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Think Conservation
It must be remembered that conservation tillage practices require a higher level of management skills, of which no-till requires the highest level of all the forms of cultivation, conventional tillage included. One of the reasons is that a very high degree of understanding of the requirements of the technique is necessary. It requires a very definite change in mindset from that required for conventional tillage, and once one has acquired the mindset, you really have arrived.
One of the primary goals in pursuing the concept of conservation tillage is to allow farmers to attain a practical and sustainable margin, in other words, to enable them to save money while farming. Conservation tillage can be adopted to counteract against soil erosion and/or to conserve soil moisture. The mulch effect of no-till is very important for infiltration rate increase, the runoff intensity is reduced, and the evaporation rate, which is the primary source of water loss during the first half of the season, is reduced. As a result, more water is available in the soil profile for transpiration and yield production, this is a very important reason for changing to no-till, especially with the rainfed cropping in areas of low and/or variable rainfall.
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The availability of soil moisture is generally increased and therefore increases in crop yield potential in areas of low annual rainfall are possible. The residue mulch/temperature effect has two important effects; one is the lighter colour at the soil surface so that more incoming radiation is reflected and the mulch acts as an insulator, so less radiation reaches the soil, but on the other hand, there trends to be less heat loss from the soil at night due to an insulating effect. The mulch keep the daytime soil temperatures lower and at spring time the soil temperatures reach optimum levels 7 to 14 days later for germination than under conventional tillage.
Looking at the soil organic matter near the surface we always find a buildup of organic matter. This helps to improve the physical conditions near the surface created by the accumulation of organic matter. The mulch contributes to more microbial activity living of the organic matter and the fungi help to bind the soil particles together. There is also an increase in earthworm populations of two to three times more than other tillage systems. One should realize that quite a few things are changed when tillage methods are changed, and all have an influence on soil fertility.
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