No-till farming

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: tone/style and section organization; see talk page. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article if you can. (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

No-till farming

Young soybean plants thrive in and are protected by the residue of a wheat crop. This form of no-till farming provides good protection for the soil from erosion and helps retain moisture for the new crop.

Agriculture
History Prehistory Neolithic Revolution Agriculture in Mesoamerica Austronesian expansion Ancient history Ancient Egypt Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Post-classical Agriculture in the Middle Ages Arab Agricultural Revolution Columbian exchange Modern history British Agricultural Revolution Green Revolution Organic Monoculture
On land Agrivoltaic Animal husbandry cattle pigs poultry sheep Dairy Dryland Extensive Fertilizer Free-range Grazing Convertible husbandry Rotational grazing Hobby Intensive animals pigs crops Natural Monoculture Orchard Organic Paddy field Ranching Sharecropping Colonia Slash-and-burn Smallholding Terrace Steam sterilization
Hydroculture Aquaculture Aquaponics Hydroponics Aeroponics
Related Agribusiness Agricultural cooperative Agricultural supplies Agricultural science Agricultural engineering Agricultural technology Digital Biotechnology Agroforestry Agronomy Animal husbandry Animal-free agriculture Cellular agriculture Contract farming Extensive farming Farm Farmhouse Feed ratio Free range Horticulture Intensive farming animals pigs crops Mechanised agriculture Organic farming Paludiculture Permaculture Plantation Polyculture Rice-duck farming Rice-fish system Sustainable agriculture Sustainable food system Universities and colleges Urban agriculture
Lists Agriculturist profession Agricultural machinery Government ministries Universities and colleges
Categories Agricultural machinery Agriculture by country Agriculture companies Biotechnology History of agriculture Livestock Meat industry Poultry farming Agriculture and the environment
Agriculture portal
v t e

No-till farming (also known as zero tillage or direct drilling) is an agricultural technique for growing crops or pasture without disturbing the soil through tillage. No-till farming decreases the amount of soil erosion tillage causes in certain soils, especially in sandy and dry soils on sloping terrain. Other possible benefits include an increase in the amount of water that infiltrates into the soil, soil retention of organic matter, and nutrient cycling. These methods may increase the amount and variety of life in and on the soil. While conventional no-tillage systems use herbicides to control weeds, organic systems use a combination of strategies, such as planting cover crops as mulch to suppress weeds.^[1]

There are three basic methods of no-till farming. "Sod seeding" is when crops are sown with seeding machinery into a sod produced by applying herbicides on a cover crop (killing that vegetation). "Direct seeding" is when crops are sown through the residue of previous crop. "Surface seeding" or "direct seeding" is when seeds are left on the surface of the soil; on flatlands, this requires no machinery and minimal labor.^[2]

While no-till is agronomically advantageous and results in higher yields, farmers wishing to adapt the system face a number of challenges. Established farms may have to face a learning curve, buy new equipment, and deal with new field conditions.^[3][4] Perhaps the biggest impediment, especially for grains, is that farmers can no longer rely on the mechanical pest and weed control that occurs when crop residue is buried to significant depths. No-till farmers must rely on chemicals, biological pest control, cover cropping, and more intensive management of fields.^[5][6][7]

Tillage is dominant in agriculture today, but no-till methods may have success in some contexts. In some cases minimum tillage or "low-till" methods combine till and no-till methods. For example, some approaches may use shallow cultivation (i.e. using a disc harrow) but no plowing or use strip tillage.