Concept of Minimum Tillage is Useful In Rainfed Farming
How the concept of minimum tillage or zero tillage is useful in Rainfed farming:
1. It has been pressed hearing the experimental findings that the conventional tillage practices to not give higher yields over the maximum tillage practices in dry lands & hence the minimum tillage concept is useful in reducing additional cost on unnecessary tillage practices. The practice of harrowing alone may serve the purpose of seedbed preparation.
2. Frequent tillage operations results in loosening the top soil layer frequently which is subjected to more soil erosion due to intense rains. The research findings in dry lands have indicated that the frequent tillage operations lead to higher soil erosion as compared to untilled or less tilled soils. Hence the minimum tillage concept is useful in Dryland framing in reducing soil erosion.
3. The crop residues left over the soil surface acts as a much and helps in minimizing the evaporation losses. These crop residues also reduce the runoff losses, thus help in soil and water conservation in dry land.
4. The organic or crop residues get incorporated in top soil layers in subsequent period and increase the organic mater content of soils increase the infiltration rate of water reduce the bulk density increase the soil aggregation reduce the compaction of top soil layer thus increasing the productivity in dry lands.
5. Frequent tillage operations in dry lands also leads to formation of hard pans in heavy soils when worked under wet conditions & hence frequent tillage operations be avoided in heavy soils of dry lands.
6. The fine textured heavy soils of Dryland posses the self cracking habit extending to the depth of one meter and thus serves the purpose of ploughing Hence such soils should not be ploughed every year. The research findings have indicated that such soils can be ploughed once in three years.
7. The problem of weed control can be avoided by using the effective herbicides for various field crops in Dryland. Thus, the tillage operations required for weeds control can be reduced under Dryland conditions.
8. The concept of zero tillage is not applicable in any kind of Agricultural system including dryfarming at this stage since sufficient research information need to be generated for its successful application.