Shallow drains and straw mulch alleviate multiple constraints to increase sunflower yield on a clay-textured saline soil I. Effects of decreased soil salinity, waterlogging and end-of-season drought

A well-designed drainage system can alleviate soil salinity and waterlogging, leading to increased crop yield if the drainage does not cause a water shortage late in the growing season. We conducted three field experiments with sunflower across two dry seasons (Experiment I in 2019–20, and II and III in 2020–21) in a tropical landscape to examine the effectiveness of shallow drains and mulch in overcoming these constraints. In Experiment I, four surface drains of 0.1 or 0.2 m depth spaced 1.2 or 1.8 m apart were tested along with an undrained treatment. In Experiment II, the same four drainage treatments and an undrained treatment in the main plots were split into mulch (-M and +M) sub-plots. Experiment III had four main treatments, undrained, surface drains (SD; 0.1 m deep, 1.8 m apart), subsoil drains (SSD; 0.5 m deep, 4.5 m apart) and SSD+SD each split for mulch (-M and +M) sub-plots. At vegetative emergence and at the 8-leaf stage, all plots were inundated (3–5 cm depth; EC_w: 1.5–2.5 dS m^–1) for 24 h before opening the drains. Drainage treatments without mulch reduced SEW₃₀ (waterlogging index, sum of excess water within 30 cm soil depth) and soil EC_1:5 at 0–15 cm, while increasing sunflower yield by 15–100 % compared to the undrained no-mulch treatment. Relative to the undrained no-mulch treatment, drains with straw mulch conserved soil water, reduced EC_1:5 at 0–15 cm and increased yield in Experiments II and III by 40–47 and 76–143 %, respectively. There were no yield differences among the combinations of shallow drains. Although combined drains (SSD+SD) added 25–30 % extra yield relative to surface drains, these have higher installation costs. Shallow surface drains at 1.2–1.8 m spacing coupled with mulch are effective options for smallholder farmers to reduce salinity, waterlogging and drought stresses, and increase yield on saline, clay soils.