Abstract:
This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of water harvesting
techniques and chisel plough depth on yield and yield components of
sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) under the dryland farming of Gadaref
State during three consecutive seasons (2010/09, 2011/10 and
2012/11). The experimental field was arranged in a split-plot design
replicated three times each consisting of three main plots which were
ploughed by chisel depths of 20 (D1), 25 (D2), and 30 cm (D3). Each
main plot was divided into five subplots each with size of 3×6 m2 to
include five different treatments, which were randomly distributed.
They were respectively used wide level disc (WLD) as conventional
tillage practice, and two tied- ridging spaced at 1 m (TR1) and 2 m
(TR2) and {two furrow-ridge with ratios of 1:1(RF1) and 2:1(RF2)}.
The latter four treatments were considered as in- situ rain water
harvesting techniques. Amounts of monthly rainfall (mm), measured
within the three rainy seasons, and collected crop data were plant
population(PP), plant height at flowering (PH), dry matter (DM), total
grain yield (GY), water productivity (WP) and 1000 seeds weight (1000
SW). The result showed no significant (p>0.05) difference between
interaction water harvesting techniques (WHT) and chisel depth, in
three seasons on (PP), (PH),(GY), (DM) and (WP).except (GY), (DM)
and (WP), in the third season (TS), the result showed that the highest
grain yield 2356.70 kg/ha for sorghum was produced by TR2 under
(D3) and lowest grain yield 1448.30kg/ha was produced by WLD
under (D1), and the highest (DM) 1386.70 kg/ha for sorghum was
produced by TR2 under (D3) and the lowest (DM) 801.00kg/ha was
produced by WLD under (D1), and highest (WP) 0.67 (kg/m3) for
sorghum was produced by TR2 under (D3) and lowest (WP) 0.39(kg/
m3was produced by WLD under (D1). There were significant (p<0.05)
difference between interaction water harvesting techniques (WHT) and
chisel depth, except in the first season (FS) on (1000 SW), result also
showed that the highest (1000 SW) 32.90 and 27.0 (g) for sorghum was
produced by TR2 in SS and TS respectively under (D3) the lowest
(1000 SW) 20.90 and 19.10 (g) was produced by WLD in SS and TS
respectively under (D1).The data suggested that use of simple in-situ
water harvesting techniques could be used successfully to meet the
water demand of sorghum in the North of Gadaref State, which suffers
from the intermittent and low rainfall.
