Title: Effects of Tillage and Crop Rotation on Irrigated Winter Wheat Yield in CAP Turkey
Abstract:Soil tillage is the single most important treatment to the winter wheat production in the Central Anatolian Plateau (CAP) region. Tillage greatly influences the soil structure. In the CAP, soil proble...Soil tillage is the single most important treatment to the winter wheat production in the Central Anatolian Plateau (CAP) region. Tillage greatly influences the soil structure. In the CAP, soil problems are associated with poor structure and low organic matter content. Surface soil structure is usually degraded and the most important factor that affects degradation is the time of soil tillage. However, conservation tillage represents an effective method for controlling this problem. Improving the soil medium for seedling emergence and plant growth can be made possible by using an appropriate tillage system. The study was carried out over a period over 4 years (20032007). A field experiment based on winter wheat was conducted to investigate the effects of tillage on crop yield. Tillage treatments were: (1) ploughing to the depth of 20 cm followed by preparing seedbed by cultivator (conventional tillage (CT)), (2) ploughing to the depth of 10 cm by rototiller (reduce tillage (RT)) and (3) sowing into the untilled soil by special drill (no-till (NT)). Crop rotations were continuous winter wheat and beans-winter wheat-sugarbeet-winter wheat. Wheat yields were strongly affected by the crop rotation. Continuous wheat yield went down by year to year. Crop production with continuous wheat also showed big differences among tillage systems. CT gave the highest yield every year, RT was second and NT had the lowest yields. However, the results differed under the contrasting crop rotations. Bean yield and wheat yield after beans, was not affected by tillage system but sugarbeet yields and wheat yield after sugarbeet, was affected. NT was not suitable for sugarbeet but, on the other hand, wheat yield after sugarbeet was affected by tillage systems. However, it does appear no-till cropping may be a useful alternative to CT in Turkey.Read More
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-08-01
Language: en
Type: article
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