Project funded
by theEU–DGEnvironment
L
and
surfacerelevant
forapplication
Artificial surface
Agriculture land
Forest and semi-natural areas
Wetlands
F
inancialcosts
(C
apital
,
operation
&
maintenance
)
No-till systems require
direct drilling machinery
(k€10) as an alternative to
ploughing. If no-till is used in conjunction with winter cover crops, rollers may be
necessary prior to drilling of spring crops. Costs remain lower than a ploughing
system.
Fuel savings
range between €30 to 67/ha and reduction in labour costs
is around €21/ha. However, additional herbicides and fertilizers costs reach €18
and 16/ha.
D
esign
No-till can be
combined with other agricultural measures
such as green
cover/cover crops,mulching, controlled traffic farming. The last of these is especially
relevant as it can help to avoid problems of soil compaction due to the lack of
machinery movements in no-till systems, particularly on wetter soils.
S
cale
No-tillage is applicable at field scale.
Tillage is a
mechanical modification
of the soil which, if done intensively, can disturb the soil structure, thus increasing erosion, decreasing water retention
capacity and reducing soil organic matter. No-till (no tillage) farming is a way of growing crops or pasture from year to year increasing water infiltration, organic
matter retention and cycling of nutrients in the soil. The main benefit of no-till is improvement in soil
biological fertility
, making soils more resilient and
eliminating soil erosion in some areas.
Casestudies:NoTillagefield trials in lowerAustria,Covercropsandno-tillage inanOliveGrove,Andalusia, Spain
AGRICULTURE
©
S
R
U
C
