Tillage Practices and Their Impacts on Soil Fertility in Farmer' Fields in Semi-Arid Central Tanzania

Abstract
We assessed impact of 5 years continuous application of traditional tillage practices (no-till (NT), shallow tillage (ST) and ridging tillage (RT)) applied by smallholder farmers in central Tanzania. Soil samples were collected at two different soil depths to verify farmer' perceptions. At 0–15 cm, ANOVA showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) for tested parameters except total N which was significantly different and rich in NT. Whereas no significant difference were observed for chemical properties analysed at 15–30 cm, percentage clay, silt and sand content were significantly different (p < 0.05) over tillage practices with NT having more silt and clay.