Soil Cultivation and

Tillage in Organic
Agriculture
Objectives;
• At the end of the lesson, the student must;
• Explore the impact of different soil cultivation and tillage practices
• Differentiate the conventional and conservation tillage systems
• Understand the different soil tillage implements
 Soil Cultivation
• Organic agriculture aims to work with natural processes to promote soil
health, biodiversity, and environmental sustainability. Soil cultivation
involves the manipulation of soil for the purpose of planting crops,
managing weeds, and improving soil structure.
• Soil cultivation aims to create an optimal growing environment for crops
by controlling weeds, increasing oxygen levels, and integrating organic
material into the soil.
 Practices for Soil Cultivation in Organic
Agriculture
• Cover cropping - Cover crops help improve soil health by adding organic
matter, suppressing weeds, and enhancing nutrient cycling.
• Crop rotation - Crop rotation improves soil structure, and optimizes
nutrient utilization by alternating crops with different nutrient needs.
• Mulching - Mulching with organic materials such as straw, hay, or
compost helps conserve soil moisture, suppress weeds, and enhance soil
fertility.
 Soil Tillage in Organic Farming Systems
• Organic farmers share many of the same goals for building soil organic
matter, fertility, and the capacity for supporting soil biological activity and
productivity as conventional farmers. In organic farming this is achieved
through integrated systems such as crop rotations, cover crops, and the
incorporation or mixing of crop residues and organic amendments (e.g.,
manure, compost) as needed.
Soil Tillage in Organic Farming Systems
• The dilemma for organic farmers is that these approaches for increasing soil organic
matter also require tillage. Specifically, tillage is required for the following reasons:
• to eliminate perennial legumes or winter annual cover crops before planting annual
crops.
• to incorporate manure or compost to avoid nitrogen runoff and volatilization losses.
• to facilitate more rapid mineralization and release of nutrients to the crop.
• to prepare a seedbed and control weeds. Since an increase in tillage intensity and
frequency has been shown to lead to soil erosion and decrease soil organic matter,
careful timing and equipment selection can limit these effects.
Soil Cultivation in Organic Farming Systems

• Organic farmers should recognize the wide array of state-of-the-art tillage

and planting equipment. Farmers utilizing modern equipment have
become proficient at very complex and integrated organic cropping
systems. For example, a number of modern tillage implements have been
designed to manage residue and cover crops, helping to reduce soil
vulnerability to erosion and organic matter losses.
Soil Cultivation in Organic Farming Systems

