This experiment was carried out to study on the effects of soil TILLAGE methods on soil moisture conservation, growth indices, yield and yield components of some soybean cultivars. The experimental layout was RCBD in split plot arrangement with nine treatments and in three replicates conducted in research farm of university of Tehran with altitude of 1321 m ASL, longitude of 510 East, latitude of 350 48// North. The treatments included combination of soil TILLAGE methods of CONVENTIONAL, minimum and no-till as main plots and soybean cultivars of Williams, Wojudanka and Verna as sub plots. According to the results TILLAGE methods had significant effects (p<0.01) on grain yield, biomass, harvest index, number of cobs and number of seeds per cob and the minimum grain yield of 2593 kg ha-1was obtained from CONVENTIONAL system, while there was no significant difference between two other TILLAGE methods. The biological yield in CONVENTIONAL system with the mean yield of 5994 kg ha-1 was more than two other TILLAGE methods and the minimum biomass was obtained from minimum TILLAGE. The maximum harvest index was observed in CONVENTIONAL system and the highest number of cobs per plant was obtained from Williams cultivar, while the number of seeds per cob was significantly different in studied cultivars with the highest amount in Williams and the lowest in Verna.

The current study was conducted to compare different TILLAGE methods on wheat yield in pebbly dry land areas done within three years (2006-2008) in north Khouzestan (Baghmalek city) in randomized block design with five treatments and four replications. The experimental treatments were: (1) chisel plow+seed-drill, (2) Semi plow (mold board plow with remove mold board)+seed-drill, (3) no-till-drill, (4) sweep plow+seed-drill and (5) CONVENTIONAL method (mold board plow+broadcasting seed and fertilizer+sweep plow). These treatments included minimum TILLAGE (treatments 1, 2 and 4), no TILLAGE (treatment 3) and CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE (treatment 5).Complex variance analyses of three years data showed that there was no significant difference between TILLAGE methods and interaction of TILLAGE methods with year in soil moisture content in different plant growth stages (stem, flowering, and filling seeds stages) but years were different in this factor. Variance analyses of data showed that there was no significant difference between different TILLAGE methods in percent of organic materials in different soil depths in the end of the project. However, no difference in TILLAGE methods in the amount of organic material has been analyzed based on the pebbly conditions. The complex variance analyses of data also showed that TILLAGE methods had significant effect on grain yield and other agronomical factors, except plant height and harvest index. According to the results any devices cause to back more gravel and cobblestone into sub soil layer provide more grain yield. Therefore, mold board plow resulted in maximum yield in three experimental years which were different in amount and distribution of rainfall, and also in third year the amount of rainfall was considerably low. The grain yield averages of three years were 1333, 1558, 1190, 1080 and 1787 Kg.ha-1 for chisel plow, semi plow, no-till-drill, sweep plow and mold board plow respectively.

In this research, using a split-block design and implementing two single-line source sprinkler systems, effects of 0, 90, 180 and 270 kg N/ha as urea source and 9600, 8550, 7500 and 6400 m3/ha of irrigation water on silage corn (Zea Mays L. ), S. C. 704 variety in two CONVENTIONAL and minimum-TILLAGE systems were studied. The results showed that there was not a significant difference between water use efficiency, phosphorous uptake and foliages yield of two TILLAGE systems. The main effects of water and nitrogen on the stems height and diameter, fresh foliage yield, nitrogen, phosphorus and zinc uptake and the amounts of soil organic carbon were significant at 1% level and on the dry foliage yield and water use efficiency were significant at 0. 05% level. At all levels of nitrogen, agronomic and physiological efficiencies in CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE were higher than those in minimum-TILLAGE system. The optimum amount of foliage yield in CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE system was obtained from combined application of 8550 m3/ha water and 90 kg N/ha and in minimum TILLAGE was obtained from combined application of 7500 m3/ha irrigation water and 270 kg N/ha. In terms of water use efficiency, in CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE, combined application of 180 kg N/ha and 7500 m3/ha of water and in minimum TILLAGE combined application of 180 kg N/ha and 6400 m3/ha of irrigation water were superior treatments. Based on obtained results, minimum-TILLAGE system can be used instead of the CONVENTIONAL system in the similar corn fields but more nitrogen and less water is required.

Principal component analysis is a valid method used for data compression and information extraction in a given set of experiments. It is a well-known classical data analysis technique. There are a number of algorithms for solving the problems, some scaling better than others. Wheat ranks as the staple food of most of the nations as well as an agent of poverty reduction, food security and world peace. Due to limited sowing time and CONVENTIONAL cropping pattern the wheat yield suffers. Efficient TILLAGE methods maintain soil health and crops response. The present investigations were carried out to study the effects of different TILLAGE systems on yield and yield contributing traits, using Randomized Complete Block Design. Two TILLAGE systems i.e. conservation TILLAGE and CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE were used. Three principal components were sufficient to explain the variations. The traits plant height, number of leaves, number of tillers, peduncle length, spike length, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike, grain weight per spike and grain yield were affected significantly under conservation TILLAGE as well as CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE systems. The graphic representation showed that yield contributing traits behaved best in conservation TILLAGE practice. The present study revealed that conservation TILLAGE method produced optimum yield for wheat production.

