Agricultural Evaluation of Organic Mulching for Soil Moisture Conservation and Vegetable Productivity

Abstract

Organic mulching can reduce evaporation from cultivated soil, moderate root-zone temperature and improve the conditions in which vegetable crops develop. Its effect on harvests, however, depends on the material, climate and irrigation regime. This paper evaluates those relationships through a comparative analysis of published vegetable experiments, with detailed examination of a tomato study in an unheated greenhouse in Shanxi, China, and a field study in Andhra Pradesh, India. In the greenhouse study, mean soil moisture across the 0–30 cm profile was 18.8% under bare soil, compared with 21.4% under newspaper, 21.8% under wheat bran and 22.7% under grass mulch. Reported tomato yields were 801, 1,456, 939 and 890 g per plant, respectively. In the Indian field study, groundnut-shell mulch under a daily drip-irrigation schedule produced 8.8 t/ha, compared with 7.6 t/ha under the same irrigation schedule without mulch. These results show a consistent moisture-conservation benefit but a less uniform yield response. The paper argues that mulch selection should account for water retention, thermal effects, material availability and crop quality. Its conclusions concern the published conditions examined here; they do not establish a universal yield advantage for any single material.