Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Department, Kermanshah Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research,Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Keshavarz Boulevard, Kermanshah,
2 Kermanshah Center for Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Kermanshah, Iran
3 Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran
Abstract
socio-economic problems The objectives of this researchwas to develop a conceptual model of conventional tillage practice and evaluation the annual economic damages of this type of tillage during 2024-2025. The research methodology of this study was a integrated field verification, previous relevant research work, field soil displacement through conventional tillage practice (up-down the slope) as well as soil sampling and analysis. The results showed that the important components of on-sites impacts include soil nutrient loss, organic carbon emission, reducing crop yield, reduce soil depth, and reduce economic value of land, and off-site effects include sedimentation and siltation. Furthermore, results explored that conventional tillage practice usually contributes to increasing the clay content, bulk density and gravel content, but adversely decreases the infiltration rate, soil moisture content, coarse aggregates, organic matter, and soil nutrients. The soil displacement rate through conventional tillage practice at 22 and 12 percent hill-slopes shoulder was 160 and 125 kg/m, respectively, which is usually 10 times higher than conservation plowing. Finally, conventional tillage (up-down the slope) with 30 cm depth at hill-slopes with 15% slope causes 15.7 t/yr soil erosion, with the annual economic losses of 3850 million Rail (Iranian currency) per hectare due to nutrient loss, organic carbon emission, sedimentation, erosion, and land value reduction. The abundance of tractors and the increase in agricultural land transactions have led to the conversion of more and more forest and rangelands to sloping rain-fed farms, which is accompanied by an increase in plowing depth and the number of times per year. Therefore, providing educational, administrative, legal, and financial measures to gradually eliminate conventional tillage and replace it with conservation tillage with left about one-third of crop residues (straw and stubble) in the field, is inevitable for the sustainability of rain-fed fields.
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