Tillage and agricultural sustainability

Abstract

Agricultural sustainability implies an increasing trend in per capita productivity to meet the present needs without jeopardizing the future potential. Soil tillage, soil surface management to alleviate soil-related constraints to crop production, is a basic and an important input with short- and long-term effects on sustainability. An important effect of soil tillage on sustainability is through its impact on the environment e.g. soil degradation, water quality, emission of greenhouse gases from soil-related processes, etc. The need to attain agricultural sustainability is particularly urgent in several tropical eco-regions and soils of low-carrying capacity in the tropics. Soil tillage influences atricultural sustainability through its effects on soil processes, soil properties, and crop growth. However, there is no one blueprint of a universally applicable sustainable tillage system. Appropriate tillage systems are soil- and crop-specific and their adaptation is governed by both biophysical and socio-economic factors. In addition to increasing crop yields, tillage methods must also facilitate soil and water conservation, improve root system development, maintain a favorable level of soil organic matter content, and reverse degradative in the soil's life-support processes. Important components or sub-systems of conservation-effective tillage systems include mulch farming, no-till or reduced tillage systems, use of cover crops and planted fallows, agroforestry, raised beds or ridge-tillage, and soil inversion or deep plowing. The ecological limits for the applicability of these components or sub-systems differ widely. The efforts of a multi-disciplinary team (comprising soil scientists, agricultural engineers, agronomists, economists and social scientists) are needed to develop site-specific tillage methods to achieve both short- and long-term goals of agricultural sustainability.