Integrated Weed Control Alternative with Cowpea for Improving Soil Properties
Nursaadah (1*), Wida Akasah (1), Aidil Putra (1), Dimas Pratama Toti (1)

Agriculture Faculty of Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Abstract

Cover crop (CC) is one of the strategies to improve soil quality, either physically, chemically, or biologically and reduce herbicide use. One of CC that is able to survive in a tropical climate and is able to grow well in soil conditions with moderate to low fertility is cowpea. This study aims to examine the benefits of using cowpea as CC in improving soil quality. This research will be conducted with experimental method. This study used a randomized block design with 2 factorials. The first factor is weed control technique (P), with levels: without control (P0), cover crop (P1), pre-growing herbicide (P2), post-growing herbicide (P3), and free of weeds (with weeding) (P4 ). And the second factor is the tillage technique (T), namely: no tillage (T0) and conventional tillage (T1). Based on the research conducted, it was found that the combination of using CC (P1) and no tillage (T0) was able to improve soil quality in the form of pH H2O, texture, C-organic, N-total, P-available, CEC, total microbes.

Keywords: Cowpea, Cover Crop, Integrated Weed Control, Tillage Technique, Soil Properties

Topic: Biodiversity, soil health and agricultural practices