Impact of energy saving cultivations on soil parameters in northern Kazakhstan
Дата
2014Автор
Saljnikov, Elmira
Saljnikov, Aleksandar
Rahimgalieva, Saule
Cakmak, Dragan
Kresovic, Mirjana
Mrvic, Vesna
Dzhalankuzov, Temirbolat
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Recently the cost of soil processing for agricultural production has been rapidly increasing because of
expensiveness of agricultural machinery, energy, and agricultural chemicals. Intensive soil cultivation
is costly and adversely affects soil fertility due to accelerated mineralization of soil organic matter. By
minimizing mechanical disturbance to the soil, costs can be reduced and the environment enhanced.
About half of the global CO2emissions from the soil come from decomposition of the annual plant
litter including agricultural crops. We studied methods of soil tillage that would help stabilize the
yield of crops while maintaining soil fertility and saving energy and labour at the same time. Three
types of crop cultivation experiments were studied: 1) cultivation intensity (simplified ST, common CT,
and intensive IT); 2) tillage depth (shallow S, and deep D subsoil till), and 3) minimum MT, and zero
till ZT. The results showed that under ST the soil biological parameters were more favourable than
under CT and IT. Shallow subsoil till maintained higher levels of soil nutrients, and reduced CO2
emission compared with the deep subsoil till. The minimum and zero tills positively influenced soil
physical and biological properties through improvement in soil aggregate stability and soil enzymatic
activity.