Agricultural Reviews

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Agricultural Reviews, volume 30 issue 1 (march 2009) : 56 - 63

CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE VS CONSERVATION TILLAGE - A REVIEW

S. Subbulakshmi, N. Saravanan, P. Subbian
1Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003
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Cite article:- Subbulakshmi S., Saravanan N., Subbian P. (2024). CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE VS CONSERVATION TILLAGE - A REVIEW. Agricultural Reviews. 30(1): 56 - 63. doi: .
Conservation tillage decreases soil erosion, leaching of fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides
into the ground water. Conservation and conventional tillage greatly affect bulk density and
soil aggregation. Conservation tillage improves activity of earth worm and other soil micro
flora. Some studies showed that soil microbial activity was higher with conventional tillage
due to better aeration. Numerous studies conducted in temperate climate zones showed
that no-tillage resulted in acidification of surface layer when continued for several years
compared to conventional tillage. Conservation tillage increases soil infiltration rate and
reduces soil evaporation there by it increases soil water storage, while other studies stated
that soil crusting at a slower rate on no-till surface than on the tilled reducing the infiltration
rate. Due to higher residue in surface soil in conservation tillage, it will improve soil organic
carbon content, while other work reported a decrease in soil organic matter compared to
ploughed soil down to a depth of 10 cm after 3 years of study. Zero tillage gives smothering
effect to weeds but some studies shows that, higher density of perennial grass weeds in
reduced tillage systems compared to conventional tillage. Several studies have shown that
crops grown under zero tillage have yielded as similar as or better than those grown under
conventional tillage, while some workers revealed conventional tillage increased the yield of
crops and other scientist reported there no yield difference between any tillage system
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