Role of farmyard manure, sulphuric acid and tillage implements on barley yield

The use of farmyard manure (FYM) in saline-sodic soils and its comparison with the other available ameliorant materials along with salinity tolerant plants cultivation is important. The study was carried out in the form of a split-split plot statistical design. The treatments included three types of tillage implements, shallow mouldboard 20 cm deep, mouldboard 30 cm deep and subsoiler 50 cm deep, as main plots; three rates of sulphuric acid, 0, 50 and 100% of gypsum requirement (GR), in subplots; and two rates of farmyard manure, 0 and 30 Mg ha -1 in 14 m 2 sub-subplots with three replications. The research was conducted on Mahabad City of West Azerbaijan province, Iran, in November 2009. We found that deep ploughing associated with 30 Mg ha -1 of FYM largely amended the saline-sodic soil and gained 3.33 Mg ha -1 of barley grain yield. The main effects of subsoiler, deep plough, sulphuric acid at 100% of GR and applying FYM increased grain yield 114, 100, 32.7 and 15.3% comparing to that of control, respectively. The bacteria population for deep plough, sulphuric acid at 100% of GR and applying FYM increased 69.1, 116 and 7.2%, respectively, comparing to that of control. Given that the cost of applying sulphuric acid is more than FYM application, using 30 tons per hectare manure associated with deep ploughing (30 cm deep) and planting barley can produce a relatively acceptable grain yield and ameliorate the saline-sodic soil.