No-tillage history in America

No-till agriculture in America can be traced back to1the beginning of the 8th century. At that time, European immigrants experienced serious soil erosion, which made them realize that crops and their residues could be used to reduce soil erosion. In the19th century, it was often reported that farmers practiced grain and fiber crop rotation. In the 1920s, field experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of water erosion, gully erosion and wind erosion on soil productivity.

With the establishment of 1935 Soil Protection Bureau, the evaluation of no-tillage is more organized and systematic. After World War II, the United States Department of Agriculture improved farming methods, which contributed to soil protection by controlling runoff on rough surface. In the 1960s and 1970s, other forms of no-tillage appeared, including ridge cultivation of corn in cold and wet soil, strip cultivation of barren old soil in the southeast, and leisure stubble in western states. No-tillage method was widely popularized in this period.

Development trend of no-tillage agriculture in the United States

The cultivated land area using no-tillage technology in the United States is on the rise, from 1% in 1963 to 37% in 1998. 1993- 1998 The ratio of no-till area to cultivated area in the United States hovers between 35% and 37%. According to this trend, the United States will strive to implement no-tillage on 50% of cultivated land in 2002. No-tillage measures are mainly used for soybeans, corn and small varieties of crops. More than 45% of corn and soybeans in 1996 adopt no-tillage method. Among the double cropping crops, nearly 70% of soybeans, 46% of corn and 37% of sorghum adopt no-tillage method. Corn is the largest crop planted in the United States, accounting for 27% of the total sown area in 1996, and nearly half of it adopts no-tillage method. Cotton increased from 3% in 1989 to 1 1% in 0998. Other crops such as peanuts, potatoes, beets, tobacco and vegetables have improved erosion control and stubble management.

Although the area of no-tillage is increasing, mulch tillage is still the most important no-tillage method. 1998, 53% of the no-tillage area is covered farming, accounting for19.7% of the total cultivated land area in China; No-tillage accounts for 44% of the no-tillage area and16.3% of the cultivated land area in China; Ridge farming only accounts for 3.2% of the cultivated land in China. Compared with mulching cultivation, no-tillage area has not changed much in recent years.