Shallow non-inversion tillage in organic farming maintains crop yields and increases soil C stocks: a meta-analysis
By J. Cooper, G. Stewart, Majimcha Nobel-de Lange, P. Bàrberi, A. Fliessbach, J. Peigné, A. Berner, C. Brock, M. Casagrande, O. Crowley and 18 more. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 2016
213 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Reduced tillage is increasingly promoted to improve sustainability and productivity of agricultural systems. Nonetheless, adoption of reduced tillage by organic farmers has been slow due to concerns about nutrient supply, soil structure, and weeds that may limit yields. Here, we compiled the results from both published and unpublished research comparing deep or shallow inversion tillage, with various categories of reduced tillage under organic management. Shallow refers to less than 25 cm. We found that (1) division of reduced tillage practices into different classes with varying degrees of intensity allowed us to assess the trade-offs between reductions in tillage intensity, crop yields, weed incidence, and soil C stocks. (2) Reducing tillage intensity in organic systems reduced crop yields by an average of 7.6 % relative to deep inversion tillage with no significant reduction in yield relative to shallow inversion tillage. (3) Among the different classes of reduced tillage practice, shallow non-inversion tillage resulted in non-significant reductions in yield relative to deep inversion; whereas deep non-inversion tillage resulted in the largest yield reduction, of 11.6 %. (4) Using inversion tillage to only a shallow depth resulted in minimal reductions in yield, of 5.5 %, but significantly higher soil C stocks and better weed control. This finding suggests that this is a good option for organic farmers wanting to improve soil quality while minimizing impacts on yields. (5) Weeds were consistently higher, by about 50 %, when tillage intensity was reduced, although this did not always result in reduced yields.
Subfields: Agronomy and Crop Science, Plant Science, Soil Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b54cd0574a2622e63de81ea3410aa5c5e3b85c54
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Citations in the corpus
- Lower average yields but similar yield variability in organic versus conventional horticulture. A meta-analysis (2017, background): “Cooper et al. (2016) showed the interest of dividing reduced tillage practices into different classes to analyse their effect on organic yields.”
- Reduced Tillage and No-Till in Organic Farming Systems, Germany—Status Quo, Potentials and Challenges (2017, unknown): “[69] found increasing C-stocks following adoption of shallow inversion tillage accompanied by yield losses of only 5.”