Crop rotation with no-till methods in cotton production of Uzbekistan

Abstract

Many soils of Uzbekistan have low water and nutrient holding capacity because of their sandy texture, low organic matter concentrations and degradation caused by long years of cotton monoculture. Conservation tillage production systems have the potential to increase the productivity of these soils by increasing soil humus and nitrogen content. As practiced conservation tillage helped to lessen N leaching losses, holding more of these elements within the topsoil as well as increase crop productivity. Conventional tillage cotton/wheat/maize crop rotation has resulted very low humus and nitrogen content in soil by degreasing crop yield. Therefore, the effects of tillage, and crop rotation were examined on growth and yield of crops in three cotton-based rotation systems, (i) cotton/wheat/maize, (ii) cotton/wheat/sorghum and (iii) cotton/wheat/soybean, in Tashkent region in middle east of Uzbekistan. This obtained result suggests that no tillage with inserting legumes in crop rotation is able to improve soil quality and plant productivity.

Keywords

• Conservative tillage, cotton, crop rotation, humus, maize, soil fertility, soil content, wheat

References

1. Abdullaev, I., Giordano, M., Rasulov, A., 2005. Cotton in Uzbekistan: Water and Welfare. The Cotton Sector in Central Asia: Economic Policy and Development Challenges, Proceedings of a Conference held at SOAS, pp. 112–128.
2. Alvaro-Fuentes, J., Lopez, M.V., Arrue, J.L., Moret, D., Paustian, K. 2009. Tillage and cropping effects on soil organic carbon in Mediterranean semiarid agroecosystems: Testing the century model. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 134: 211–217.
3. Aziz I., Ashraf M., Mahmood T. and Islam K.R. 2011. Crop rotation impact on soil quality. Pakistan Journal of Botany 43(2): 949-960.
4. Aziz, I., Mahmood, T., Raut, Y., Lewis, W., Islam, R., Weil, R.R., 2009. Active Organic Matter as a Simple Measure of Field Soil Quality. ASA Internation Meetings, Pittsburg, PA.
5. Egamberdiev, O., 2007. Changes of soil characteristics under the influence of resource saving and soil protective technologies within the irrigated meadow alluvial soil of the Khorezm region. PhD dissertation, Tashkent.
6. Franzluebbers, A.J., Beecher, G., Hendrix, L.., Morse, R.D., Wilkerson, P.K., Brock, B.G. 2006. Surface soil organic pools in response to silage cropping intensity under no tillage. Proceeding book of 26th Annual Conservation Tillage Conference for Sustainable Agriculture, USA.
7. Ghidey, F., Alberts, E.E., 1997. Plant root effects on soil erodibility, splash detachment, soil strength, and aggregate stability. Trans. ASAE, 40, 129–135.
8. Ghidey, F., Alberts, E.E., 1999. Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Nitrate in a Claypan Soil. Journal of Environmental Quality 28(2), 584-594.

9. Haynes, R.J., 2000. Interactions between soil organic matter status, cropping history, method of quantification and sample pretreatment and their effects on measured aggregate stability. Biology and Fertility of Soils 30, 270–275.
10. Islam, K.R., 2006. Test of active organic matter as a measure of soil quality. 18th World Soil Science Congress, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, July 9-15, 2006.
11. Islam, K.R., Weil. R.R., 2000. Land use effects on soil quality in a tropic forest ecosystem of Bangladesh. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 79: 9-16.
12. Landgraf, D., Klose, S., 2002. Mobile and readily available C and N fractions and their relationship to microbial biomass and selected enzyme activities in a sandy soil under different management systems. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science 165: 9-16.
13. McGrath, D., Zhang, C.S., 2003. Spatial distribution of soil organic carbon concentrations in grassland of Ireland. Applied Geochemistry 18: 1629-1639.
14. Oue´draogo, E., Mando, A., Stroosnijder, L., 2005. Effects of tillage, organic resources and nitrogen fertiliser on soil carbon dynamics and crop nitrogen uptake in semi-arid West Africa. Soil and Tillage Research 91(1–2): 57–67.
15. Ouédraogo, E., Brussaard, L., Mando, A., Stroosnijder, L., 2005. Organic resources and earthworms affect phosphorus availability to sorghum after phosphate rock addition in semi-arid West Africa. Biology and Fertility of Soils 41: 458–465.
16. Rochestera, I.J, Peoplesb, M.B., Hulugallec, N.R., Gaultb, R.R., Constablea, G.A., 2001. Using legumes to enhance nitrogen fertility and improve soil condition in cotton cropping systems. Field Crops Research 70, 27–41.
17. Qushimov, B., Ganiev, I.M., Rustamova, I., Haitov, B., Islam, K.R., 2007. Land degradation by agricultural activities in Central Asia. In: Lal R, Sulaimonov M, Stewart BA, Hansen D, Doraiswamy P (eds) Climate change and terrestrial C sequestration in Central Asia. Taylor and Francis, New York, pp 194–212.