Abstract
Conservation agriculture (CA) practices are advocated to reduce soil degradation, resulting in more sustainable food production as compared to conventional tillage (CT). In this study, the short-term effects of two tillage systems in combination with cropping patterns on selected soil physical parameters on four experimental sites in Mozambique were studied. The study sites differ according to their climatic conditions, soil types, and crop adaptation. Tillage systems evaluated were CA and CT, while the cropping pattern had four levels of sole cropping and three levels of intercropping. In general, soil physical properties showed significant changes due to the tillage systems, but the cropping pattern and their interaction with tillage systems did not yield significant impacts on the soil physical properties. CA increased bulk density, penetration resistance, and saturated hydraulic conductivity as compared to CT. A significant difference due to the tillage system was observed across the four sites, and in general, evaporation was higher in CT compared to CA. The presence of crop residues in CA contributed to lower evaporation. Thus, in the short term, CA practices could be a sustainable option to conserve soil water through higher infiltration and less evaporation.
Highlights
In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), unsustainable farming practices, such as excessive soil tillage with no soil cover, have led to a decrease in soil fertility, accelerated erosion, and degradation of arable land
This study revealed some significant differences related to the tillage system across the four experimental sites in Mozambique after two years of employing different cultivation practices
Higher values of Db, penetration resistance (PR), and Ks were recorded under the Conservation agriculture (CA) system when compared to the conventional tillage (CT) system
Summary
In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), unsustainable farming practices, such as excessive soil tillage with no soil cover, have led to a decrease in soil fertility, accelerated erosion, and degradation of arable land. The most common tillage system practiced by smallholder farmers in Mozambique is where hand hoes are used to till the soil, with crop residue collection and burning during land preparation. This is referred to as conventional tillage (CT) throughout this study. The use of inappropriate tillage systems (i.e., CT) has led to the deterioration of soil quality through decay in organic matter, disruption of soil structure, and decrease in aggregate stability This resulted in lower macroporosity, promoting soil erosion, organic matter loss, and fertility depletion [2,3,4,5]. These CA practices are advocated to increase the microporosity in relation to macroporosity,
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