Abstract
Strategic management of crop residues is essential to enhance soil quality for sustainable agriculture. However, little is known about the specific amounts of crop residues needed to improve soil quality characteristics which are key to develop economic plans. In this study, we investigated the effects of applying crop residue at five rates, including 100% (R100), 75% (R75), 50% (R50), 25% (R25), and 0% (R0), on wheat yield and soil properties. Field experiments were conducted for two cropping seasons in a wheat-corn rotation under conventional (CT) and no-till (NT) systems to observe the first results obtained during short-term periods (one-year application). During the study, the wheat and corn fields were irrigated. Application of plant residue resulted in increased soil organic carbon (SOC) and available nutrients and improved soil physical properties, i.e., aggregates mean weight diameter in wet (MWDw) and dry (MWDd) conditions, water-stable aggregates (WSA), dry-stable aggregates, (DSA), soil water infiltration (SWI), soil available water (SAW), and yield of wheat and corn. The effects were stronger at higher residue application rates. In the CT system, compared to R0, R100 resulted in the highest increase equal to 38, 29, 23, 34, 35, 41, and 11% for SOC, MWDw, MWDd, WSA, DSA, SAW, and wheat grain yield, respectively. This was equivalent to 28, 19.5, 19, 37, 44, 52, and 6% for the NT system, respectively. Generally, the NT system resulted in a stratification of the soil properties within 0–10 cm compared to 10–20 cm soil depth, but a uniform distribution for both depths under CT system. Overall, these results show that crop residue application can improve soil quality and yield in cereal production systems under semi-arid conditions during the first year of application. It will be key to monitor these changes in along-term field studies.
Highlights
The major challenges that humankind faces to date include food insecurity, water scarcity, land degradation, energy shortages, and climate change due to increased greenhouse gas emissions [1,2,3]
By the beginning of the fall season, it started falling trend and reached its lowest values in winter 2019, and followed the raising trend raised until summer 2019.The highest (32 ◦C) and lowest (4.5 ◦C) mean air temperature was recorded in July 2018 and January 2019, respectively
Soil organic C content, nutrient status, aggregate stability, infiltration, available water content, and yields of wheat and corn in the semiarid region under both conventional tillage (CT) and NT systems were higher in residue treatments compared to removal of residue
Summary
The major challenges that humankind faces to date include food insecurity, water scarcity, land degradation, energy shortages, and climate change due to increased greenhouse gas emissions [1,2,3]. These challenges affect the sustainable use of natural resources [4]. Providing food for the growing population and reducing environmental damage requires sustainable soil use [7]. Many studies have reported that retaining plant residue in soil could lead to improved physical, chemical and biological properties, which provide better conditions for plant root growth and sustainable crop production [8,9] and even protect against soil erosion processes [10,11]. Around 3.5–4 × 109 Mg of plant, residues are produced each year globally, among which 75% come from cereals [13]
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