ANBAR JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES

Abstract

*University of Al-Anbar / College of Agriculture
** Commission of technical education

Abstract
The field experiment was conducted during winter season in 2005/ 2006 to study the effect of soil mulching using plastic and plant residual mulching on soil water consumption and growth of broad bean plant and some soil properties.
The results showed that, the use of mulching caused a significant increase in water holding capacity of soil and the emergence rate and decrease soil salinity. Further more, the total yield and growth pod yield for broad bean crop were increased comparatively with control treatment, a considerable saving 25% in the quanitiy of water used for irrigation was achieved under soil mulching. Water use efficiency also increased about 50% by using soil mulching.