Tillage, Manure and Gypsum Use in Reclamation of Saline-Sodic Soils

Soil degradation resulting from soil salinity and sodicityis a major problem under arid and semiarid climates. Nearly 831 million hectares of land are salt-affected worldwide. The high salt concentration negatively affects soil physical and chemical properties as well as soil microbial activity, thus causing a decline in soil productivity. It has led to the depletion of soil organic carbon, decline in biomass production, contamination of water resources, and emission of greenhouse gases such as CO2 at an accelerated rate. The initial hydration of sodic clays leads to slaking and swelling while continuous hydration results in dispersion of clay particles. Saline and sodic soils usually suffer from poor physical properties, including high bulk density, low macroporosity and aggregate stability. Therefore, management of such soils is challenging. The fundamental issue of soil quality improvement may in a long-term have a aim to restore an earlier state for the required crop production purposes or to limit and/or slowing down the further deterioration, in order to reservations the original values and features of the soil properties. Appropriate tillage is key factor for mitigation of negative effect, while application of organic matter through various sources is another amelioration strategy for salt-affected soils. These procedures affect soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Tillage improves aeration and alleviates compaction while organic matter promotes binding soil particles into aggregates. Present paper present positive aspect of tillage and amendment addition (gypsum, farmyard manure, sulfur) on properties of saline-sodic soils using available literature. Normal 0 21 false false false HR X-NONE X-NON

Tillage and Soil Amendments Effect on Soil Physical Properties and Yield of Oats (Avena sativa L.) in Organic Farm in Mediterranean Croatia

Organic agriculture represents sustainable and environmentally friendly soil management. Nevertheless, this kind of management requests high level of knowledge due to limitations in use of agrochemicals. Proper agro-technical measures are especially important on organic farms on degraded saline-sodic soils in Mediterranean. In this paper, we study the impact of two tillage managements (disc-harrow – DH and disc-harrow with ripping – DH+RIP) and three selected treatments on soil physical properties in saline-sodic soils of River Raša valley, Croatia. Treatments were: control, G6+OM (6 t ha-1 gypsum + 40 t ha-1 farmyard manure) and G6S2 (6 t ha-1 gypsum + 2 t ha-1 sulphur). Results show that DH+RIP treatment recorded lower bulk density, penetration resistance and higher air filled porosity compared to DH treatment. Soil amendments also show implications on soil physical properties. Lowest compaction was noted at G6+OM, while control treatment recorded the highest. Yields of oat were generally low due weed infestation. DH+RIP treatments showed 15% higher yields compared to DH treatments. Amendments also recorded different response on oat yield. G6+OM treatment recorded 34% higher yields of oats compared to control, while G6S2 treatment recorded 82% of grain yields compared to control. This can be justified by the period between sulphur application into this treatment and sowing date, which was too short. Research should be continued with expanded monitoring of soil hydraulic properties, carbon dynamics, soil structure and aggregate stability in order to find most appropriate and sustainable soil management on saline-sodic soils under organic production in Mediterranean