Impacts of tillage practice on the productivity of durum wheat in Ethiopia

Frequent tillage and removal of crop residue from arable land after harvest is increasing soil runoff, reduce in situ soil moisture and soil fertility as a result decrease crop yield. Conservation tillage is a technique that can mitigate these situations and thereby increases crop yield. Therefore, the investigation was carried out on a farmer’s field at Memrhager and Aelmetena. The objective of the present investigation is to evaluate the impacts of conservation tillage on the productivity of durum wheat. The experimental layout was arranged to a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments included conventional tillage which was plowed five times and three different conservation tillage techniques (reduce tillage residue retained, reduce tillage residue removed, and one plow at sowing with roundup spray and two durum wheat (Mangudo and Ude) cultivars). Conservation tillage was a significant increase in grain yield of durum wheat at Alemtena. Grain yield was 43.6% more under reducing tillage residue retained combined with Mangudo variety compared with reduced tillage residue removed, probably due to improving the infiltration of water into the soil and reducing water loss by direct evaporation under this tillage system. The grain yield was 23.1% more under conventional tillage compared with one plow at sowing + roundup at Memrhager. On the economic analysis, completely the highest net benefit (38349.9 ETBirr/ha) was obtained under reducing tillage residue retained at Alemtena but comparable net benefit at Memrhager. In summary, conservation tillage (reduce tillage residue retained) more important in soil moisture deficit area.