Soil quality changes under continuous cropping for seventeen seasons of an alfisol in western Nigeria
✍ Scribed by R. Lal
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 189 KB
- Volume
- 9
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1085-3278
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✦ Synopsis
Tillage and soil management eects on soil physical and chemical qualities were monitored for eight years from 1979 through 1987 in a long-term experiment involving 17 consecutive crops of maize. Eects of no-till and plow-till methods of seedbed preparation were compared at two levels of residue management (residue removed versus residue returned) and two levels of fertilizer application (without fertilizer versus recommended fertilizer). Soil chemical quality was better for no-till compared with plow-till methods. Mean soil chemical properties of 0±5 cm depth for no-till and plow-till treatments respectively were 18 . 6 g kg À1 versus 12 . 2 g kg 71 for soil organic carbon content, 1 . 9 g kg 71 versus 1 . 1 g kg 71 for total soil nitrogen, 0 . 14 units yr 71 versus 0 . 18 units yr 71 rate of decline in soil pH, 63 . 1 mg kg 71 versus 31 . 8 mg kg 71 for Bray-P, and 6 . 0 cmol kg 71 versus 2 . 3 cmol kg 71 for Ca 2 . Soil chemical quality consistently declined, although the rate of decline diered among tillage and fertilizer treatments. There were also dierences in soil physical quality. Soil bulk density increased with cultivation duration in both tillage methods, and use of furadan in no-till plots drastically increased soil bulk density. In®ltration rate and soil moisture retention at all suctions was consistently more for no-till than plow-till treatments. Decline in soil quality with cultivation was re¯ected in decrease in crop yields.