Determination of the effects of tillage on the productivity of a sandy loam soil using soil productivity models

Abstract

Based on the hypothesis that soil properties and productivity components should be affected by different tillage methods, field and laboratory experiments were conducted to study the effects of zero tillage (ZT), one pass of disc plough tillage (P), one pass of disc plough plus one pass of disc harrow tillage (PH) and one pass of disc plough plus two passes of disc harrow tillage (PHH) on the distribution of the bulk density, available water capacity, pH, organic matter, available phosphorus, iron oxide and aluminium oxide at different soil depths, and their effects on the soil productivity. The available water capacity, pH, organic matter and available phosphorus were found to increase with the degree of tillage, while the bulk density, iron oxide and aluminium oxide were found to decrease with the degree of tillage. The results show that the soil productivity index was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) affected by the tillage methods and found to increase with the degree of tillage.