Sodium Sealed Microwatersheds and Skip-Rowing for Water Harvesting and Cropping on Limited Rainfall

摘要

A microwatershed system was established in an area with 250 mm of growing season (June-September) average rainfall. Two growing beds, each 1 m wide, received the runoff from 3 m of adjacent sodium (NaCl) treated watersheds. Six levels of salt from 1.67 to 10 m tons/ha were used on the sheds with grain sorghum grown on the beds. Grain sorghum yields ranged from 1980 to 8650 on the beds with and average of 6200 kg/ha, indicating economic feasibility. Salt levels had no visible effect on the plants and the lowest rate was still effective, both in shedding water and in controlling weeds. The skiprow system was superior in the dry and near normal years while the 1 m spacing was better in the very wet years.