Information

Soil management options to reduce runoff and erosion on a hardsetting Alfisol in India

Level 1 General description

Purpose:

Srivastava et al. (1989): The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of soil compaction and shading on surface cracking of a Vertisol.

Littleboy et al. (1996): The purpose of the study was to simulate the effects of surface cover and tillage on runoff and erosion.

Smith et al. (1992): The purpose of the study was to evaluate practices to improve infiltration and reduce erosion by comparing soil management options.

Methods (brief)

Srivastava et al. (1989): Two mini plots each with two replicates were installed in an uncropped field with varied compaction and shading treatments. After a drying out period the mini plots were then photographed and conclusions were drawn.

Littleboy et al. (1996): Data for 15 soil management treatments on an Alfisol in the semi-arid tropics, India, were used to modify existing procedures of runoff prediction using USDA runoff curve numbers. A relationship between surface cover and curve number was developed to account for the effects of surface cover on runoff.

Smith et al. (1992): Runoff and soil loss were measured from fifteen treatments in a randomised block design on plots 28.5 m long by 5 m wide on a 2% slope.

Key findings (brief)

Srivastava et al. (1989):

  • Soil compaction and soil shading results in the formation of deeper and wider cracks and bigger intercrack structural units (ISUs) in the soil.

Littleboy et al. (1996):

  • Results of model validation showed that PERFECT-IND explained between 71 and 91% of the variation in daily runoff volumes. The model also provided accurate predictions of average annual runoff ranging from 33 to 217 mm for the 15 soil management treatments.
  • Runoff was reduced to a much greater extent by surface cover compared with surface roughness. Surface cover reduced runoff curve number by a maximum of 35 units. The maximum reduction in curve number due to surface roughness was 5 units for shallow tillage and 10 units for deep tillage.

Table 1. Mean annual runoff and soil loss for the nine tillage treatments, soil loss results are for 1992 period only. Slope length and percentage were not described in the paper. (Littleboy et al. 1996)

Treatment

Runoff  (mm)

Soil loss (t/ha)

Zero tillage, bare soil

217

5.7

Zero tillage+manure

133

4.8

Zero tillage+straw

67

2.5

Shallow tillage, bare soil

205

5.2

Shallow tillage+manure

120

2.3

Shallow tillage+straw

73

2.1

Deep tillage, bare soil

173

4.8

Deep tillage+manure

124

3.9

Deep tillage+straw

66

2.3

Smith et al. (1992):

  • The proportion of rainfall running off plots ranged from 15.8 to 39.1%.
  • Soil was lost mainly as suspended load, indicating that raindrop detachment was the main erosion process.
  • Millet straw yield was reduced by tillage to 20 cm and grain yield was significantly reduced by tillage to both 10 and 20 cm.
  • Mulches had no effect on millet straw yield but farm yard manure significantly increased millet grain yield.

Various Clippings

Location

ICRISAT Centre research farm, Patancheru 18oN, 78oE, India

Project administration

Site identifier code: N/A

Principal investigator: Srivastava KL, Smith G, Littleboy M.

Principal data manager: N/A

Principal organizations: Queensland Department of Primary Industries, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics

Data custodian: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics

Key co-operators: N/A

Data access policy: Research has been published but base data is not archived

Planned pathway for data: completed study, no evidence of formal database records.

Data warehousing: for ongoing studies N/A

Planned data upload frequency: for ongoing studies N/A

Key references and sources of this data synthesis

These data summaries have been extracted from:

  1. Littleboy M, Cogle AL, Smith GD, Yule DF, and Rao KPC. (1996). Soil management and production of Alfisols in the semi-arid tropics. I. Modelling the effects of soil management on runoff and erosion. Australian Journal of Soil Research 34: 91-102.
  2. Smith G., Coughlan KJ, Yule, DF, Laryea .B, Srivastava KL, Thomas NP, and Cogle AL. (1992). Soil management options to reduce runoff and erosion on a hardsetting Alfisol in the semi-arid tropics. Soil Tillage Res 25:195-215.
  3. Srivastava KL, Smith GD, Jangawad LS. (1989). Compaction and Shading Effects on Surface Cracking in a Vertisol. Soil and Tillage Research 13: 151-161.

Keywords:

Alfisol, runoff, erosion, Simulation, model, runoff, water balance, curve number