Abstract

Agriculture is the world’s largest industry and employs over one billion people and generates over $1.3 trillion dollar worth of food annually. The concept of no-tillage as the planting of crops with minimum soil disturbance after harvesting previous crops has been used by indigenous cultures in ancient times. No tillage agriculture represents an agricultural management system that mitigates soil erosion, decreases production input costs, and sustains long-term crop productivity. There is the notion that no tillage systems can mitigate climate change without any equivocal evidence that no-tillage can lead to carbon sequestration let alone climate change mitigation. In the Kyoto protocol, the potential mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions by terrestrial ecosystems with soil organic matter dynamics is central to soil carbon sequestration. The intensification of farming and the increase in biomass production increases soil carbon sequestration. There appears to be some advantages of no till agricultural systems regarding environmental quality, and the economic benefit of fewer inputs with reduced time and energy input. No tillage agricultural systems are gaining popularity in terms of environmental impact and economic advantages. However, concerns remain regarding its economies of scale vis-à-vis world population growth and food security. Hence the question, “What is wrong with No tillage?”.