• Organic farmers must fully understand the impact of tillage practices on

soil quality. A tillage system goal of sustainability relies upon regular soil
quality evaluation, especially focusing on soil structure, tilth, organic
matter, soil fauna, nutrient cycling, and microbial activity.
 Soil Tillage Systems
• There are two main types of tillage systems: conventional tillage and
conservation tillage. Conventional tillage incorporates or buries most of
the crop residue into the soil. Typically this approach involves multiple
passes in fields. The moldboard plow is often used first, followed by other
implements. Since this method plows under much of the crop stubble, it
leaves the surface relatively bare and without cover protection; usually it
leaves less than 15 percent of the crop residues on the soil surface.
 Conventional Tillage
• Conventional tillage entails turning under and thoroughly mixing crop
residues or cover crops into the top 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) of soil.
The goal of conventional tillage is to leave a residue and vegetation-free
soil surface, with a uniformly mixed soil horizon to the plow depth.
 Primary Tillage
• Primary tillage is the first soil tillage after the last harvest, which involve
loosening the soil, inverting the soil, and uprooting weeds and crop
stubble. Primary tillage techniques are always aggressive and usually
carried out at considerable depth, leaving an uneven soil surface. For weed
species that are propagated by seeds, primary tillage can contribute to
control by burying a portion of the seeds at depths from which they are
unable to emerge.
 Secondary Tillage
• In secondary tillage, the soil is not worked as aggressively or as deeply as
in primary tillage. The purpose of secondary tillage is to further pulverize
the soil, mix various materials or manure into the soil, level and firm the
soil, and control weeds. Seedbed preparation is the final secondary tillage
operation except when used in the false or stale seedbed technique.
Secondary tillage operations are performed with lighter tools such as the
disk harrow, field cultivator, spring-tooth harrow, wire-tooth harrow,
spike-tooth harrows, packer rollers, and rolling baskets.
 Advantages and Disadvantage of
Conventional Tillage
• One advantage of conventional tillage is that the needed machinery is widely
available and the techniques are well known to farmers. Conservation tillage
methods may require the purchase of new equipment or attachments and often a
learning effort on the part of the farmer.
• Disadvantages. The limited amount of residue left on fields from conventional
tillage and to a lesser extent conventional tillage leaves soils more vulnerable to
wind and water erosion. The lack of surface residue causes sealing at the surface,
which generates runoff and erosion and creates hard crusts after drying.
•
 Conservation Tillage
• The objective of conservation tillage is to provide a means of profitable
crop production while minimizing soil erosion due to wind and/or water.
The emphasis is on soil conservation, but conserving soil moisture,
energy, labor, and even equipment provides additional benefits. To be
considered conservation tillage, the system must provide conditions that
resist erosion by wind, rain, and flowing water. Such resistance is
achieved either by protecting the soil surface with crop residues or
growing plants or by maintaining sufficient surface roughness or soil
permeability to increase water filtration and thus reduce soil erosion.
 Advantages of Conservation Tillage
• The principal benefits of conservation tillage are improved water
conservation and the reduction of soil erosion. As the soil improves, the
increase in infiltration rate, permeability, and porosity allows more rain to
get in the soil before it runs off the surface. Crop residues on the surface
create an effective barrier that slows water as it runs off the surface and
allow more infiltration. Those same residues shade and insulate the surface
from wind and sun, reducing evaporation from the soil, which is the major
loss during fallow periods.
 Disadvantage of Conservation Tillage
• . Reduced tillage results more crop residues, which can delay crop
planting due to lower soil temperatures thereby potentially reducing crop
yields. On poorly drained soils, additional water retained by using
conservation tillage, especially no-till, aggravates excess soil water
problems, thus causing reduced crop yields.
 Conservation Tillage Systems
• The term conservation tillage represents a broad spectrum of tillage
systems. These systems are based on the idea that tillage can be limited to
the area around the plant and does not have to disturb the entire field.
Several conservation tillage systems—no-till, strip till, and ridge till—fit
this concept. Among these tillage practices, no-till has a greater potential
in sequestering more carbon into the soil than other conservation tillage
methods.
 No-Till
• is a procedure whereby a crop is planted directly into the soil with no
primary or secondary tillage since harvest of the previous crop. The no-till
system loosens the soil only in a very narrow and shallow area
immediately around the seed zone. In its simplest form, no-till planting is
a one-pass operation accomplished with a multicomponent implement that
slices through surface residue and the top three or four inches of soil,
drops seeds into the slot, and squeezes the slot back together over and
around the seed, leaving little or no visible evidence that the crop has been
planted.
 Strip Till
• is a conservation tillage system that was developed for row crops grown in
heavy, poorly drained cool soils. Strip-till removes the residue from the
row area, allowing sunlight to hit the soil surface to warm the soil to
increase soil evaporation. As with ridge planting, planting with strip-till
takes place in the residue free strips. Strip tillage is designed for row crops
in which only a 9 to 12 inch (23 to 30 cm) wide strip is tilled and planted
and the ground between rows is left undisturbed.
 Ridge Till
• is a method of preparing the seedbed and planting on a ridge formed
during cultivation of the previous year’s crop. The permanent raised beds
are flat and generally 12 to 24 inches (30 to 61 cm) wide and four to six
inches (10 to 15 cm) high. Residue-covered areas between the rows
alternate with residue-free strips in the row area. Ridges are maintained
year-to-year with a cultivator, making ridge plant well suited to
continuous row crops like corn, soybeans, cotton, sorghum, and
sunflower. Rows remain in the same place each year, and any crop residue
on the ridges at planting is pushed between the rows.
 Soil Tillage Implements
• Tillage implements are important components of both soil and weed
management systems in organic farming. Some of the implements used
for primary tillage include moldboard plows, disk plows and tillers, heavy
disk harrows, chisel plows, rotary cultivators, spading machines.
Secondary tillage implements used include disk harrows, rotary
cultivators, spike-, spring-, and tine-toothed harrows, and packers. The
following section discusses the role of tillage tools in soil management,
including managing crop residue, terminating cover crops, preparing a
seedbed, managing soil compaction, and weed control.
 Chisel Plows
Chisel plows are used for loosening the soil
without inverting it, thus leaving residues on
the soil surface. Chisel plows generally
provide results similar to those of the
moldboard plow but require less energy and
leave significantly more residue on the
surface. Chisels also allow for more
flexibility in the depth of tillage, generally
from 5 to 12 inches (13 to 30 cm), with some
tools specifically designed to go deeper.
 Moldboard
Plows

