Growth and yield performance of maize grown under supplementary irrigation from gully flow
Loading...
Date
1999
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sokoine Univesirty of Agriculture
Abstract
A study was conducted to assess the growth and yield performance of maize grown
under supplementary irrigation using gully flow from large external catchment during
the 1997/98 short rainy season. Two fields each of 180m x 60m size were prepared.
One of the fields was dominated by fine sandy loam soils (field Fl) and the other field
was dominated by silty clay loam soils (field F2). Three water application treatments
were applied to each field. The treatments were flat cultivation without water
conservation or supplementary irrigation (FC), flat cultivation with water
conservation but without supplementary irrigation (WC) and flat cultivation with
water conservation and supplementary irrigation from gully flow (WCIR).
Supplementary irrigation when applied to plots with water conservation was found to
improve the depth of the effective rainfall. However when direct rainfall amount was
higher than 40 mm, application of supplementary irrigation from gully flows resulted
into wastage of large volumes of water through runoff and deep percolation. The
effect of prolonged dry spells on soil moisture status was found to be reduced by
supplementary irrigation, especially in soils having higher water holding capacity.
Grain yields were 1.9 t/ha, 2.1 t/ha and 2.5 t/ha from treatments FC, WC and WCIR
respectively in field Fl and 1.8 t/ha, 2.5 t/ha and 2.7t/ha from treatments FC, WC and
WCIR respectively in field F2. Biomass yields were 6.7t/ha, 6.0t/ha and 5.6t/ha from
treatments WCIR, WC and FC respectively in field Fl and 7.4t/ha, 6.0t/ha and
4.2t/ha from treatments WCIR, WC and FC respectively in field F2. In field Fl, both
biomass and grain yields from all treatments were not significantly different while foriii
field F2 both biomass and grain yields from treatments WCIR were significantly
higher than those from treatment FC at p = 0.05.
It was concluded that whereas much runoff from marginal lands of the semi arid areas
is wasted through gully flows, crop growth and yields can be improved when gully
flow is used to supplement crop water needs in a field with water conservation in
place. However, better results will depend on the water holding capacity of the soils.
Further, care must be made to avoid excessive application of water on cropped fields
during heavy rains. Finally it is recommended that this study be extended for several
seasons to obtain enough data which will enable to establish a field manual to be used
by farmers in their fields.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Maize performance, Supplementary irrigation