hamelmalo Region, Eritrea: Effect of some soil and water management practices on soil profile moisture. The Journal of Rural Advancement, 10(02), 25–32. Retrieved from http://jra.idtra.co.in/index.php/jra/article/view/49