Sustainable orchard management in semi-arid areas to improve water use efficiency and soil fertility

摘要

Due to the impact of climate changes (mainly increased temperature ai precipitation changes) as combined with poor orchard management (e.g., continuo tillage, use of mineral fertilisers) on soil fertility, orchard management should revised. Improvement of orchard management practices aimed at increasing si fertility traits (e.g., soil organic carbon, microbial community, soil porosity) will beneficial for soil conservation and also for improvement of water use efficiency farm scale through improved soil water holding capacity. This paper mainly focus on some effects on orchards grown under semi-arid environment of changed si management practices from conventional (soil tillage, mineral fertilisers, burning pruning residues) to sustainable (no-tillage, pruning residues and cover cri retention, compost application) on soil microbial biomass, organic carbon (SOI mineral nutrients availability and water use efficiency. Results show that a 7/10-ye period of changed practices significantly increased SOCconcentration and si microbial biomass at Mediterranean fruit tree orchards and that yield was improv by 30-50% as compared with that recorded in conventional managed orchards. Tl positive effect of carbon addition on reserves of soil nutrients (N, P, K,Ca, Mg) is al reported. Seasonal volumes of irrigation water are reduced by ~30% in orchar under sustainable management practices, contributing to improve water u efficiency.