The Blogger's Garden

Adopted from Lester Brown's Plan B 2.0, a look at soil conservation and farming in the U.S.

Another tool in the soil conservation toolkit–and a relatively new one–is conservation tillage, which includes both no-till and minimum tillage. In addition to reducing erosion, this practice helps retain water, raises soil carbon content, and reduces the energy needed for crop cultivation. Instead of plowing land, discing or harrowing it to prepare the seedbed, and then using a mechanical cultivator to control weeds, farmers simply drill seeds directly through crop residues into undisturbed soil, controlling weeds with herbicides.

Related Products: Visit our store

Read more from this blogger: Earth Policy Institute Update #212