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Conservation agriculture based on no-tillage (CA/NT) becomes a current tendency to enhance crop productivity by improving: (i) soil quality, (ii) water management and (iii) organic supply. In Tunisia, the applicability of CA was poorly documented. This study was carried out to evaluate changes in soil organic matter (SOM) and water properties generated by seven (NT7) and three (NT3) years of applying NT as compared to conventional tillage (CT). On three adjacent large plots, a field experiment was established since the growing season 2000/01 under rain-fed conditions on a clay loam soil in a dry subhumid zone of North Tunisia. In NT3 plot, a cultivation of wheat/fava bean sequence was investigated and residues biomass of 500 kg ha−1 and 450 kg ha−1 were left on the soil surface for wheat and fava bean, respectively. In NT7 plot, a cultivation of wheat/sulla sequence was investigated and residues biomass of 500 kg ha−1 and 700 kg ha−1 were left on the soil surface for wheat and sulla, respectively. However for the CT plot, a moldboard plowing at approximately 20 cm depth was managed for continuous wheat production. The selected key parameters evaluated for a 0–30 cm soil profile were SOM, bulk density (BD), total porosity (TP), macro-porosity (MP), micro-porosity (mP), soil water retention at field capacity (FC) and at permanent wilting point (PWP), available water content (AWC) and soil moisture content (SMC). NT7 have increased significantly (p |
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