Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T23:12:17.740Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The influence of precipitation regime on the management of three-course crop rotations in northern Syria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

J. D. H. Keatinge
Affiliation:
The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
M. D. Dennett
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Botany, University of Reading, Reading, Berks, England
J. Rodgers
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Botany, University of Reading, Reading, Berks, England

Summary

In the 350–600 mm seasonal rainfall ecological zone in northern Syria three-course rotations are commonly practised under rainfed conditions. The precipitation regimes at three sites in this ecological zone have been examined. These have been shown to exercise a powerful influence on crop management, and an enhanced understanding of the effect of precipitation on crop productivity would therefore assist in the development of improved strategies of agronomic and rotational management. Considerable variability has been demonstrated in characteristic elements of the precipitation regime at the selected sites and this has indicated the unsoundnesa of applying general management recommendations to the ecological zone as a whole.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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

Cooper, P. J. M., Allan, A. Y., Harmsen, K., Keatinge, J. D. H., Nygaard, D., Saxena, M. & Islam, R. (1981). Soil water and nutrient research 1979–80. WARD A Project Report 3, 1130. Aleppo, Syria.Google Scholar
Cooper, P. J. M., Keatinge, J. D. H. & Hughes, G. (1983). Crop evapotranspiration – a technique for calculation of its components by field measurements. Field Crops Research 7, 299312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennett, M. D., Keatinge, J. D. H. & Rodgers, J. A. (1984). A comparison of rain fall regimes at six sites in northern Syria. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 31, 319328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennett, M. D., Rodgers, J. A. & Keatinge, J. D. H. (1983). Simulation of a rainfall record for the site of a new agricultural development: an example from northern Syria. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 29, 247258.Google Scholar
Farming Systems Program (1980). Physical environment and crop production. Farming Systems Program Research Report 2 (5), 106 pp. ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria.Google Scholar
Harvey, J. A. (1980). Summer Crops in Syria. ICARDA Discussion Paper 5, 36 pp. Aleppo, Syria.Google Scholar
Hawtin, G. C. & Singh, K. B. (1984). Prospects and potential of winter sowing of chickpeas in the Mediterranean region. In Ascochyta Blight and Winter Sowing of Chickpeas (ed. Saxena, M. C. and Singh, K. B.), pp. 716. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff/Dr W. Junk.Google Scholar
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (1984). Annual Report for 1983, pp. 518.Google Scholar
Keatinge, J. D. H. & Cooper, P. J. M. (1983). Kabuli chickpea as a winter-sown crop in northern Syria; moisture relations and crop productivity. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 100, 667680.Google Scholar
Ministry or Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (1979). Annual Agricultural Statistical Abstract for the 1978–79 Season, pp. 1658. Damascus, Syria.Google Scholar
Perrin De Brichambaut, G. & Wallen, C. C. (1963). A study of the agroclimatology in semi-arid and arid zones of the Near East. World Meteorological Organization Technical Note 56, 164.Google Scholar
Stern, R. D., Dennett, M. D. & Dale, I. C. (1982). Analysing daily rainfall measurements to give agronomically useful results. II. A modelling approach. Experimental Agriculture 18, 237253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar