Hussain Almahasneh^*(1) and Jamal Saleh⁽¹⁾

(1) Plant Resources Department, ACSAD, P.O, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Hussain Almahasneh. E-Mail: hussain_1974h@hotmail.com)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in Izraa Research Station- ACSAD, during the growing seasons (2018/2019), in order to evaluate the performance of two wheat cultivars (ACSAD-1133 and ACSAD-1229) under conservation agriculture (CA) compared with conventional tillage system (CT) in rotation with chickpea crop and without crop rotation. The experiment was laid out using a randomized complete block design with split plots arrangement in four replicates. The results showed significant differences (P<0.05) overall studied traits, the mean value of grain yield was highest under CA-system (4530 kg/ha) compared with CT system (3904 kg/ha), and under the application of crop rotation (4333 kg/ha) compared with no crop rotation (4102 kg/ha). The mean value of grain yield was significantly higher in the cultivar of durum wheat ACSAD1229 (4349 kg/ha) compared with bread wheat cultivar ACSAD1133 (4086 kg/ha). The statistical analysis results indicated significant differences in water use efficiency (WUE) among conservation and traditional cultivation systems, where the CA-system surpassed in WUE (12.79 kg/mm rainfall/season) over the CT-system (11.02 kg/mm rainfall/season), the mean gross income and net income higher under CA-system (838050, 728050 SP respectively) compared to CT-system (722240, 587240 SP respectively), with reduction percentage in the cost of cultivation (20%). Application of CA-system recorded a significant increase in soil content of organic matter, mineral nitrogen, and available phosphorus (1.240 %, 11.67 mg/kg soil, 21.79mg/kg soil respectively) compared with CT-system (1.182 %, 10.47 mg/kg soil, 19.35mg/kg soil respectively). These results confirm the importance of the application CA-system as a complete package in order to have CA-application benefits which had useful effects in improving wheat productivity under rainfed conditions and improving soil chemical properties.

Keywords: Wheat, Conservation agriculture (CA), Conventional tillage (CT),Grain yield, Soil properties.

Full paper in Arabic: pdf