LONG-TERM TILLAGE EFFECTS ON CROP YIELD IN THE TRANS-TISZA REGION OF HUNGARY

Abstract

This research was conducted to test the effect of tillage techniques Conventional Tillage (CT) and Reduced (RT) on the yield of three crops; Corn, Sunflower and Winter Wheat; in a long-term tillage experiment. The objective was to determine the effect of the tillage methods on yield of the various crops. Data of the long-term tillage experiments were collected from Karcag Research Institute of the University of Debrecen. The data were then analysed using independent samples t-test on SPSS. The CT plots on average produced the highest amount of yield for all the three tested crops. Although the mean difference in all the tested crops where not large. For sunflower, CT recorded an average yield of (2858.67 kg/ha) compared to RT’s (2505.42 kg/ha). For winter wheat, CT produced an average yield of (5689 kg/ha) compared to (5529.9 kg/ha) for RT. And for corn, CT recorded an average yield of (7629.56 kg/ha) compared to (6991.78 kg/ha) for RT. The results obtained from the independent samples t-test for all three crops showed that there was no significant difference in crop yield between the two tillage techniques i.e. CT and RT. A significance level of 0.005 was chosen for the test and the p value for winter wheat, Sun flower and corn were; p=0.831; p=0.264; p=0.647 This research concluded that yield is not significantly affected by tillage technique for this region (Trans-Tisza Hungary) and for this soil type (meadow chernozem soils). It is recommended that reduced tillage may be preferred in this region because of its soil and water conservation potential as yield performance can be overlooked. However, improved weed and soil compaction control should be practiced along with it to improve yield.

Keywords

• tillage
• conservation
• crop yield
• no till
• reduced tillage
• conventional tillage