1. CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE
PRESENTED BY
PREM BABOO
RESEARCHER

2. A forest litter of leaves and twigs - even of Eucalyptus, as here - which affords a protective cover to the surface, food for soil organisms and ultimately is a source of soil organic matter within the profile (with plant roots themselves)

3. Disk tillage not only buries much of the crop residues but also can pulverize the soil and induce serious compaction immediately beneath the tilled layer

4. Both surface soil and seeds have been moved by runoff from an earlier storm and deposited in the channel of a broad-based conservation bank

5. Broad-based conservation banks are supposed to control runoff and soil erosion 

6. Oil palm under won with a creeping legume

7. Soil conditions in a no-till system

8. A dense growth of nitrogen-fixing vetch within a zero tillage rotation

9. Development of porous soil architecture beneath a grass crop in rotation

10. Scarifying the soil with tines to a depth of about 30 cm to break-up a subsurface compacted layer and let in more of the rainwater

11. Inter planting maize in furrows drawn through a young cover of a low-growing vetch; in the foreground is soil which has been scarified

12. Zero-till maize planted in a narrow slot cut through the residues of the previous crop of wheat by a pair of sharp disks 

13. In the same field, note the dark decomposing wheat residue materials (left-hand side of photo) beneath the light-coloured surface straw

14. This farmer has studied the comparative effects of zero tillage - on the left - vs. conventional tillage - on the right - on the same soil type

15. Improved management of the soil upslope resulted in this pond reappearing and persisting through the dry season

16. Further down the same catchment, the adoption of zero tillage crop production above showed its effect in much-extended river flow, with considerable income improvements for this small farmer

17. Tillage induced flush of decomposition of organic matter
Type of Tillage
Organic matter lost in 19 days
(kg/ha)
Mouldboard plough + disc harrow (2x)
4 300
Mouldboard plough
2 230
Disc harrow
1 840
Chisel plough
1 720
Direct seeding
860
Prem Baboo