In its most simplified form, the entire traditional process of crop production looks like a cycle that repeats itself every year: soil preparation – sowing – harvesting.
To harvest something, you first have to sow it.
And to sow, you need to create favorable conditions for sowing. In traditional and other farming systems, this goal is achieved through mechanical tillage. A number of operations are performed with various tools to create a seedbed with a homogeneous, loose soil environment suitable for sowing seeds with conventional seeders. The most labor-intensive of these operations is plowing, which is used to remove crop residues, loosen the soil and clear the field of weeds.
In addition to consuming a lot of time, resources, and energy, mechanical tillage leads to soil erosion and degradation.
No-till technology is becoming increasingly popular as an alternative to conventional and other tillage-based farming systems.
The term “No-till” means “not to cultivate” in English. No-till technology excludes not only plowing, but also any other type of mechanical processing to create a seedbed and incorporate crop residues. Sowing is carried out on the crop residues of the previous crop preserved on the surface in untreated soil.
This is a very important feature of this technology – the undisturbed soil structure before sowing. The natural processes that occur in the soil are not disturbed.
Crop residues on the ground are also one of the most important distinguishing features of this technology. And the more of them, the better. After all, it is they who help to retain moisture in the soil and protect it from erosion.
Sowing is carried out with special seeders that can introduce seeds into the soil through a layer of crop residues.
Only during sowing does some minimal damage to the soil surface occur. The extent of this damage depends on the design features of the seeders’ working bodies. From the actual cultivated seedbeds (anchor coulters) to minimal soil disturbance (disc coulters).
Based on the above, we can give the following definition of this farming technology:
No-till is a technology that involves sowing seeds in soil that has not been subjected to any treatment, while plant residues of the previous crop remain on its surface.