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

Published in Hydrology (Volume 10, Issue 1)
Received: 6 December 2021    Accepted: 28 December 2021    Published: 8 January 2022
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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.

Published in Hydrology (Volume 10, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.hyd.20221001.11
Page(s) 1-11
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Infiltration, Tillage, Crop Pattern, Soil Water, Land Preparation

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Cite This Article
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    Getnet Asfawesen Molla, Gizaw Desta, Mihret Dananto. (2022). Soil Management and Crop Practice Effect on Soil Water Infiltration and Soil Water Storage in the Humid Lowlands of Beles Sub-Basin, Ethiopia. Hydrology, 10(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20221001.11

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    Getnet Asfawesen Molla; Gizaw Desta; Mihret Dananto. Soil Management and Crop Practice Effect on Soil Water Infiltration and Soil Water Storage in the Humid Lowlands of Beles Sub-Basin, Ethiopia. Hydrology. 2022, 10(1), 1-11. doi: 10.11648/j.hyd.20221001.11

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    Getnet Asfawesen Molla, Gizaw Desta, Mihret Dananto. Soil Management and Crop Practice Effect on Soil Water Infiltration and Soil Water Storage in the Humid Lowlands of Beles Sub-Basin, Ethiopia. Hydrology. 2022;10(1):1-11. doi: 10.11648/j.hyd.20221001.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.hyd.20221001.11,
      author = {Getnet Asfawesen Molla and Gizaw Desta and Mihret Dananto},
      title = {Soil Management and Crop Practice Effect on Soil Water Infiltration and Soil Water Storage in the Humid Lowlands of Beles Sub-Basin, Ethiopia},
      journal = {Hydrology},
      volume = {10},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-11},
      doi = {10.11648/j.hyd.20221001.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20221001.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hyd.20221001.11},
      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.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Soil Management and Crop Practice Effect on Soil Water Infiltration and Soil Water Storage in the Humid Lowlands of Beles Sub-Basin, Ethiopia
    AU  - Getnet Asfawesen Molla
    AU  - Gizaw Desta
    AU  - Mihret Dananto
    Y1  - 2022/01/08
    PY  - 2022
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20221001.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.hyd.20221001.11
    T2  - Hydrology
    JF  - Hydrology
    JO  - Hydrology
    SP  - 1
    EP  - 11
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-7617
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20221001.11
    AB  - 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.
    VL  - 10
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Debre Markos Agricultural Research Center, Debre Markos, Ethiopia

  • International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

  • Institute of Technology, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia

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