No-till agriculture

In many respects, crop production has advanced little in the last two decades. More tools (herbicides and insecticides) are available for use by producers, but in many cases we have not fully utilized lessons learned earlier. Residue management seems to be one of those cases. In no-till agriculture, residue management techniques will have to be developed—by engineering, chemical, or biological means—for the system to function. 

Trewavas, A (2004) A critical assessment of organic farming-and-food assertions with particular respect to the UK and the potential environmental benefits of no-till agriculture , Crop Protection, 23, 757-781. 

Soil cultivation measures are predominantly carried out with the aim of enhancing soil fertility and soil processes, and controlling for weeds. Depending on location and crop type, biodynamic farming uses all types of soil cultivation from ploughing to no-till agriculture. 

Agricultural management that does not rely on tillage, such as bare-fallow and stubble-mulch practice, can greatly reduce carbon losses (Cambardella and Elliott, 1992). Moreover, converting tilled land to no-till agriculture can lead to rapid... 

Another important special case is that of no-till agricultural practices that effectively abolish the seed bank. Taking Eq. 4b into account in such instances, the value of the herbicide kill factor for resistance enrichment E is simply... 

Figure 3. Resistance stasis for no till agriculture. Values of selection pressure (a) and fitness in off years that will allow no enrichment for resistance (stasis), when fon = 1. This was drawn based on Eq. 12. The effective kills are based upon total lack of herbicidal effect on the resistant individuals.

A continuous supply of calcium with organics is necessary to earthworms. Earthworms improve soil aeration, soil aggregation and mix the soil, and can do the plowing for no-till agriculture. 

The nltimate in no-till agriculture is the use of perennial plants that do not have to be planted each year. Trees in orchards and grapevines in vineyards are certainly such plants. The roots of perennial plants are very effective in holding plants in place. Efforts to develop perennial plants that prodnee grain have had only limited sncc ess so far. This is because a productive grain-bearing plant... 

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