Role of Conservation Tillage as Climate Change Mitigation

Abstract

There is an urgent need to match food production with increasing world population through identification of sustainable land management strategies. However, the struggle to achieve food security should be carried out keeping in mind the soil where the crops are grown and the environment in which the living things survive. Conservation Tillage (CT), practicing agriculture in such a way so as to cause minimum damage to the environment, is being advocated at a large scale world-wide, and is thought to take care of the soil health, plant growth and the environment. This paper aims to review the work done on conservation tillage in different agro-ecological regions so as to understand its impact from the perspectives of the soil, the crop and the environment. Research reports have identified several benefits of conservation tillage over conventional tillage (CT) with respect to soil physical, chemical and biological properties as well as crop yields and reduction in carbon dioxide emission from soil into the atmosphere. Processes of climate change mitigation and adaptation found zero tillage (ZT) to be the most environmental friendly among different tillage techniques.

Keywords: Conservation Tillage, Sustainable Soil management, Climate Change

DOI: 10.7176/CER/11-1-03