Impact of No Tillage on physical proprieties of a clay soil in Central Morocco

Abstract

Conventional agriculture practiced in Morocco based on recurring tillage, leads to soil degradation (erosion, fertility diminution, low organic matter content, etc.). To face up to this situation, conservation agriculture offers an opportunity to reverse this alarming trend. Indeed, several international studies have confirmed the positive findings of conservation agriculture in view of its impact on the structural stability which closely related to soil organic matter (SOM). This work contributes to focus the impact of no tillage (NT) after ten years of experiment, on the structural stability, SOM and bulk density (Da) of a Vertisol type clay soil in central of Morocco. The results showed that besides resistance of Vertisol under NT to slow wetting test, the soil could resist also of the fast wetting test (p-value = 0.02 < 0.05). A significant effect was observed for the SOM content at the surface (p-value = 0.00 < 0.05) whereas, there is no significant difference for bulk density (p-value = 0.08 > 0.05). The results obtained in this paper have shown favorable effects of NT on the physical quality of the clay soil.