Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T19:59:08.861Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Using On-farm Trials to Study the Benefits of Feed Legumes in Barley-based Rotations of North-West Syria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2008

E. F. Thomson ,
R. Jaubert  and
M. Oglah
E. F. Thomson
Affiliation:
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), PO Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
R. Jaubert
Affiliation:
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), PO Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
M. Oglah
Affiliation:
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), PO Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

On-farm trials were conducted for seven years in north-west Syria to investigate the use of land left fallow after a barley crop to grow feed legumes for small ruminants. Common vetch (Vicia sativa), forage peas (Pisum sativum) and common chickling (Lathyrus sativus), with and without applied phosphate fertilizer, were grown in rotation with barley and a barley-fallow rotation was used as a control.

Vetch was preferable for grazing whereas chickling yielded more grain and straw and had a higher harvest index. Both species showed substantial responses to phosphate fertilizer. Yields of subsequent barley crops were slightly lower after unfertilized feed legumes than after fallow but after fertilized feed legumes, barley yields were higher than after fallow. The milk production of ewes and liveweight gains of lambs grazing vetch, chickling and common land were similar.

The project showed how results from on-farm research can modify on-station research objectives and identify questions for further on-station research.

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , April 1992 , pp. 143 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abd El Moneim, A. M., Khair, M. A. & Cocks, P. S. (1990). Growth analysis, and herbage and seed yield of certain forage legume species under rainfed conditions. journal of Agronomy and Plant Breeding. 164:34–41.Google Scholar
Amir, P. & Knipsheer, H. C. (1987). In On-Farm Animal Research—Extension and Its Economic Analysis. Arkansas, Morrilton: Winrock International Institute of Agricultural Development.Google Scholar
Cooper, P. J. M., Gregory, D. J., Tully, D. & Harris, H. C. (1987). Improving water use efficiency of annual crops in the rainfed farming systems of West Asia and North Africa. Experimental Agriculture 23:113–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FAO, (1987). Agriculture: Toward 2000 (AT2000). Rome: FAO.Google Scholar
Harmsen, K. (1984). Dryland barley production in Northwest Syria. I. Soil conditions. In Proceedings of Soils Directorate/ICARDA Workshop on Fertilizer Use in the Dry Areas, March 1984. Aleppo, Syria, 12–41.Google Scholar
Icarda, (1980). Studies of farming systems in Syria. ICARDA Farming Systems Program Report No. 2, Sections 3 and 5. Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA.Google Scholar
Icarda, (1983). Annual Report 1982. Aleppo, Syria: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas.Google Scholar
Icarda, (1984). Annual Report 1983. Aleppo, Syria: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas.Google Scholar
Jaubert, R. (1983). Sedentary agriculture in the dry areas of Syria: development problems and implications for ICARDA. Farming Systems Program, Unpublished Report. Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA.Google Scholar
Jaubert, R. (1985). The semi-arid areas of Syria: farming systems in decline and issues in research design. In Proceedings of the 1984 Symposium on Farming Systems Research, 224–257 (Eds Flora, C. B. and Tomecek, M.). Manhattan, Kansas: Kansas State University.Google Scholar
Jaubert, R. & Oglah, M. (1985). Farming systems management in the Bueda/Breda subarea 1983/84. ICARDA Research Report No. 13. Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA.Google Scholar
Jones, M. (1989). Barley rotation trials at Tel Hadya and Breda stations: a summary of biological yield data, 1981–87. ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA-140 En.Google Scholar
McIntyre, M. (1986). On the alleged difficulties of on-farm research with livestock. ILCA and Farming Systems Support Project Network 2, 117–136. Florida, USA: University of Florida, and Ethiopia, Addis Ababa: ILCA.Google Scholar
Mazid, A. & Hallajian, M. (1983). Crop-livestock interactions: information from a barley survey in Syria. ICARDA Research Report No. 10. Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA.Google Scholar
Nordblom, T. L., El Karim,, H., Ahmed, A. & Potts, G. R. (Eds) (1985). Research Methodology for Livestock On-farm Trials. Ottawa, IDRC: IDRC-242e.Google Scholar
Oram, P. A. (1956). Paturage et culture fourraggeres d'assolement dans la région Méditerranéenne. Cahiers No. 57. Rome: FAO.Google Scholar
Somel, K., Mazid, A. & Hallajian, M. (1984). Survey of barley producers in northern Syria 1981/82. Volume III: descriptive statistics. Research Report No. 12. Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA.Google Scholar
Thomson, E. F. (1984). First experiences of joint managed forage and grazing trials. In Proceedings of the 1983 Symposium on Farming Systems Research, 234–250 (Ed. Butler, F. C.). Kansas, Manhattan: Kansas State University.Google Scholar
Thomson, E. F. (1987). Feeding Systems and Sheep Husbandry in the Barley Belt of Syria. ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA-106En.Google Scholar
Thomson, E. F., Bahhady, F. A. & Nordblom, T. L. (1982). The role of livestock in the farming system. Farming Systems Program Research Report, Project IV. Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA.Google Scholar
Thomson, E. F., Jaubert, R. & Oglah, M. (1985). On-farm comparisons of milk yield of Awassi ewes grazing introduced forages and common village lands in the barley zone of northwest Syria. In First International Conference on Animal Production in Arid Zones, 235–241 (Ed. Awa, A. O.). Damascus, Syria: ACSAD.Google Scholar
Thomson, E. F., Bahhady, F. A. & Martin, A. (1989). Sheep Husbandry at the Cultivated Margin of the North-west Syrian Steppe. ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA-148 En.Google Scholar
Thomson, E. F., Rihawi, S. & Nersoyan, N. (1990). Nutritive value and yields of some forage legumes and barley harvested as immature herbage, hay and straw in north-west Syria. Experimental Agriculture 26:49–56.Google Scholar
Tully, D. (1984). Land use and farmer strategies in Al-Bab: the feasibility of forage legumes in place of fallow. Farming Systems Program Report No. 12. Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA.Google Scholar
Tully, D., Thomson, E. F., Jaubert, R. & Nordblom, T. (1985). On-farm trials in northwest Syria: testing the feasibility of annual forage legumes as grazing and conserved feed. In Research Methodology for Livestock On-farm Trials, 209–236. (Eds Nordblom, T. L., El Karim Ahmed, A. and Potts, G. R.). Ottawa, IDRC: IDRC-242e.Google Scholar