Every year the degradation of agricultural soils are increasing due to improper TILLAGE operations. The main objective of this study was evaluation and comparison of shallow and CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE methods and their effects on wheat yield and its components. The study was conducted in three consecutive years with two treatments and four replications in Khosroshahr, Iran. Treatments were 1. CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE method comprised of: moldboard plowing at the depth of 20-25 cm, disk harrowing at the depth of 12 –15 cm, leveling, following by chemical fertilizer and planting with grain drill, and 2. Shallow TILLAGE method was included: disk harrowing in the depth of 6-8 cm after removing residue, disk harrowing in the depth of 12 –15 cm in fall, spike tooth harrowing, following by chemical fertilizer and planting with grain drill. The combined analysis of data indicated that there was no significant difference between CONVENTIONAL and surface TILLAGE methods in grain yield, number of heads in unit area, number of grain in the head, 1000 kernel weight, weight of straw and harvesting index. The average wheat yield by CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE was 79 kg more than that of by shallow TILLAGE. This difference might be due to higher plowing depth and better residual burying with mold board plow. The grain yield in surface TILLAGE was 97.5% of the yield in CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE. CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE consumes more energy compared to shallow TILLAGE, takes more time, causes more depreciation of the implements and therefore increases costs. Considering short available time for cultivation, and also no significant differences in the yield by the two TILLAGE methods, the shallow TILLAGE can be recommended in irrigated wheat farms.

This study was conducted at Darab Agricultural Research Station in wheat-cotton rotation for four years. A complete block experimental design with three treatments (no-till, reduced TILLAGE, and CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE methods) and four replications were used. TILLAGE methods were compared economically. The most beneficial treatment was selected based on estimating the costs and incomes of different treatments and using the net present value method of gross margin changes. Analytical hierarchy analysis (AHP) method was also used to select the most appropriate TILLAGE method. Results showed that there was no significant difference between TILLAGE methods for wheat and cotton yield during most of the years that this investigation was in processing. Reduced TILLAGE and no-till methods decreased wheat and cotton production costs, compared to CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE, for 5 and 10% respectively. These conservation TILLAGE methods, compared to the CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE, also reduced fuel consumption for 60 and 77%, respectively. Conservation TILLAGE methods increased effective field capacity of seed bed preparation and planting operations, so that time required for seed bed preparation and planting operations decreased in reduced TILLAGE and no-till, compared to the CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE, for 62 and 74%, respectively. CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE had maximum present value of gross margin (53662 thousands Rials) compared to reduced TILLAGE (46379 thousands Rials) and no-till (38149 thousands Rials). Considering different factors in decision making, parameters such as crop yield (0. 312), production costs (0. 221), and water consumption (0. 219) had the highest weight in farmers’ decision for selecting TILLAGE method, and the conservation TILLAGE methods received the highest priority for selection.

Differences between spectral reflectance can be the base of identification of crop residue rate and crop growth by remote sensing. A 2-year experiment was conducted under dryland conditions to determine the crop residue retained on soil surface in conservation and CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE systems. TILLAGE treatments comprised of CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE (MD: mouldboard plough+disk), reduced TILLAGE (CH: chisel plough+disk), minimum till (MT: Stubble cultivator), and no-till (NT1 and NT2: with standing stubble and total residue, respectively). Remotely sensed data of crop residue and plant growth were acquired, using a handheld multispectral radiometer (350 to 2500 nm) and thermal imager (8, 000 to 14, 000 nm). Using a combination of visible and near-infrared spectra, crop residue cover indices were calculated and evaluated. Rresidues in NT1 and NT2 lowered the soil surface and wheat canopy temperature by 2.5-5.7 and 3-7oC respectively over the other treatments (MD, CH and MT). A liner negative relation between canopy temperature and wheat grain yield was found. TILLAGE systems were classified according to strong correlation between crop residue cover and cellulose absorption index (CAI). CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE were classified by crop residue less than 6% and CAI values below zero. Crop residue cover between 10-20% and CAI 2-4% indicated reduced TILLAGE, and crop residue cover between 30-42% and CAI 4-5.7% found for minimum TILLAGE. Finally No-TILLAGE were classified by crop residue with more than 60% and CAI values between 5.8-8. Ground based hyper spectral signatures which were collected for identifying electromagnetic reflectance of crop residue can be used in calibration and validation of remote sensing imagery and its data products of airborne/space borne missions.

