Experimental setup
1: Crops rotation is rainfed cereals, with beans and fodder, experimentation of mulching and minimum tillage.
Expected effects: Mulch will reduce evaporation and conserve soil moisture. It will also provide resistance to rain splash and to runoff. The cover of mulch protects the soil against water erosion, preventing leaching and runoff. Along with this, mulch helps improve soil fertility. It regulates and reduces temperature, inhibits the mineralization, resulted in better retention of water, especially during critical droughts. Over the years, the system of direct seeding promotes the process of soil biological activity.
The use of Herbicides is necessary to control the development of herbs between the crops. In addition, crop residues are a new source of organic matter to the soil surface.
2: Gullies are specific areas where were planted Atriplex trees by bands with a distance of 6m in between to stabilize gullies, and stop the movement of the soil
The Atriplex is able to grow and reproduce under conditions of rainfall between 100 and 400 mm of rain per year. But in our case, as planting was delayed it was necessary to irrigate in summer. There are two objectives for this plantation.
The first objective is to improve the pastoral productivity. This is the main original way of life in this region, until the middle of the 20th century.
The second objective is the reduction of sediment yield and to stabilize the flow. The solution of planting Atriplex which gave the best results so far, has a similar orientation to the needs of farmers in the region, it is based on the possibility to replace the dominant cereal crop in the region, such as barley, by fodder shrubs which, thanks to their great ability to resist to drought, and to the soil improvement by the addition of organic matter, can have had beneficial effects on the environment and restore the fertility of the ecosystem. The use of Atriplex fodder in fragile and degraded environments, such as the badlands, characterized by degraded soils can give excellent results. Thanks to its strength and its hardiness, the plant grows vigorously even after being cut and grazed.
