Theses and Dissertations Collection

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations Collection by Author "Bakari, Amin Masud"

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    Growth and yield performance of maize grown under supplementary irrigation from gully flow
    (Sokoine Univesirty of Agriculture, 1999) Bakari, Amin Masud
    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.