A Mechanized System for Establishment of Forage Shrubs in Water Harvesting Micro-catchment Structures

摘要

Land degradation as well as agriculture production under scarce water conditions are vital concerns for many countries located in arid regions. The aim was to introduce, test and optimize a new mechanized transplanting technique suitable for large-scale establishment of fodder shrubs under Water Harvesting (WH) micro-catchment systems. A traditional transplanter was modified to plant 1 to 2-month old Atriplex seedlings inside the WH structures. The optimum time of planting (T_1 T_2 and T_3), the optimum harvested water regime (4, 8 and 12 m) and the placement of transplants and V_2) were investigated. Survival percentage throughout the two dry years and plant volume at the end of each year were assessed. In the first year, T_2 resulted in the highest (80% with 1SD = 30 at p<0.05) survival percentages, while T_3 showed the least (75 cm~3 with 1SD = 403 at p<0.05) plant volume. However, in the second year, no drop in survival percentage was observed in T_3 resulting in the best plant volume (652 cm~3with 1SD = 282 at p<0.05). On the other hand, plant volume in V_2 was double (603 cm~3 with 1SD =174 atp<0.05) than that of V_1, justifying its adoption. No significant effect of the length of the runoff area was noted in the two years due mostly to lowquantity and intensity of rainfall events. Survival of Atriplex under WH systems is critical only in the first year of establishment and earlier planting guarantees better production. The new technique proved to substitute the costly and time-consumingtraditional manual one. Further improvements are still viable.