Infiltration Characteristics of Alfisols under different Plant Residue Mulches

Infiltration characteristics of alfisols with two types of soils having different textural composition namely sandy loam and sandy clay loam with mulching (5 cm thick) of plant residues were studied at Gunegal Research Farm of CRIDA. The study was conducted with four treatments of applying organic mulches namely castor dust, sorghum straw, glyricidia and control (without mulch). The steady infiltration rates (SIR) were significantly reduced with castor dust in both sandy clay loam (3.3 cm hr⁻¹) and sandy loam soils (9 cm hr⁻¹). It was followed by glyricidia and sorghum straw as compared to control (25.8 cm hr⁻¹ and 18.9 cm hr⁻¹ in sandy loam and sandy clay loam soils). The infiltration data were fitted to Horton, Philip and modified Kostiakov models. Three parameters model had the best description of the relationship between infiltration rate and time in the sandy loam and sandy clay loam soils. The model performance was studied by estimating the statistical parameters like SSE, RMSE and model efficiency (EF). The Philip model was observed the best fitted with observed data followed by modified Kostiakov and Horton in both sandy clay loam and sandy loam soils with model efficiency as indicator. The model efficiency with Philips model was observed maximum in all the treatments and its value ranged from 97.6 to 99.8% in both sandy loam and sandy clay loam soils under different organic mulches.