Effect of Tillage Practices and Cropping Pattern on Soil Properties and Crop Yield in the Humid Lowlands of Beles Sub-Basin, Ethiopia

Abstract

Tillage is a land management practice where a sequence of manipulating the soil for crop production. To investigate the response of land management and cropping pattern on soil properties and crop yield, a field experiment was conducted under natural environment on Nitisol of Pawi area. Nine treatments combining two tillage methods (Zero and conventional), four crop covers (continuous maize, continuous soya bean, rotated maize, and maize soya bean intercrop) were laid out in RCBD with three replications. The result showed that land management and crop cover significantly affect bulk density, porosity, soil moisture, nitrogen, organic carbon, available phosphorus, and yield of a crop. Relative to conventionally tilled continuous maize, maize soya bean intercropping managed under zero tillage improve capillary porosity, non-capillary porosity, organic carbon, available phosphorus, and total nitrogen with a response ratio of 1.7, 2.7, 1.3, 2, and 1.3, respectively while reducing bulk density by 10%. Conversion of tillage system from conventional to zero tillage improves grain yield, biomass yield, and soil moisture by 6%, 10%, and 6%, respectively. Generally, zero tillage with greater cover is an appropriate approach to improve soil properties without negatively affecting grain yield. To understand and quantify the long-term impact of tillage and crop cover on soil health and productivity in Ethiopia long-term study is needed as this study was based on one-year data from four years permanent plots.