RESPONSE OF NODULATION AND DRY MATTER YIELD OF SOYBEAN (Glycine max (L.) merr.) TO TILLAGE IN SANDY LOAM SOILS

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the Teaching and Research farm of Adamawa State College of Education Hong during the rainy season of the year 2021 to determine the effects of tillage on nodulation and dry matter yield of soybean (Gylcine max (L.) Merr.) The experiment consisted of six treatments namely Conventional Tillage (CT), Ridge Tillage (Rg-T), Mulch Tillage (MT), Minimum Tillage with Residues (M + R), Reduced Tillage (RT) And No - Tillage (NT) laid in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) in three replications with each plot measuring 12 m² and a discard of 1m² between plots, and total area of 216 m². Data on plant dry matter weight and number of nodules were collected and analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) using (SAS) program and differences observed were separated using LSD. Results obtained revealed that there were significant differences (p<0.05) in dry matter and nodule number/ha with the mulched treatments giving the highest dry matter yield of 3213.1 kg/ha and nodule numbers of 4222.0 kg/ha at harvest. The least dry matter weight was obtained from the No-Tillage treatment with 172.5 kg/ha and a nodule weight of 1672.0 kg/ha. Thus, dry matter weight in the Mulch Tillage treatment were 63.7% higher than the Conventional Tillage while the nodule number was 61.6% greater in the Mulch Tillage than in the Conventional Tillage treatments. Therefore, the plants raised on the Mulch Tillage treatments gave the best result among the treatments and may be the most appropriate for optimum growth and yield of soybean. Adoption of Mulch Tillage as a complement to or instead of the conventional tillage currently used by soybean farmers in the study area, has the potential to significantly increase soybean output.