Abstract
In rainfed tract, the success of agriculture depends on conservation and efficient use of soil moisture and nutrients availability that directly linked with the presence of moisture in soil. The moisture can be conserved through several means including green manures and gypsum addition. The experiment was conducted to investigate the integrated effect of green manures and gypsum for moisture conservation and their impact on wheat production under rainfed conditions. The experiment was planned at six sites with five treatments including gypsum at 1 t ha-1, green manure (Guar 40 days old) and gypsum+green manuring were compared with control (untreated) and farmer practice (traditional). Results showed a significant increase (up to 38 to 76%) in wheat grain yield with the application of gypsum and green manure while soil moisture contents were enhanced up to 34 to 65% compared to control. It was also noticed that the treatments altered the soil properties (pH, Electrical conductivity (Ece), Organic Matter, Available Phosphorous and Extractable Potash) positively by improving soil water relationship over the control. Key words: Gypsum, green manure, moisture contents, soil properties, conservation, wheat yield.
Highlights
Rainfall is highly variable in the Pothwar Plateau of Pakistan
Results revealed that the maximum soil moisture contents (15.94%) at site 4 in 3rd year were recorded where combination of gypsum and green manuring applied and almost similar results were observed at all the experimental sites while the lowest moisture contents (5.00%) was recorded at site 1 in 1st year of experiment (Table 4)
The increase in the moisture contents due to application of gypsum and green manure alone and in combination resulted in the availability of nutrients required by crop and increased crop yield
Summary
Rainfall is highly variable in the Pothwar Plateau (altitude and longitude) of Pakistan. Many approaches were prevalent for soil moisture conservation for wheat production including gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) cheapest source that improve water infiltration rate and does not interfere to crop growth even applied in excess. It holds moisture and nutrients for crop (Sajid et al, 2013). The biomass of guar was incorporated into the soil with moldboard plough in mid of August in each year of the xperiment and the sowing of wheat (Chakwal-97) was carried out in October after addition of recommended rates of fertilizers NPK at 120, 80, 60 kg ha-1 in all the treatments including control except FP whereas the yield of FP (inputs of farmer’s choice and availability) practice was noted for comparison. The maximum annual precipitation recorded was 807 mm during 2014/2015 at the study sites from September to April and mostly more rainfall occurred in the month of September, October and March during crop growing period (Table 3)
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