Long-term economic impacts of no-till adoption

Abstract

No-till has long been considered a sustainable agricultural practice because of its potential to provide on-farm productivity benefits as well as off-site environmental benefits. However, “economic concerns” have been identified as one of the largest barriers to adopting no-till (i.e., costs associated with adoption possibly being greater than the returns in the short term). This study evaluates the long-term economic impact of no-till adoption using rich plot-level data from a long-term field experiment over the period 1996–2019. Linear fixed-effect models and partial budgeting techniques are used in the empirical analysis. Estimation results reveal that there are generally no statistically significant differences between long-term yields from no-till relative to the conventional tillage practice when considering corn, soybean, and wheat. Nonetheless, the partial budgeting analysis using the long-term data suggests that net returns (or profits) per acre tend to be greater for no-till compared to conventional tillage for all three crops. This is primarily due to the statistically lower farm operation costs associated with no-till. Moreover, our analysis also suggests that relative profitability of no-till increases as the practice is used longer over time. This insight supports suggestions from previous studies that long-term adoption of continuous no-till is important to best realize the benefits from the practice.