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296782

Mulching effect on evaporation from the soil surface and water use efficiency of cowpea crop

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Soil and Water Sciences

Abstract

The efficiency of mulching to reduce soil surface evaporation depends on the climate and the characteristics of the different mulching materials. This study aims to investigate the effect of varying mulching materials on soil evaporation, total chlorophyll, growth parameters, leaf area, yield, N, P, and K content in straw and seeds, and water use efficiency of cowpea plants (Vigna unguiculata L.) variety Karim-7 under two soil types with different texture as well as the interaction between them. For this, the pot experiment during the summer of 2021 was conducted at the Soils and Water Department farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt. Two types of soil were used: clay and loamy sand. The mulching materials used for the soil's surface were black plastic (T2), white plastic (T3), rice straw 3 (T4), 6 (T5) and 9 cm thickness (T6), gravel 3 (T7), 6 (T8) and 9 cm thickness (T9), in addition to the control treatment (T1: without mulching). In general, mulching materials reduced water consumptive use (CU), enhanced growth parameters, and increased the yield of cowpea compared to the control. As a result, using these materials is recommended to prevent water losses by evaporation, conserve soil moisture, and increase the water use efficiency (WUE) of cowpea plants.

DOI

10.21608/ajar.2023.203779.1134

Keywords

Evaporation, different mulching materials, soil types, water use efficiency, and cowpea

Authors

First Name

Sabry

Last Name

Abd El-Kader

MiddleName

H.

Affiliation

Soils and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

Email

sabryabdalkadr.205@azhar.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Mohamed

Last Name

Mohamed

MiddleName

M.

Affiliation

Soils and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

Email

dr.mohamedmostafa58@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Hussein

Last Name

Ahmed

MiddleName

K.

Affiliation

Soils and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

Email

husseinkhaled.205@azher.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Mohamed

Last Name

Sheta

MiddleName

H.

Affiliation

Soils and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

Email

mohamedsheta.205@azhar.edu.eg

City

Cairo

Orcid

0000-0002-2810-0148

Volume

48

Article Issue

3

Related Issue

46331

Issue Date

2023-10-01

Receive Date

2023-03-02

Publish Date

2023-10-01

Page Start

347

Page End

358

Print ISSN

1110-1563

Online ISSN

2786-0051

Link

https://ajar.journals.ekb.eg/article_296782.html

Detail API

https://ajar.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=296782

Order

25

Type

Original Article

Type Code

929

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Al-Azhar Journal of Agricultural Research

Publication Link

https://ajar.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Mulching effect on evaporation from the soil surface and water use efficiency of cowpea crop

Details

Type

Article

Created At

24 Dec 2024