Abstract
Water and nutrients are the main limiting factors to sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) production in the Sahel. Our objective was to quantify the interactions of irrigation, mulch and N on sorghum yield and water use efficiency (WUE) in Sahelian agroecosystems. Sorghum was grown in eight management systems as a factorial arrangement of irrigation (none and 125 mm), mulch (none and 12 Mg ha-1 ) and N (none and 50 kg ha-1) on an Ustifluvent in Niger (13°17'N, 7°3'E). Rainfall during the growth period of sorghum was 283 mm with an unfavorable distribution causing three dry spells. Irrigation and mulch induced more intensive root growth at the soil surface. Irrigation increased root density by 52% when N was applied. Few and small differences in sorghum height and leaf area index (LAI) among sorghum management systems indicated little influence of these crop properties on the water balance. Irrigation, mulch and nitrogen as sole amendments increased biomass by 55%, 20% and 30%, respectively. Averaged across the sorghum management systems, grain yield was increased by 41%, 17% and 20% by irrigation, mulch and N, respectively. This study showed that in a Sahelian agroecosystem, nitrogen as a sole amendment increased water use efficiency of sorghum by 21%. Mulch reduced evaporation from soil by 28% in both dryland and irrigated treatments, but not all of the saved water was subsequently transpired by the crop. Irrigation improved water use efficiency by 9 to 40% but did not greatly increase the total transpired water.
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Zaongo, C., Wendt, C., Lascano, R. et al. Interactions of water, mulch and nitrogen on sorghum in Niger. Plant and Soil 197, 119–126 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004244109990
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004244109990