Dryland Grain Sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor ) Yield and Yield Component Responses to Tillage and Mulch Practices Under Subtr
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FULL-LENGTH RESEARCH ARTICLE
Dryland Grain Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) Yield and Yield Component Responses to Tillage and Mulch Practices Under Subtropical African Conditions J. Masaka1
•
J. Dera2 • K. Muringaniza3
Received: 8 January 2019 / Accepted: 19 July 2019 Ó NAAS (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences) 2019
Abstract In the African subtropical zones, the choice of tillage practice is critical to sustainable rainfed crop production. Two season (2015 and 2016) field trials were conducted at Matopos Research Institute (20°240 S; 28°290 E, 1340 m above sea level) in southern Zimbabwe in order to determine dryland grain sorghum yield and 1000 kernel weight responses to tillage and mulch practices under African subtropical conditions. Sorghum grain yield was highest in planting basin tillage plots under 4 T ha-1 sorghum stover mulch application (3140.9 kg ha-1 for year 2015 and 3415.7 kg ha-1 for year 2016). The 1000 kernel weights in both years were least in ripper tillage and greatest in planting basin tillage field trial plots. The mass of 1000 sorghum kernels on planting basin tillage subplots under 2 T ha-1 sorghum stover mulching was 8.6 g (25.1%) and 8.4 g (24.2%) in excess of that recorded on mulched ripper subplots for 2015 season. For the season 2016, mass of 1000 sorghum kernels on planting basin tillage subplots under 4 T ha-1 sorghum stover mulching was 9.1 g (22.9%) and 8.4 g (21.1%) in excess of that recorded on mulched ripper subplots. The adoption of the planting basin tillage under sorghum stover mulching, a technology designed for smallholder farmers with limited access to animal draft power, can improve considerably the dryland sorghum grain yield and weight of 1000 kernels. Keywords Conventional Planting basin Ripper tillage practice Grain sorghum yield
Introduction
& J. Masaka [email protected]; [email protected] J. Dera [email protected] K. Muringaniza [email protected] 1
Department of Land and Water and Resources Management, Midlands State University, Private Bag 9055, Gweru, Zimbabwe
2
Sorghum and Millets Research Unit, Agronomy Research Institute, Matopos P Bag k5137, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
3
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Midlands State University, Private Bag 9055, Gweru, Zimbabwe
In the arid and semiarid climates, water and soil resources are the largest constraining factors for sustainable rainfed crop production. Conservation tillage practices for dryland sorghum have created counterbalance interest worldwide from agricultural research and smallholder farmers [1, 16, 25]. In sub-Saharan Africa, sorghum is the second most important cereal crop after wheat with a total production of 20 million T per annum [5, 7, 36]. In subtropical Africa, sorghum is mainly grown as rainfed grain crop in areas receiving low, erratic and highly variable annual rainfall totals ranging from 400 to 600 mm [14]. Despite its resilience to adverse environmental conditions, research has indicated that the production potential of grain sorghum is
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