Influence of No-Till Technology on Reducing Soil Degradation During Sorghum Cultivation

Abstract Soil degradation and water erosion are undoubtedly serious global problems. Moreover, excessive surface runoff and the lack of water in landscape are problems encountered not only in the Czech agricultural land. This condition is unsustainable in the long-term and it is necessary to find, verify and quantify suitable agricultural methods for reducing soil degradation. In this study, we tested two soil conservation technologies for sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) cultivation. Our results show that erosion was reduced by more than 78% (no-till) and 89% (no-till: narrow row) in rainfall simulation on naturally moist soil compared to conventional cultivation. Also, the use of conservation technologies reduced surface runoff (52% no-till, 68% no-till: narrow row). Sorghum has similar agronomic requirements as maize but it has the advantage of a good dryness tolerance and a high water use efficiency. The two-year research (2014, 2017) took place in the Central Bohemian Region. Soil degradation was verified using a rainfall simulator. The results have shown that both no-till technologies have a significant (P < 0.05) soil conservation effect.