Effect of Different Tillage Managements on Soil Physicochemical Properties and Crop Yield

Abstract

In order to explore the effects of different tillage managements on soil physical-chemical properties and crop yield in Tangyu town, Meixian County of Shaanxi Province, the soil physical-chemical properties and crop yield were analyzed. The study was conducted at the Qinling Field Monitoring Center Station in early September 2017, which included three tillage managements: no tillage (NT), mouldboard plow tillage (MT) and soil subsoiling tillage (ST), the soil organic matter, total nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, available potassium, soil temperature and maize grain number per ear and yield in the project area were measured. The results showed that the NT and ST managements could better buffer and maintain the change of soil temperature, reduced soil pH value compared with MT management. NT and ST managements were helpful to increase the content of total nitrogen, organic matter, ammonium nitrogen and available potassium, soil organic matter(SOM) content under NT and ST managements was 49.6% and 31.7% more than that under MT management in the 0–10 cm soil layer, The order of total nitrogen content was ST>NT>MT, and available potassium content was NT> ST>MT in the 0–30 cm soil layer, there was no obvious difference between NT and ST managements in improving soil nutrients. Meanwhile, NT and ST managements increased maize grain number per ear and yield. Thus, it was recommended to use NT and ST managements to improve soil quality and increase crop yield, and was suitable for sustainable agricultural development.