Effect of In-situ Rainwater Conservations and Sowing Date on Barley Yield and Weed Infestation: A Case study at Maychew and Mekelle, Northern Ethiopia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18034/mjmbr.v2i1.387Keywords:
Sowing-date, In-situ conservation, Barley, Soil moisture content, Yield, WeedAbstract
One season experiment conducted at two sites in northern Ethiopia (Maychew and Mekelle). The objective of the research was to evaluate the effect of in-situ rainwater conservation and sowing-date on soil-water status, barley yield and infestation of weeds. The treatments include three alternative sowing-dates (ESD; NSD; and LSD) and two in-situ rainwater conservation measures (tie-ridge and soil-bund, replicated three times. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to evaluate the effect of the treatments on total biomass and rainwater use efficiency (RWUE) of the local barley. The average soil-water content in the upper 0.6 m root zone in the soil-bund and tie-ridge improved over the control treatment by 14% and 24%, respectively. The grain yield on tie-ridge was increased significantly compared to the control at Maychew site. Tie-ridge improved grain yield by 4% and 18% over the control at Mekelle and Maychew, respectively. NSD significantly improved the grain yield over LSD at both experimental sites. Neither of the sowing-dates nor the in-situ rainwater conservation measures had significantly increased the dry-matter of a barley crop. However, when NSD combined with tie-ridge, the grain yield was significantly improved compared to the LSD. There was no significant difference in weed infestation in both experimental sites due to applying in-situ rainwater conservation. But, numbers of weeds were significantly higher in ESD compared to NSD and LSD on both experimental sites. For this reason, NSD with tie-ridging technique can be used as an option to obtain higher barley grain yield.
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