Abstract
The impact of climate change is expected to be more severe in semi-arid and arid ecosystems. Seasonal and high-rainfall floods have recently become a common occurrence in semi-arid sub-Saharan countries in southwestern Africa, where ridging is becoming an important method to alleviate flooding stress in drought-tolerant crops. The objective of this study was to propose a feasible tillage method and compare its agronomical effects to those of conventional tillage practices in northern Namibia in sub-Saharan Africa. Pearl millet and cowpea were grown in the field using different tillage methods in seasonal wetlands in this area. We investigated crop yield, growth parameters, soil moisture content, and the shape of the ridge. Soil tillage using a newly proposed disc ridger for two-wheel tractors resulted in higher yield and growth rate in both crops than using the other tillage methods i.e. single mouldboard ploughing with animals and/or disc harrowing with four-wheel tractor. Ridge formation with strip tillage (partial pulverization) using the disc ridger resulted in significantly lower soil moisture content after irrigation because of the higher aspect ratio of the ridge. It is likely that large undisturbed portion remained therewith prevented the ridge from collapsing because of the irrigation water that imitated natural rainfall in this region. Therefore, ridge formation with strip tillage leads to good drainage, and as a result, proper drying of soil prevents flooding stresses thus enhancing early growth and yield of pearl millet and cowpea.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Disc-ridger tillage increased pearl millet yield and growth rate versus other tillage methods.
- Taxon
- Pearl millet
Cenchrus americanuse1 - Treatment
- disc ridger for two-wheel tractorse0
- Outcome
- yield and growth ratee0
- Direction
- highere0
- Comparator
- other tillage methodse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Soil tillage using a newly proposed disc ridger for two-wheel tractors resulted in higher yield and growth rate in both crops than using the other tillage methods i.e. single mouldboard ploughing with animals and/or disc harrowing with four-wheel tractor.”
e1“Pearl millet and cowpea were grown in the field”
Claim · model-written summary
Disc-ridger tillage increased cowpea yield and growth rate versus other tillage methods.
- Taxon
- cowpea
Vigna unguiculatae1 - Treatment
- disc ridger for two-wheel tractorse0
- Outcome
- yield and growth ratee0
- Direction
- highere0
- Comparator
- other tillage methodse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Soil tillage using a newly proposed disc ridger for two-wheel tractors resulted in higher yield and growth rate in both crops than using the other tillage methods i.e. single mouldboard ploughing with animals and/or disc harrowing with four-wheel tractor.”
e1“Pearl millet and cowpea were grown in the field”
Claim · model-written summary
Strip tillage ridge formation reduced soil moisture content after irrigation.
- Taxon
- Pearl milletCenchrus americanuse1
- Treatment
- Ridge formation with strip tillage (partial pulverization)e0
- Outcome
- soil moisture contente0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Qualifier
- after irrigatione0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Ridge formation with strip tillage (partial pulverization) using the disc ridger resulted in significantly lower soil moisture content after irrigation because of the higher aspect ratio of the ridge.”
e1“Pearl millet and cowpea were grown in the field”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors attribute lower soil moisture after irrigation to the ridge’s higher aspect ratio.
- Taxon
- cowpeaVigna unguiculatae1
- Outcome
- soil moisture contente0
- Qualifier
- higher aspect ratio of the ridgee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“significantly lower soil moisture content after irrigation because of the higher aspect ratio of the ridge”
e1“Pearl millet and cowpea were grown in the field”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors infer that undisturbed soil prevented irrigation-induced ridge collapse.
- Taxon
- cowpeaVigna unguiculatae1
- Outcome
- ridge from collapsinge0
- Qualifier
- large undisturbed portione0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“It is likely that large undisturbed portion remained therewith prevented the ridge from collapsing because of the irrigation water that imitated natural rainfall in this region.”
e1“Pearl millet and cowpea were grown in the field”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors conclude that strip-tillage ridges improve drainage and drying, reducing flooding stress and enhancing early growth and yield of pearl millet and cowpea.
- Taxon
- pearl millet and cowpeaVigna unguiculataCenchrus americanuse0
- Treatment
- ridge formation with strip tillagee0
- Outcome
- early growth and yielde0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“ridge formation with strip tillage leads to good drainage, and as a result, proper drying of soil prevents flooding stresses thus enhancing early growth and yield of pearl millet and cowpea”
The same questions in other papers
(1S)-isoindoline-1-carboxylic acid · yield · Vigna unguiculata (cowpea)Results agree
1 paper in the same direction as this paper
- positive
tillage · quality: grain · Cenchrus americanus (pearl millet)Results agree
3 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.