Leaching Fraction of Irrigation Water and Tillage Treatment for Growing Forage Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) on Sondus Agricultural Project Soils

Abstract

This study was conducted during 2013 and 2014 summer seasons at the demonstration farm of the Faculty of Agricultural Technology and Fish Science, University of Neelain (Jebal Awlia area) south of Khartoum to investigate the most suitable irrigation water quantity and the best tillage treatment for growing Abu Sabein in salty affected soil. The irrigation water quantities used were crop water requirement (CWR) + 10% or 20% of the crop water requirement as a leaching fraction (LF). Three tillage treatments namely, disc plow, chisel plow and disc harrow were used and zero tillage as a control. The variables compared were plant height, number of leaves/plant, stem diameter, leaves/stem ratio, fresh and dry weight and water use efficiency. The soil of the site was found to be non-saline to slightly saline, non sodic to slightly sodic, slightly calcareous and slightly alkaline. The results showed that CWR + 20% LF gave higher results than CWR + 10% LF, also chisel plow gave higher values than the other tillage treatments for all the variables during the two seasons.