Effects of Reduced Tillage on Food Legume Productivity

Abstract

The trend toward eliminating tillage before solving food legumes directly into crop residues has been driven by the need to reverse soil degradation. It has been stimulated by the accrual of benefits such as improved timeliness of sowing, less labour and machinery input, effective weed control using herbicides, less erosion and runoff, increased soil water storage and improved soil physical and organic fertility. The productivity of food legumes is not reduced by eliminating tillage, and in many instances, is higher due to improvements in some site-specific limiting factor(s). The nitrogen dynamics of food legumes tend to be improved under no-tillage, with small increases being reported in nitrogen fixation and the proportion of plant nitrogen derived from fixation. The beneficial effects of no-tillage in some environments, has been due to the improved establishment of food legumes and in others to a reduction in pest and disease incidence. In rain-fed agriculture, benefits of no-tillage have been due largely to improved soil water storage and availability to food legumes.