Improving moisture and nutrient retention capacity of sandy soil in coastal areas of central vietnam using clay-rich soil and straw manure

Abstract

Coastal sandy soil plays an important role in agricultural production in the Central coastal region of Viet Nam. However, due to climate change’s impacts, lack of irrigation water, and soil depletion, production efficiency of coastal sandy areas is severely affected. Furthermore, some fallow lands cannot even be
cultivated. This study is conducted based on experiments done on a small scale (greenhouse) using natural materials including clay-rich soil and straw manure to improve the characteristics of the sandy soil in the Central coast of Vietnam (Ha Tinh, Quang Binh and Quang Tri provinces), with the aim to contribute to
the development of the region’s agricultural and forestry sectors. The experiments were carried out in the Greenhouse zone of Viet Nam National University of Agriculture within the period from February to June 2019 (season 1) and from August to December 2019 (season 2) with the total 9 treatments with different application rates of natural materials with a completely randomized design for peanut L14 plants were conducted, along with drip irrigation technique using field moisture limit (about 70-80%). The experiments were to monitor changes in field moisture, growth and yield of peanuts. The initial results show that at the rates from 10-15 w/w% clay-rich soil mixed with from 0.5-1.5w/w% of straw manure applied to the tested soil resulted in the high efficiency of moisture and
nutrient retention such as decreasing permeability coefficient, bulk density, particle density; meanwhile, increasing soil pH, CEC, OM, total N and total P. Furthermore, the application rate of 10w/w% clay-rich soil and 0.5 w/w% straw manure give the highest value of grain yield.