AbstractIntroduction In recent decades, population growth has led to changes in dietary behavior and a significant increase in global demand for food production, which has led to the promotion of heavy use of agricultural land. water shortage in arid and semi-arid regions is one of the most important factor that affect crops production. The use of different conservation TILLAGE methods such as minimum TILLAGE and the use of organic and inorganic mulch as methods used in sustainable agriculture, can reduce water and energy consumption in an agricultural system. Soil water affects plant growth and development. So that even a small change in soil water content can significantly change the productivity of crops. Soil cover or mulch is one of the management strategies to increase water use efficiency of agricultural products.Materials and Methods In this study, research was conducted to investigate the effect of conservation TILLAGE methods and plasticulture patterns on water use efficiency and strawberry crop yield in 1398. The water use efficiency was calculated to assess the effects of TILLAGE and plastic covers in the field. . The experiment was conducted using of factorial design in the form of randomized complete blocks with three replications. The plots included two types of TILLAGE systems (CONVENTIONAL and conservation) and three methods of plastic cover (planting under plastic, over plastic and without plastic coverage). This experiment was performed in 18 plots with dimensions of 0.8×15 meters. 3 rows were planted in each plot. The distance between sub-plots was 75 cm as a ridge, the distance between main plots was 1 and a half meters and the distance between replicates was 2 meters. Water use efficiency (WUE) is one of the most important indicators for measuring agricultural water productivity. This index is actually the ratio of the amount of product produced per amount of water consumed (evaporation-transpiration) of the plant. In this definition, instead of evaporating and transpiration of the plant, the amount of water used in the field can be replaced and the amount of crop production per unit volume of water used in irrigation can be obtained. The higher this ratio, the better the water consumption.Results and Discussion The two factors of TILLAGE and planting pattern only affected soil moisture content at a depth of 0-10 cm and no significant effect was observed between different treatments at a depth of 10-20 cm. Minimum TILLAGE in the pre-irrigation and post-irrigation stages has the highest moisture content. CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE disturbs the soil more than minimum TILLAGE, increasing pores and unevenness of the soil surface, thereby increasing surface evaporation. Planting pattern had the highest moisture content and over plastic planting pattern had the lowest moisture content. Plastic cover is a barrier that prevents soil water from evaporating and keeps the root zone moisture regime at more stable levels, thus reducing the need for irrigation and preventing physiological disorders related to nutrients and water. There is no significant difference between TILLAGE factor in two levels of CONVENTIONAL and low TILLAGE and only planting pattern at 1% level has a significant difference. Different planting patterns significantly affected strawberry yield. According to the comparison of the average, the highest yield was related to the planting pattern on plastic and the lowest was obtained on the planting pattern without plastic. Since the yield of strawberries in different TILLAGE methods was not significantly different and in this study the same amount of water was used in different methods. Therefore, TILLAGE methods had no significant effect on strawberry water productivity.Conclusion The data was shown that the use of conservation TILLAGE and plasticulture increased soil moisture retention by 22% which is due to the prevention of evaporation of soil moisture by Plastic mulch and Plant residue cover and less soil disturbance in conservation TILLAGE. Conservation TILLAGE has no significant effect on strawberry yield due to the slow trend in changing soil properties, but plastic mulch increased strawberry yield by 31.71% due to the increase in soil moisture retention. Since the type of TILLAGE did not have a significant effect on strawberry yield in this study, therefore, TILLAGE does not have a significant effect on water use efficiency, but different planting patterns, due to affecting yield, significantly increase water use efficiency here.

An experiment was conducted to find out effects of different TILLAGE systems on soil weed seedbank density under corn-wheat rotation. A split-plot trial based on RCBD with six replications was carried out during two years (2012 and 2013). Main plots included CONVENTIONAL seed bed prepration by moldboard ploughing (CT), minimum TILLAGE (MT) and no-TILLAGE (NT). Each main plot was divided in to two subplots (with herbicide and control). Seed densities were estimated by direct seed extraction in systematic method by an auger with 7cm diameter from 0-20 cm depth from each sampled plot prior to corn planting, just before applying treatments. Sampling was also replicated and continued after corn harvesting, pre and post TILLAGE and finally after wheat harvesting. The seedbank was initially composed of 19 species, mostly annuals. Mean comparison of weed seedbank post wheat harvesting showed Sorghum halepense, Lactuca serriola and Convolvulus arvensis was significantly increased in no till plots, while perennial weed seeds such as Convolvulus arvensis and Malva neglecta were not affected by herbicides. CT, moldboard ploughing increased Avena loduviciana and Hordeum sponteneum seeds significantly by vertical distribution of buried seeds to soil surface.

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) seeds are susceptible to low temperature and excess moisture in soil during seed emergence in years with high rainfall and low temperature in spring. Therefore, a two-year field experiment was carried out to evaluate effects of ridge TILLAGE formed in autumn (RT-I), ridge TILLAGE formed about a month before planting (RT-II) and flat CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE (CT) cultivation systems on physical properties of soil and cotton growth. The RT-I and RT-II resulted in higher soil temperature and lower soil penetration resistance than CT at all depths. The RT-II gave highest emergence, earliest maturity and greatest seed cotton yield. In conclusion, ridge TILLAGE formed a month before planting may be considered a good agronomic practice because it can provide favorable physical conditions in soil, while also improving growth and yield of cotton under weather conditions in spring in South East Anatolia Region of Turkey.