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Advancements in Planting Methods Help Conserve More Natural Resources

February 05, 2010

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Farmers have been using tilling practices to preserve their soil for many years. Learn how.

By Produce More, Conserve More Staff

Photo credit: Darin McDaniel

Modern tilling practices allow farmers to preserve soil.

For centuries, farmers have tilled their fields in order to create good seed beds and control weeds. Tilling continues to be an essential process for growing crops in modern farming but new techniques allow tilling to better conserve natural resources and increase efficiencies.

While tilling is critical for soil preparation, historically it has impacted the environment due to emissions from tractors that are used to prepare the ground for planting as well as the CO2 that is released into the atmosphere as a result of tillage. In some cases, traditional tilling can also result in additional water run-off and increased soil erosion. However, new ways of tilling provide farmers with the advantages of tilling their land without the negative environmental impact, which is known as conservation tillage.

Conservation tillage increases the nutrients and residue previously lost during tilling by returning those nutrients to the soil; with this method, natural crop residues are recycled. According to the Conservation Technology Information Center at Purdue University, water is cleaner and soil erosion is reduced up to 90 percent through conservation tillage. Additionally, according to the Conservation Technology Information Center, labor efficiency is increased which, in return, reduces the need for mechanical equipment, ultimately diminishing fuel consumption and emissions from those machines.

According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, two of the most common conservation tillage practices are ridge tillage and no-till.

Ridge tillage uses specialized planters to guide crops to grow in a hill formation which prevents water and nutrients from being lost and reduces weed growth. The troughs act as storage banks to keep soil enriched and prepared for crop rotation. Crops receive the same benefits of tilling without the depletion of soil and contamination of the environment.

No-till, as the name implies, does not require tillage practices to prepare the soil for planting; instead, crops are planted directly into the crop residue that resides in the soil. A publication authored by Preston Sullivan, an agricultural specialist at the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), states that no-till provides “excellent soil erosion control and requires fewer trips across the field.”

The adoption of biotech crops can aid no-till farming by helping to conserve soil moisture and reduce erosion. During a panel discussion at the 2009 BIO Convention, North Dakota state Senator Terry Wanzek – a fourth-generation farmer – said that “the most important thing that [growing biotech crops] has allowed us to do is to move to no-till farming.” In addition to benefits like soil moisture conservation, Wanzek noted that the adoption of no-till farming has helped him cut down on tractor and fuel use.

Just how much has no-till farming helped the environment? According to a study from PG Economics, the environmental benefits gained from planting biotech crops in 2007 were equivalent to taking 6.3 million cars off the road in one year. The study found that these emissions reductions came from two main sources: reduced pesticide applications and, of course, no-till and reduced tillage farming systems.

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