Abstract

Soil management systems can affect soil physical properties and, thus, have a direct bearing on crop performance. This study determined the effects of conventional and no-tillage management on selected soil physical properties and compared observed yield differences between these tillage systems with soil physical properties. To achieve these goals, two technical tillage chains (deep tillage, Direct sowing), were compared in the same pedoclimatic and historical situations. The experiment was carried out on clayey soil in the experimental station of the Technical Institute for Field Crops, during 2017-18 agricultural campaign. Tillage methods significantly affected the soil physical properties as increase in soil moisture contents and decrease in Penetration resistance of soil was noted The soil moisture contents (21,25 %) and Penetration resistance (2,44 MPa) were maximum in direct sowing as compared to conventional tillage. Whatever the sowing rate, the number of seedlings raised per square meter is greater on direct sowing plots. Concerning the diameter and the length of the roots, and whatever the sowing dose, the large values were recorded in the plots worked conventionally. The yield is higher for direct sowing, it is 64.1 q/ha on the other hand, it is 61.1 q/ha for conventional work. All these results are very encouraging for a possible introduction of direct sowing in cereal crops in Algeria.