Utilizing APSIM model for predicting wheat yield in no-tillage farming systems in Ninawa
¹University of Mosul, Center for Arid Farming and Conservation Agriculture Research’s (C.AFCAR), Al Majmoaa Street, IQ41002 Mosul, Iraq
²Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, MCGM+M8M, Kumasi, Ghana
³University of South Australia, Agricultural Machinery Research and Design Centre, STEM, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia
*Correspondence Email: adnan.luhaib@uomosul.edu.iq
Abstract:
This research explored how wheat responds agronomically when cultivated under
no-tillage and multi-tillage farming scenarios, representing conservational and conventional systems, respectively. Using site-specific soil data, the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) was calibrated to investigate the long-term (7 winter seasons) influence of tillage-induced soil health on crop yield, and some of the yield components. As a results, wheat yields and yield components were significantly (p-value <0.05) higher under no-tillage conditions. In years with moderate rainfall (≈ 230 to 400 mm in-season), the predicted values of grain yield and total biomass between no-tillage and multi-tillage systems showed superiority to no-tillage system. Despite the demonstrated superiority of the no-tillage system in providing the best values for the investigated indicators under dry conditions, the differences in grain yield and total biomass between the two farming systems decreased with increasing rainfall. The differences in simulated and observed data were 13% and 8% for grain yield and biomass, respectively, under no-tillage condition, and approximately 6% and 10% for grain yield and total biomass, respectively, under multi-tillage condition. APSIM simulated outcomes showed that increased productivity, and annual yield under no-tillage system, was able to increase total financial incomes of wheat by USD120–396 ha−1 depending on in-season rainfall and the tillage system practiced. Therefore, no-tillage appears to offer a more sustainable and viable approach to boosting nutrition uptake and grain yield compared to the conventional technique in water-limited environments.
Key words:
conservation agriculture, conventional agriculture, multi-tillage, wheat crop, yield components