Sugarcane Residue Management Effects in Reducing Soil Erosion from Quarter-drains in Southern Louisiana

Abstract

Rainfall events which occur each spring in southern Louisiana have intensities and runoff that can cause significant soil erosion of alluvium small surface ditches (quarter-drains) to remove excess surface water from sugarcane furrows to main field surface ditches. As a result sediment from furrows and eroded soil from quarter-drains accumulate in quarter-drains and main ditches reducing their capacity to carry runoff water from flat sugarcane fields. An experiment was conducted following the 2001 harvest season in Southern Louisiana on alluvial soil to determine the effect of two sugarcane residue management practices on soil erosion and deposition in quarter-drains. Selected post-harvest residue management treatments were: (1) residue left on the field and swept from row-crowns to furrows and (2) residue removed by burning. Based on six rainfall events (cumulative rainfall = 368 mm), residue left on-site significantly reduced erosion from quarter-drains by 60% in comparison to quarter-drains where residue was burned, the average reduction in soil loss from these rainfall events where residue was swept and left in the furrows was 0.89 kg/m of quarter-drain length; the average soil bulk density of 1.5 Mg/m3. Maximum erosion occurred at the junction or intersection with the quarter-drains and the main field ditch. For plots where residue was removed by burning, a gradual deterioration of the side-walls of the quarter-drain occurred, including at the intersection with the field ditch, where maximum erosion depths in excess of 18 mm were recorded. Based on these results, sugarcane residue left on-site was effective in reducing soil erosion from quarter-drains during a four-month period from spring to early summer in the 2002 growing season.