COMPARISON STUDY BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL AND CONSERVATION TILLAGE SYSTEMS WITH RESPECT TO GREENHOUSE GASSES, SAVING ENERGY AND MAIZE PRODUCTION

Document Type : Original Research Papers

Authors

1 Agric. &Bio systems Eng., Dept., Faculty of Agric., Benha Univ., Benha, Egypt

2 Organic Agriculture Research Unit, Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering and Biote7chnology Research Institue.University of Sadat City, Egypt.

Abstract

Conventional tillage (CT) consumes a lot of energy and causes problems for soil and environment. Strip tillage (ST) is an alternative method to save environment and soil structure. A complete randomized experimental design was conducted. Two treatments with three replicates each were applied. They were T1 polwed conventionally and T2 plowed by ST. A strip tillage prototype was fabricated. Results indicated that there was a significant difference between T1 and T2 on SOC% and  total soil N after harvest. SOC% and total soil nitrogen  increased by 19.38 and 8.5% for T2 compared to T1. Fuel consumption was less in T2 by 46.7% compared to T1. There was a significant difference between grain yield of T1 and T2. Grain yield of T1 increased by 8.04% compared to T2. Also, there was a difference between T1 and T2 in water consumption. T2 saved about 5.75% of water compared to T1. Applying ST per one million feddan planted by maize crop allover Egypt saves 5.76 million tons of CO2 and 18.316 million kg of N2O which contributed into greenhouse gases. Also, T2 saves about 15.75 milion liters of fuel and 2.32 billion m3 of water per one million feddan.

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