Adoption of direct seeding under cover: Soft transition or rupture?

Abstract

Direct seeding under cover meets three principles applied simultaneously and continuously: almost total reduction of tillage, maximum soil coverage and diversification of rotation. Its adoption started in France in the 2000s and today seems to convince more and more farmers. For farmers, the adoption of a new system means changing practices, by important ways or not. For direct seeding under cover, few is known about the required changes. The purpose of this article is to clarify the changes that can occur for farmers when adopting direct seeding under cover. An online survey was conducted: 425 French farmers responded. Results show that the adoption of direct seeding under cover has deeply changed the practices of 30% of farmers. For others, changes concern only one or two principles. The most important changes (for 96% of farmers) concern the almost total reduction of soil tillage principle. On the contrary, changes are less important for the diversification of rotation. Only 48% of farmer modify their crop rotation when adopting direct seeding under cover. Optimizing soil coverage represents a change for 67% of farmers. During first years, soil coverage is mainly achieved through multi-species temporary cover crops. By upsetting fundamentals of conventional farming, these farmers seems to minimize risks when adopting direct seeding under cover by a soft transition way and by sharing knowledge.