Tillage is a land management practice where a sequence of manipulating the soil for crop production. To investigate the response of land management and cropping pattern on soil properties and crop yield, a field experiment was conducted under natural environment on Nitisol of Pawi area. Nine treatments combining two tillage methods (Zero and conventional), four crop covers (continuous maize, continuous soya bean, rotated maize, and maize soya bean intercrop) were laid out in RCBD with three replications. The result showed that land management and crop cover significantly affect bulk density, porosity, soil moisture, nitrogen, organic carbon, available phosphorus, and yield of a crop. Relative to conventionally tilled continuous maize, maize soya bean intercropping managed under zero tillage improve capillary porosity, non-capillary porosity, organic carbon, available phosphorus, and total nitrogen with a response ratio of 1.7, 2.7, 1.3, 2, and 1.3, respectively while reducing bulk density by 10%. Conversion of tillage system from conventional to zero tillage improves grain yield, biomass yield, and soil moisture by 6%, 10%, and 6%, respectively. Generally, zero tillage with greater cover is an appropriate approach to improve soil properties without negatively affecting grain yield. To understand and quantify the long-term impact of tillage and crop cover on soil health and productivity in Ethiopia long-term study is needed as this study was based on oneyear data from four years permanent plots.

<p>Soil erosion is the most devastating environmental crisis in Ethiopia where the loss of soil from cultivated land is almost seven times the tolerable limit; specifically, Nitisol is very susceptible to erosion. To investigate the response of land management and cropping practices on sediment loss, a field experiment was conducted under natural environment on Nitisol of Pawi area. Nine treatments combining two tillage methods (zero and conventional), four crop covers (continuous maize, continuous soya bean, rotated maize, and maize soya bean intercrop), and continuous bare fallow as control were laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The result showed that land management and crop cover significantly affect soil loss. Cultivation of crops without soil disturbance with full residue retention reduced soil loss by 6%, 36%, 36%, and 44% under soya bean, rotated maize, maize soya bean intercropping, and maize, respectively. Similarly, maize crop reduces soil loss by 34% under zero tillage management. Compared with conventionally managed maize crops, sediment concentration was also reduced by 14%, 17%, and 31%, maize with zero tillage, rotated maize with zero tillage, and maize soya bean intercropping with zero tillage, respectively. Except for zero-tilled maize soya bean intercropping and rotated maize, the seasonal soil loss was above the tolerable soil loss level of Ethiopia (2-10 t ha^-¹). This indicates there is a need for other management practices like physical and agronomic soil conservation methods to lower soil loss rates below the tolerable limit. Generally, zero tillage with greater crop cover is an appropriate approach to reduce soil loss by improving soil hydrological properties without negatively affecting grain yield. To understand and quantify the long-term impact of tillage and crop cover on soil health and productivity in Ethiopia long-term study is needed as this study was based on one-year data from four years of permanent plots.</p>

To investigate the response of soil management and cropping practice on infiltration, a field experiment was conducted under natural environment on Nitisol of Pawi area. Eight treatments combining two soil management methods (Zero tillage and conventional tillage) and four crop covers (continuous maize, continuous soya bean, rotated maize, and maize soya bean intercrop) were laid out on permanent plots in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The results showed that soil management and crop cover significantly affect both the capacity and rate of infiltration. Relative to conventionally tilled continuous maize, zero tilled maize soya bean intercrop improved infiltration rate and infiltration by 164.6% and 148%, respectively. While maize rotation with zero tillage, maize soya bean intercropping with conventional tillage and maize with zero tillage methods improve infiltration rate by 117.8%, 105.8%, 108%, respectively. The soil management and crop cover practices such as maize with zero tillage, maize soya bean intercrop with zero tillage, rotated maize with conventional tillage, maize soya bean intercrop with conventional tillage, soya bean with zero tillage and rotated maize with zero tillage increased soil water storage in the order of 65mm, 41mm, 41mm, 35mm, 15mm and 13mm. Generally, zero tillage with greater cover is an appropriate method to improve infiltration and soil water storage.