Impact of Tillage Intensity on the Development of Faba Bean Cultivation

Abstract

At the time of tillage, the properties of the soil change, thereby changing the conditions of crop development and, ultimately, their productivity and quality. The effect of non-inversion tillage or no-till on faba bean development is still not widely understood. For this reason, on the basis of a long-term experiment (since 1988), investigations of tillage systems using deep and shallow ploughing, chiselling, disking and no-till were undertaken at Vytautas Magnus University, Agriculture Academy, Lithuania, in 2016–2019. The aim of this study was to highlight the interaction between tillage methods and crop vegetative conditions, and its effect on faba bean development parameters. Soil chiselling generally led to better faba bean canopy development rates than other treatments. Faba bean roots developed somewhat better in non-tilled plots. Different tillage methods had less impact on faba bean development than vegetative conditions during the growing seasons. This shows that, due to rapid climate change, the conditions of each vegetative season are unique, which may lead to significant changes in crop development parameters. In addition, in this case, agrotechnologies must be precisely used, such as the use of varieties resistant to abiotic stresses, as well as technical and technological approaches. The complex effects of these agrotechnological elements should be investigated in more detail.