Performance Of Different Tillage Implements And Their Effects On Sorghum And Maize Grown In Gezira Vertisols Sudan

Abstract Tillage practices have often been considered as limited factor to crop production in heavy clay soil. Experiments were conducted for two seasons 1998 and 1999 to investigate the effects of six tillage methods on sorghum and maize establishment and yield weeds control and some soil physical properties. The technical performance of chisel plow and disc harrow was also investigated. Tillage methods comprehend chisel plow disc harrow disc plow and minimum tillage. Minimum tillage was significantly higher in all weed parameters compared to other methods. No significant differences were observed for crop establishment plant population total dry biomass thousand seed weight and grain yield for both crops. Increasing the depth of chiseling and harrowing from 10 cm to 20 cm significantly P0.01 increased draft and drawbar power. Travel reduction under harrowing to 20 cm resulted in highly significant differences P2661603 0.01 compared to other treatments. The effective field capacity field efficiency and fuel consumption rates of chisel and harrowing at different depths of operation showed no significant differences. However minimum tillage ridging only was the lease in fuel consumption and cost 3.5 l ha-1 and 2 US ha-1 respectively. The above findings indicate that although all tillage methods gave fairly similar results in all tested parameters minimum tillage could be recommended and adopted for sorghum and maize production in Gezira Vertisols as it was less expensive implement.