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Title: A NO-TILL, STUBBLE MULCH SYSTEM TO CONTROL NEMATODES AND IMPROVE WATER AVAILABILITY FOR WHEAT IN AN ARID CLIMATE

Author
item AMIR, JACOB - GILAT EXPERIMENT STATION
item Sinclair, Thomas

Submitted to: Agronomy Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/26/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: In constrast to conventional ideas, the need for fallow management of wheat production in arid environments appears to be associated with decreasing the population of cereal cyst nematodes (CCN) in the soil. In this study it was shown that the damage inflicted by CCN was greatly ameliorated when soil water contents were held at a high level. A no-till, ,decreasing soil evaporation and thereby maintaining higher soil water contents. In fact, it was found that this new managerial system worked extraordinarily well, resulting in grain yields for continuous wheat that approximated the yields obtained for fallow wheat. Consequently, the no-ti production in contrast to biennial production in the fallow system. As a result, wheat production can be essentially doubled in these dryland regions with a management system which is also beneficial in preventing soil erosion and improving soil structure.

Technical Abstract: Cereal Cyst Nematode (CCN, Heterodera avenae Woll.) has been shown to be a devastating pest for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in dryland regions. Fallowing in the season preceding the cropping season has been recently shown to sanitize the soil of CCN and allow wheat production. This paper explores management options that might allow the continuous production of wheat in these regions. In a 20-y study it was found that in those seasons with high rainfall there was virtually no decrease in wheat yields for continuous crops as compared with fallow wheat yields. The hypothesis that high soil water contents substantially alleviate the damage resulting from CCN infestation was confirmed in a pot study. A practical solution for maintaining high soil water contents in the field was to leave a stubble mulch on the soil surface to decrease soil evaporation. A chopper was added to a grain harvester to finely chop the straw so that it settles to the soil surface through the stubble, and a no-till drill was used for sowing through the straw. The no-till, stubble mulch system was shown to result in annual yields from continuous wheat that were equivalent to yields in alternate years with the conventional fallow wheat system, thereby doubling wheat production in this dryland region.