Impact of Some Tillage System on Soil Cracks of Northern Gedarif, Sudan

Abstract

The study was carried out during three consecutive seasons
2005/06 2006/07and 2007/08 under rain fed condition to investigate the
effect of some tillage systems on soil cracks. The study was conducted in
the pilot farm of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Environment ,
University of Gedarif in the Northern area of Gedarif State ( Latitude 12°
45′ N, Longitude 35° 15′ E, Elevation 540m above mean sea level ). The
experimental work laid out on randomize complete block design (RCBD)
with three replications of the treatments tillage systems: No tillage or
zero tillage (ZT), Offset disc as post harvest tillage (PHT) and Wide
Level Disc, which farmers practice, as control (WLD) . Rain gauge
reading for total recorded annual rainfall were 368.1mm (2005), 463.6
mm (2006) and 495.2 mm (2007) which was spread over 32, 30 and 32
rainy days during the first , second and third growing seasons,
respectively. The results showed that the second season had the best
distribution pattern. It recorded 15%, 36%, 26% and 5% for July,
August, September and October, respectively compared to 24% ,53%
13% and 2% ; and 29% ,41% , 21% and 1% for first and third seasons in
the same months. The maximum measured values for crack were 91 and
81cm for the depth and 8.7 and 8.5 cm for the width recorded during May
for the zero tillage and Wide Level Disc treatments respectively. The
cracking areas ranged between 0.32 m²/ m² to 0.49 m²/ m² for ZT and

0.32 m²/m² to 0.46 m²/m² for WLD, whereas PHT they ranged from 0.28
m²/m² to 0.36 m²/m². For most measurements throughout the three
monitoring seasons, the ZT constantly showed significantly higher values
of crack parameters over WLD and PHT.