Evaluation of Mulching Practice on the Survival and Subsequent Early Growth Performances of the Transplanted Coffee Seedlings

The global temperature has been increasing over the years due to recurrent climate change and variability, which directly or indirectly affects the agriculture sector. This has made the necessary for the farmer to get the best out of the little rainfall. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to identify effective mulching materials and their optimum application thickness for newly transplanted coffee seedlings. The field experiment was conducted during 2015 and 2016 at Mechara Agricultural Research Center (McARC) on-station and Sakina on-farm. Coffee seedlings of Mechara-1 variety and organic mulching materials of stalk of maize and vetiver grass at 5cm and 10cm mulching depth thickness were compared with farmers' practices of using soil as mulching material and no-mulch bare soils. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with three replications. Parameters such as seedling survival rate, soil moisture content, moisture stress score, weed density and subsequent early growth performance of the seedlings were studied. The result indicated that there are statistically significant differences (p<0.05) among the treatment for most parameters studied at both locations and seasons. Vetiver grass mulches applied at 5 cm mulching thickness resulted in the highest combined over location and season percentage of coffee seedling survival rate (94.6%), soil moisture content (16.5%), the lowest moisture stress score (1.5) and the highest mean values of the different early growth measurement of coffee seedlings. However, weed species and their densities were lowest of all under coffee seedlings treated by stalk of maize mulches at 10cm mulching depth. Therefore, from these results mulching newly transplanted coffee seedlings with vetiver grass at 5cm mulching depth can be the recommended to farmers in moisture deficit areas as this practice conserved soil moisture resulting in better seedlings survival through increasing their tolerance to moisture stress.