What is tillage?
Tillage is an agriculture land preparation through mechanical agitation which includes digging, stirring and overturning.
What is zero tillage?
Zero tillage is the process where the crop seed will be sown through drillers without prior land preparation and disturbing the soil where previous crop stubbles are present.
Zero tillage not only reduce the cost of cultivation it also reduces the soil erosion, crop duration and irrigation requirement and weed effect which is better than tillage.
Zero Tillage (ZT) is also called No Tillage or Nil Tillage.
How no till farming works?
The farm or soil does not have to be tilled
Seeds are planted through the remains of residue crops such as green cover crops. Alternatively, V-slot or seed furrows are drilled.
The residue from the previous harvest are spread on the farm.
Equipment use is minimized.
Watering may not be necessary.
What are the advantages of zero tillage?
1 . Reduction in the crop duration and thereby early cropping can be obtained to get higher yields.
2 . Reduction in the cost of inputs for land preparation and therefore a saving of around 80%.
3 . Residual moisture can be effectively utilized and number of irrigations can be reduced.
4 . Dry matter and organic matter get added to the soil.
5 . Environmentally safe – Greenhouse effect will get reduced due to carbon sequestration.
6 . No tillage reduces the compaction of the soil and reduces the water loss by runoff and prevent soil erosion.
7 . As the soil is intact and no disturbance is done, No Till lands have more useful flora and fauna.
8 . Zero tillage proves better for direct-seeded rice, maize, soybean, cotton, pigeonpea, mungbean, clusterbean, pearlmillet during kharif season and wheat, barley, chickpea, mustard and lentil during rabi season.
9 . Wheat sowing after rice can be advanced by 10-12 days by adopting this technique compared to conventionally tilled wheat, and wheat yield reduction caused by late sowing can be avoided.
10 . Zero tillage provides opportunity to escape wheat crop from terminal heat stress.
11 . Zero tillage reduces cost of cultivation by nearly Rs 2,500-3,000/ha through reduction in cost of land preparation, and reduces diesel consumption by 50-60 litres per hectare.
12 . Zero tillage reduces water requirement of crop and the loss of organic carbon by oxidation.
13 . Zero tillage reduces Phalaris minor problem in wheat.
14 . The carbon status of soil is significantly enhanced in surface soil (0-5 cm), particularly under crop residue retention with zero tillage.
What are the disadvantages of zero tillage farming?
1 . Initial cost of zero tillage equipment or the upfront costs are high.
2 . Gullies can form in the fields.
3 . Increased use of herbicides
4 . The majority of people prefer to stick to conventional tillage and see no-till farming as wrong or impractical.
5 . The Risk of Carrying Over Diseases.
6 . It Takes Time to Reap Benefits
7 . Some Soil Types Might Not Support it.
8 . The Fields Cannot be Used For Other Purposes.
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
QUES . What is/are the advantage/advantages of zero tillage in agriculture? UPSC 2020
1 . Sowing of wheat is possible without burning the residue of previous crop.
2 . Without the need for nursery of rice saplings, direct planting of paddy seeds in the wet soil is possible.
3 . Carbon sequestration in the soil is possible.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
(d) 1, 2 and 3
