Effect of Tillage Practices and Cultivation Year on Natural Mycorrhization and Mineral Uptake of Durum Wheat during Tillering Stage under Rainfed Conditions

Abstract

Conservation agriculture has been proposed as an alternative to conventional agriculture to mitigate the climate change impact and ensure food security. This study examined the effect of conventional tillage (CT) and no tillage (NT) on mycorrhization and mineral elements uptake of durum wheat for three cultivation years during the tillering stage. The experiment was conducted in a referential farm (Krib, Siliana, North West Tunisia). The results showed that tillage practices (T) had significant effect on mycorrhization rate (MR) for the first cultivation year and the highest mycorrhization rate was noted for NT with 24%. Moreover, tillage (T) had no significant effect on plant mineral composition in tillering stage for the three cultivation years. The cultivation year (Y) had showed significant effects on P and K amounts for both tillage practices when it had no effect on Ca and Na amounts. The interaction T x Y had no significant effect on mineral elements concentration. Mycorrhization rate (MR) showed significant negative correlation with K. For partial correlation based on Tillage practices, MR showed significant negative correlations with P and K. Considering the partial correlation based on cultivation year, MR had no significant correlations with the studied parameters (P, K, Ca and Na concentrations). This work expands our knowledge on durum wheat natural mycorrhization and mineral elements uptake as influenced by tillage practices helping decision makers in upscaling the adoption of no tillage in Tunisia under rainfed conditions