Effect of agricultural machinery on physical and hydraulic properties of agricultural soils

The study assessed effect of farm machinery on both physical and hydraulic properties agricultural soils used for rice cultivation in northern Ghana.  Two tractor models were the field experiment with tests soil sampling points classified as tyre passage area (TTPA), ploughed (PA) unploughed (UPA). Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) 3 blocks, treatments, 9 replications data analysed using Graph Pad Prism, 8 software Microsoft Excel 2016. Soil aggregate composition varied sites locations a sandy loam textural class. dry bulk density ranged from 1.11 to 1.61 g cm-3 TPA recording 1.42 gcm-3 indicating high level compaction. Unsaturated conductivity 2.01 × 10-4 1.05 10-3, 6.50 ×10-4 1.89 7.19 cm s-1 recorded PA, TTPA UPA respectively. Low unsaturated conductivities compared other treatments. Overall, average cumulative infiltration revealed relatively lower PA UPA. Specific typical ploughing activity was estimated 2107. 0 2895.5 m2 ha-1 two models, translating 28.6 21.0% ha-1. appreciable compaction resulting plough which might negatively impact water well plant growth development. Key words: compaction, plough, conductivity, infiltration, density.