Hostname: page-component-5db58dd55d-m58mf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-06-16T08:46:12.226Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessment of the Effects of Environmental Factors on the Response of Wheat to Fertilizer in On-farm Trials in a Mediterranean Type Environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2008

M. Pala ,
A. Matar  and
A. Mazid
M. Pala
Affiliation:
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aleppo, Syria
A. Matar
Affiliation:
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aleppo, Syria
A. Mazid
Affiliation:
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aleppo, Syria
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

A series of researcher-managed wheat fertilizer trials was conducted on representative farmers' fields across northwest Syria between 1986 and 1990. Wheat grain and straw yields were strongly correlated with seasonal (October-May) rainfall, almost irrespective of soil fertility, crop sequence or fertilizer rate, with a highly significant response to nitrogen fertilizer which increased with increasing rainfall and decreasing initial soil mineral-nitrogen values. These results were summarized in regression equations which express yield in terms of fertilizer rates, seasonal rainfall and their interactions. The equations with applied nitrogen and seasonal rainfall were the most appropriate for determining fertilizer needs. Economic analysis indicated that all fertilizer treatment rates were profitable under existing price conditions and that fertilizer use would still be beneficial for a nitrogen price up to three times higher than that of the price of grain (weight for weight) with a seasonal rainfall of 250 mm, and up to six times higher with a seasonal rainfall of 450 mm.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , July 1996 , pp. 339 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Arson, I. (1990). Agriculture in Dry Lands: Principles and Practice. Developments in Agricultural and Managed-Forest Ecology 26, p. 979. The Netherlands: Elsevier Science Publishers.Google Scholar
Cooper, P. J. M., Gregory, P., Tully, D. & Harris, H. (1987). Improving water-use efficiency in the rainfed farming systems of West Asia and North Africa. Experimental Agriculture 23:113–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harmsen, K. (1984). Dryland barley production in northwest Syria. I. Soil conditions. II. The chemistry and fixation of phosphorus in calcareous soils. In Proceedings of the Soils Directorate/ICARDA Workshop on Fertilizer Use in the Dry Areas, March 1984, Aleppo, Syria. 12–67.Google Scholar
Jackson, T. L. (1977). Fertilizer needs for developing countries. In Proceedings of an International Symposium on Rain fed Agriculture in Semi-arid Regions, 541–551. Riverside, California: University of California.Google Scholar
Jones, M. J., Matar, A. E., Pala, M. & Cooper, P. J. M. (1988). Fertilizer research strategies for rainfed agriculture in Nest Asia and North Africa: cereals in Syria: a case study. In Challenges in Dryland Agriculture: A Global Perspective. Proceedings of an International Conference on Dryland Farming, Amarillo/Bushland, Texas. 378–381 (Eds Unger, P. W., Sneed, T. V., Jordan, W. R. and Jensen, R.).Google Scholar
Jones, M. J. & Wahbi, A. (1992). Site-factor influence on barley response to fertilizer in on-farm trials in northern Syria: Descriptive and predictive models. Experimental Agriculture 28:63–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matar, A. (1984). Wheat productivity under rainfed agriculture as related to soil, precipitation and management variables in Syria. Damascus: ACSAD.Google Scholar
Matar, A. & Samman, M. (1969). Evaluation of potential fertility of major soil groups of Syria by means of pot tests and chemical analyses of soils. In 10th Week of Sciences, Part 5, 131–183. Damascus, Syria: High Council of Sciences. (in Arabic.)Google Scholar
Pala, M., Tully, D., Rassam, A., Mazid, A. & Cooper, P. J. M. (1987). Fertilizer and herbicide effects on farmers' wheat production in northwest Syria. Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium, ‘ How Systems Work’,18–31 October 1987,Fayetteville, Arkansas,USA.Google Scholar
Rassam, A. & Tully, D. (1985). Wheat production practices in NW Syria. In FSP Annual Report, 43–56. Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA.Google Scholar
SD/FRMP (1987). Collaborative research project report on fertilizer use on barley in northern Syria, 1986/87. Soils Directorate, MAAR, Syria and Farm Resource Management Program, ICARDA, Aleppo.Google Scholar
Thomson, E. F., Bahhady, F. & Termanini, A. (1985). Production practices and grain yields of barley and wheat at the cultivated margin of the NW Syrian steppe. Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA.Google Scholar
Tucker, B. B. (1988). Soil fertility assessment and management strategies in dryland agriculture. In Challenges in Dryland Agriculture: A Global Perspective. Proceedings of an International Conference on Dryland Farming, Amarillo/Bush/and, Texas. 361–366 (Eds Unger, P. W., Sneed, T. V., Jordan, W. R. and Jensen, R.).Google Scholar