Some selected physical and chemical attributes of a Ustalf under different tillage practices at Dutse, Jigawa State Nigeria.

Abstract

Different tillage practices are being employed by the farmers of Jigawa state, and as such, there is a need to determine its influence on some physical and chemical properties, so that farmers will base their choices on scientific facts rather than assumptions. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of three tillage practices (TP) on soil properties in Federal University Dutse, Teachings and Research farm, Jigawa State. The TP adopted are conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT) and zero-tillage (ZT). Samples were collected at a depth of 0 -20 cm for the chemical and other physical properties determination, while core samplers were used for bulk density (Bd) determination. All data collected were analyzed using Statistical Analysis Software (SAS and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the significant tillage effect on the parameters measured at 5% level of significance and the means were separated using Least Significance Difference (LSD). The results showed that the soil texture of the study area was sandy loam. ZT differed significantly from other TP with higher Bd value of 1.51 Mg m-3, lower porosity (42.7%), and lower moisture content (10.3). ZT also had higher organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN), available phosphorus (AP), exchangeable acidity (0.48 cmol+ kg-1) and bases and most importantly higher CEC (7.5 cmol (+) kg-1) which differed significantly from other tillage practices and the lowest of the most parameters were found in RT. Conclusively, ZT is the best TP to be used by the farmers because of the im- proved physical and chemical parameters and been not only economically sus- tainable but also socially and environmentally friendly.