The moldboard plow cuts, breaks, loosens, and

inverts the soil. The plow body cuts, both
vertically and horizontally, a slice of soil whose
height and width are in the ratio of about 1:1.5 to
1:1. The slice of soil is lifted, moved upwards
along the moldboard and turned over an angle of
120 to 150 degrees, depending on the height to
width ratio of the slice.
 Disk Plows
The disk (disc) plow is a heavy implement, made
up of 2 to 12 disks, designed for deep primary
tillage and the disks are designed to throw the
soil in only one direction at a time. The resultant
side force is counteracted by a furrow wheel.
Disk harrows range from heavy to light
implements and are used for shallow primary
tillage or secondary tillage. They are equipped
with rows of disks that throw the soil in opposite
directions. The disk is rotated by the soil forces
acting on the disk and it tears, lifts, rolls, loosens,
mixes and partially inverts the furrow slice.
 Disk Harrows
Disk harrows differ from disc plows in that
they consist of two or more rows, or gangs,
of disks. The disks operate at an angle to
the direction of travel, which imparts a
cutting and turning action to the soil. The
disks on the different gangs turn the soil in
the opposite direction, so that the side
forces are cancelled out, and hence a tail
wheel is not required as in disk.
 Rotary Cultivators
Rotary cultivators, also called rotary
tillers, are used for primary and
secondary tillage. Rotary cultivators have
blades anchored on rotors that are bolted
to a single, horizontal power shaft. These
cultivators can be equipped with either
conventional “C” or “L” tines, or with
straight blades that are less prone to
smearing the subsoil. Rotary cultivators
can be adjusted for ground speed and
rotational velocity to either pulverize the
soil or leave it rough and cloddy to slow
erosion in winter..
 Spading Machines
Spading machines are an alternative to
using a rotary tiller. Spaders are either
rotary or reciprocating, and the spades
on both types move more slowly than
a rotary tiller through the soil.
Spading machines work the soil more
effectively without causing
compaction.
Spike-, Spring-, and Tine-
Toothed Harrows
Harrows are effective in breaking remaining soil
crusts and clods from primary tillage, smoothing and
firming the soil surface, aerating the soil, and pulling
emerging weeds. Three types of harrows typically are
used in secondary tillage: spike-, spring-, and tine-
toothed. Spike-tooth harrows have rigid spikes that
often are mounted on an angle to flow over residue.
They are more aggressive than tine-tooth harrows and
will bust up crust and clods and smooth the soil. The
spring-tooth harrow is more aggressive than the spike-
tooth harrow, but it tends to rake up any surface
residue of significant size, so it is not suitable for
conservation tillage.
 Field Cultivators
A field cultivator is an implement used to
perform secondary tillage operations such
as seedbed preparation and weed
eradication. Field cultivators are equipped
with steel shanks that are typically spring
mounted to permit the shank to move
within the soil and shatter clods. The
springs are recommended on each shank
in soil with obstructions such as rocks or
tree roots.
 Rotary Harrows
Rotary harrows are relatively new tools
to fluff up crop residue, bust clods,
pulverize soil, lift up weeds, and dry out
soil. They can be used for secondary
tillage. The main advantages of the
rotary harrow include the following;
good mulching action on light to
medium heavy soils; no smearing due to
its tearing effect on the soil; it leaves a
coarse surface; versatility; simplicity;
and low cost.
 Packers
Packers prepare the seedbed for planting.
Packers consist of rollers made up with
wheels with various types of open edges.
Packers are used to finish preparing the
seedbed by thoroughly pulverizing and
firming the loose soil so that there will be
no large air spaces or pockets.
THANK YOU