Greener Journal of Agricultural Sciences

Greener Journal of  Agricultural Sciences Vol. 4 (2), pp. 046-051, March 2014.

 ISSN: 2276-7770 

Research Paper

Manuscript Number: 020314087

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15580/GJAS.2014.2.020314087 

Soil Bulk Density and Potato Tuber Yield as Influenced by Tillage Systems and Working Depths

 

Abrougui K.¹*, Chehaibi S.², Boukhalfa H.H.³, Chenini I.⁴, Douh B.⁵ and Nemri M.⁶

 

^1,2,5Higher Institute of Agronomy, University of Sousse. Department of Horticultural Systems Engineering, Chott Meriem, Tunisia.

³University Mohamed Khider- Biskra. Department of agronomy. Biskra, Algeria.

⁴Higher School of Rural Equipments Engineering. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Medjez El Beb, Tunisia.

⁶Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège. Department of Chemistry and Bio-industries. Gembloux, Belgium.

 

Emails: ²chehaibi3 @ yahoo. fr, ³hassinaboukhalfa @ gmail. com,

⁴Chenini.idris @ yahoo. fr, ⁵Boutheina_douh @ yahoo. fr,

⁶meriem.nemri @ doct. ulg. ac. be

 

*Corresponding Author’s Email: khaoula_abr @ yahoo. fr, Phone: (+216) 73 327 540,

(+216) 73 327 591

Abstract:

To evaluate the effects of tillage systems on soil bulk density, yield and quality of potato crop (Solanum tuberosum L.), three different tillage techniques were studied: reduced tillage using discs harrow (RT), medium tillage depth using discs plow (MT) and conventional deep tillage using moldboard plowing (CT) with three working depths of 10, 20 and 30 cm respectively. Tillage was followed by a first resumption after 10 days and a second one after 20 days. Soil structure was characterized by its bulk density and potato quality by tubers size and yield. Samples were collected from tilled plots at different dates spaced of 20 days. The obtained data were tabulated and analysed using IBM SPSS 17.0 version and Tukey test. Compared to MT and RT, CT decreased bulk density to 1.16 g cm-3 against 1.23 and 1.4 g cm-3 60 days after tillage respectively for the two previous tillage systems and increased tubers size and consequently the potato yield to an average of 11 Mg ha-1 compared to 9 and 7 Mg ha-1 respectively for MT and RT. The statistical analyses of the data showed significant effects of the treatments and the measurement date on soil bulk density.
 
Keywords: Tillage systems, soil structure, bulk density, tubers size, potato yield.

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