Soil Moisture Management Investigation

An agricultural researcher designed an experiment to investigate the effects of different soil moisture management strategies on the average crop yield of a new drought-resistant wheat variety.

Sixty experimental plots of equal size, with identical soil composition and solar exposure, were planted with the same density of wheat seeds. The plots were randomly divided into three equal groups:

• Group 1 was managed using an automated drip-irrigation system triggered when soil moisture fell below 40%.
• Group 2 was managed using weekly manual overhead watering of a fixed volume.
• Group 3 was left to rely solely on natural rainfall with no artificial irrigation.

At the end of the harvest season, the researcher measured the total crop yield (in kilograms) for each plot.