Soil Management and Crop Practice Effect on Soil Water Infiltration and Soil Water Storage in the Humid Lowlands of Beles Sub-Basin, Ethiopia

Abstract

To investigate the response of soil management and cropping practice on infiltration, a field experiment was conducted under natural environment on Nitisol of Pawi area. Eight treatments combining two soil management methods (Zero tillage and conventional tillage) and four crop covers (continuous maize, continuous soya bean, rotated maize, and maize soya bean intercrop) were laid out on permanent plots in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The results showed that soil management and crop cover significantly affect both the capacity and rate of infiltration. Relative to conventionally tilled continuous maize, zero tilled maize soya bean intercrop improved infiltration rate and infiltration by 164.6% and 148%, respectively. While maize rotation with zero tillage, maize soya bean intercropping with conventional tillage and maize with zero tillage methods improve infiltration rate by 117.8%, 105.8%, 108%, respectively. The soil management and crop cover practices such as maize with zero tillage, maize soya bean intercrop with zero tillage, rotated maize with conventional tillage, maize soya bean intercrop with conventional tillage, soya bean with zero tillage and rotated maize with zero tillage increased soil water storage in the order of 65mm, 41mm, 41mm, 35mm, 15mm and 13mm. Generally, zero tillage with greater cover is an appropriate method to improve infiltration and soil water storage.