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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
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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

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References

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