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Conservation Agriculture

Conservation agriculture, a general practice that entails minimal or no tillage of soil, accounted for 12.5% of world cropland as of 2015/16 and is rapidly becoming more common 1.

No-till Farming

Under no-till farming, a new planting is done through the residue of the old rather than through tilling. The following increases in yields from no-till farming have been estimated from several studies.

The image: "notill_yield.svg" cannot be found!

Sources: Derpsch et al. 2, O'Connor 3, Zhao et al. 4.

Avoiding tillage may allow the soil to sequester more carbon, though this effect is disputed. The following are the soil carbon sequestration potential of no-till farming, as estimated from several studies. Under the largest estimate, applied over 1.5 billion hectares of cropland, the theoretical carbon sequestion potential is the equivalent of 5.5 billion tons of CO2, or a bit over 10% of world emissions.

The image: "notill_c_seq.svg" cannot be found!

Sources: Du et al. 5, Lal et al. 6, VandenBygaart 7.

The following additional benefits and drawbacks of no-till farming have been estimated.

Impacts of No-Till Farming
StudyQuantityImpact of No-Till Relative to Tilled Farming
Lal et al.Soil loss20%
Lal et al.Fertilizer usageSavings, unquantified
DerpschErosion4%
DerpschFuel consumption34%
Zhao et al.Methane emissions70%
Zhao et al.Nitrous oxide emissions120.8-182.1%
KarayelWater qualityImproved
Elias et al.Pesticide runoffIncreased
Gattinger et al.Herbicide appliedIncreased

Impacts of no-till farming, relative to conventional tilled farming, as estimated from 2, 8, 9, 10, 6.

Problem:
Impacts of Farming
Solution:
Promote No-Till Farming

Cover-cropping

Cover-cropping is an important aspect of regenerative agriculture, with many purported benefits 11. One benefit is carbon sequestration potential, though studies vary widely as to how great this may be.

The image: "cover_crop_c.svg" cannot be found!

Sources: Blanco-Canqui 12 and Poeplau and Don 13.

Poeplau and Don 13 also estimate that the world potential carbon sequestion for cover cropping is 120 million tons of carbon per year, or 320 million tons CO2, about 8% of world emissions.

Cover cropping is estimated to reduce yields of maize (corn) by 5.5% and soybeans by 3.5% 14. Cover cropping requires additional land use in providing the seeds of 3.8% of the land covered 15.

As of 2017, 5% of United States cropland was under cover crops 16.

References

  1. Kassam, A., Friedrich, T., Derpsch, R. "Global spread of Conservation Agriculture". International Journal of Environmental Studies 76(1), pp. 29-51. 2019. ↩

  2. Derpsch, R., Friedrich, T., Kassam, A., Li, H. "Current Status of Adoption of No-till Farming in the World and Some of its Main Benefits". International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering 3(1). 2010. ↩ ↩2

  3. O'Connor, C. "Farmers Reap Benefits as No-Till Adoption Rises". Natural Resources Defense Council. November 2013. ↩

  4. Zhao, X., Liu, S., Pu, C., Zhang, X., Xue, J., Ren, Y., Zhao, X. Chen, F., Lal, R., Zhang, H. "Crop yields under no-till farming in China: A meta-analysis". European Journal of Agronomy 84, pp. 67-75. March 2017. ↩

  5. Du, Z., Angers, D., Ren, T., Zhang, Q., Li, G. "The effect of no-till on organic C storage in Chinese soils should not be overemphasized: A meta-analysis". Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 236, pp. 1-11. January 2017. ↩

  6. Lal, R., Reicosky, D., Hanson, D. "Evolution of the plow over 10,000 years and the rationale for no-till farming". Soil and Tillage Research 93(1), pp. 1-12. March 2007. ↩ ↩2

  7. VandenBygaart, A. "The myth that no-till can mitigate global climate change". Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 216, pp. 98-99. January 2016. ↩

  8. Elias, D., Wang, L., Jacinthe, P. "A meta-analysis of pesticide loss in runoff under conventional tillage and no-till management". Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 190, Article Number 79. 2018. ↩

  9. Gattinger, A., Jawtusch, J., Muller, A., Mäder, P. "No-till agriculture - a climate smart solution?". MISEREOR. November 2011. ↩

  10. Karayel, D., Šarauskis, E. "Environmental Impact of No-Tillage Farming". Journal of Environmental Research, Engineering and Management 75(1), pp. 7-12. 2019. ↩

  11. Clark, A. "Ecosystem Services from Cover Crops". Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. 2015. ↩

  12. Blanco-Canqui, H. "Cover crops and carbon sequestration: Lessons from U.S. studies". Soil Science Society of America Journal 86(3), pp. 501-519. May/June 2022. ↩

  13. Poeplau, C., Don, A. "Carbon sequestration in agricultural soils via cultivation of cover crops – A meta-analysis". Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 200, pp. 33-41. February 2015. ↩ ↩2

  14. Deines J. M., Guan K., Lopez B., Zhou Q., White C. S., Wang S., Lobell D. B. "Recent cover crop adoption is associated with small maize and soybean yield losses in the United States". Global Change Biology. November 2022. ↩

  15. Runck B. C., Khoury C. K., Ewing P. M., Kantar M. "The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops". Communications Biology 3(1): 1-4. June 2020. ↩

  16. Popkin, G. "A pillar of the climate-smart agriculture movement is on shaky ground". Food & Environment Report Network. December 2022. ↩