No- or low tillage incl. mulching and direct seeding and strip till-image

No- or low tillage incl. mulching and direct seeding and strip till

  • Description
  • Fields of action
  • Synergies
  • Good practice examples
  • References

No- or low (conservation) tillage totally or largely foregoes the use of ploughs. Instead, tillage tools are used that do not turn the soil (e.g. cultivators, disc harrows) or disturb the structure of the soil while leaving crop residues (= mulch) near or on the surface of the soil. Strip cultivation or striptill is a variable tillage and sowing method mainly for row crops, which creates a 15 to 20 cm wide seedbed, leaving two-thirds of the field untilled. The idea behind these technologies is to create a stable soil texture that is not highly susceptible to soil sealing while maintaining or increasing infiltration capacity. The measure is very efficient for heavy rain risk reduction on farmland by increasing of soil water retention and decreasing runoff.

Fields of action Farmland
Additionally to flood risk reduction by slowing and storing surface runoff, these measures have medium or high possible benefits for the following biophysical impacts and ecosystem services: Reduce pollutant sources; Improve soils; Absorb and/or retain CO2; Increase soil water retention; Reduce erosion and/or sediment delivery; Climate change adaptation and mitigation; Groundwater/aquifer recharge; Filtration of pollutants; Biodiversity preservation

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Saxon State Office for Environment, Agriculture and Geology