Effect of Crop Sequenceof Rice, Maize and Fahll Berseem Residues on Wheat Productivity and Soil Fertility
A two years' field trial was conducted at Gemmaiza Agricultural Research Station, during 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons to study the effect of plant residues; rice straw, corn stover and fahal berseem as a cash crop on wheat production and soil properties. The experimental design was strip plot design in three replications. Where rice and maize were occupied the vertical stripplots, while the plant residues were occupied the horizontalstrip plots. Rice straw treatments were: untreated soil with rice straw, treated soil with chopped rice straw output of 33 from the previous crop and fahal berseem one cut residues incorporated in soil followed by wheat. The same treatments were repeated with corn residues. Results showed that available N, P and K in soil were increased resulting from the decomposition of rice straw and corn stover. This improved soil fertility which is reflected in increasing the productivity of wheat crop compared with the other treatments. Also, application of different treatments significantly influenced the yield and its attributes of wheat crop in both seasons. The highest values of cereal units, economic evaluation and net return were resulted from the crop sequence corn followed by fahal berseem one cut followed by wheat, compared to other treatments in both seasons, respectively.