Effect of Raised Flat Bed and Ridge Planting on Wheat Crop Growth and Yield under Varying Soil Moisture Depletions

Abstract

Crop yields remain significantly low in underdeveloped countries, such as Pakistan, primarily due to the prevalent use of traditional farming methods by most farmers. Resource-saving strategies, like ridge and raised flat bed systems, could boost water use efficiency and production per acre. However, further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of these methods, along with different levels of soil moisture depletion (SMD), on wheat development in the climatic conditions of Sindh Province. Thus, field trials were undertaken at Sindh Agriculture University’s Tandojam for two years (2022 and 2023) during the wheat growing seasons. The experiment included six treatments, viz., T1 (raised flat bed method under 40% depletion), T2 (ridge method under 40% depletion), T3 (raised flat bed method under 50% depletion), T4 (ridge method under 50% depletion), T5 (raised flat bed method under 60% depletion), and T6 (ridge method under 60% depletion). The bed planter was employed to make raised flat beds, and the ridges were prepared using a ridge planter. Wheat variety (TJ-83) was sown. Under all treatments, the plant population, plant height, and seed index were statistically significant (p < 0.05), although spike length, grain spikes−1, and grain weight spikes−1 were non-significant at different SMD levels. To compute water saving through the ridge and raised flat methods, the recommended delta value for wheat crops under the traditional method was used as a benchmark. Both irrigation technologies conserve water compared to traditional irrigation methods. The T5 treatment conserved the most water, followed by T6. Under a 60% depletion level, the ridge approach produced the highest yield of 2175 kg ha−1, compared to 601 kg ha−1 with the raised flat bed method. The best crop water productivity (CWP) of 1.34 kg m−3 was achieved under T6, whereas raised flat beds attained the lowest CWP of 0.27 kg m−3 under T1. In terms of wheat grain production and CWP, the ridge furrow method outperformed the raised flat bed furrow method. Based on the results, it is recommended that farmers should use the ridge furrow method and allow a 60% depletion of soil moisture to obtain a high yield of wheat crops.