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Optimizing Soil Moisture Conservation by Mulch of Hydrophobic Aggregates Using Simulation and Numerical Search Procedures*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

H. Talpaz  and
D. I. Hillel
H. Talpaz
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Texas A&M University
D. I. Hillel
Affiliation:
Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Texas A&M University, on leave from the Department of Soil and Water Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
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Extract

Reducing soil water losses due to evaporation, runoff or weeds, is a primary concern in the management of agriculture in arid and semiarid regions. A method has recently been proposed to promote infiltration and retard evaporation and weed infestation by waterproofing surface-zone clods with chemical agents to form a mulch of loose, dry clods. The effect of this treatment is to stabilize the clods against breakdown and consequent water and wind erosion. Rain or irrigation water can trickle off individual clods and flow downward through open spaces between them, thus penetrating directly into the deeper soil layers. In this way, the intake of water is enhanced and the hazard of runoff (entailing erosion) is reduced.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , July 1976 , pp. 199 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 1976

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Footnotes

*

The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful remarks and suggestions received from the editor and the anonymous reviewers. This study was funded by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.

References

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