Effects of Different Soil Management Practices on Some Soil Properties in a Semi-Arid Region, Igdir, Turkey

Soil conservation practices aim to improve the degraded soil properties and to sustain soil quality. Intensive agriculture with conventional tillage in Igdir Province, Turkey, has led to soil degradation (compaction, loss of soil organic matter). For this reason, it is important to use soil conservation practices (minimum tillage, zero tillage, cover crops) in the region. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different tillage practices and cover crops cultivated after corn (Zea mays L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) on selected soil properties during 2016-2018 in Igdir. In this study, wheat and corn were used as the main crops, conventional tillage and no tillage as tillage practices, and vetch, fodder beet, and mixture of vetch-fodder beet as cover crops. In the first year of the experiment, organic matter, aggregate stability, bulk density, plant available phosphorus and soil pH values were 1.5%, 20.88%, 1.71 g cm-3, 47.2 kg ha1, and 8.57, respectively. In the last year, they were determined as 1.56%, 22.30%, 1.50 g cm-3, 56.4 kg ha1, and 8.47, respectively. As the result of the study, it was determined that the use of cover crops and no tillage practices led to improvements in the selected soil properties and can be important for sustainability of soil quality in arid and semi-arid regions.