scholarly journals Comparison of ploughing vs. ploughless cultivation in terms of energy expenditure and quality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Szczyglak

The article discusses the basic technologies of soil cultivation and presents the results of analyses of the effectiveness of the product resource base of ploughless cultivation machines manufactured in Poland. The study also describes the design of a prototype MultiCat 6HD aggregated tillage unit, which should be regarded as innovative, and presents the methodology of experimental research focused on the aggregated unit and machines for traditional plough tillage. The experiment determined fuel consumption, effective and operational efficiency, the depth of placing and mixing of crop residues and the indicator of crop residue surface embedding. Based on the conducted analyses, it was found that ploughless cultivation required approx. 30% less expenditure for fuel as compared to the traditional plough tillage. In addition, a more favourable distribution of plant material within the soil profile was found along with almost identical embedding of crop residues, as compared to the plough tillage. It was demonstrated that the application of ploughless cultivation based on the MultiCat 6HD aggregated unit would improve agricultural farm competitiveness.

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3410
Author(s):  
Bozena Debska ◽  
Ewa Spychaj-Fabisiak ◽  
Wiesław Szulc ◽  
Renata Gaj ◽  
Magdalena Banach-Szott

The major indicator of soil fertility and productivity are humic acids (HAs) arising from decomposition of organic matter. The structure and properties of HAs depend, among others climate factors, on soil and anthropogenic factors, i.e., methods of soil management. The purpose of the research undertaken in this paper is to study humic acids resulting from the decomposition of crop residues of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and plant material of thuja (Thuja plicata D.Don.ex. Lamb) using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. In the present paper, we report EPR studies carried out on two types of HAs extracted from forest soil and incubated samples of plant material (mixture of wheat straw and roots), both without soil and mixed with soil. EPR signals obtained from these samples were subjected to numerical analysis, which showed that the EPR spectra of each sample could be deconvoluted into Lorentzian and Gaussian components. It can be shown that the origin of HAs has a significant impact on the parameters of their EPR spectra. The parameters of EPR spectra of humic acids depend strongly on their origin. The HA samples isolated from forest soils are characterized by higher spin concentration and lower peak-to-peak width of EPR spectra in comparison to those of HAs incubated from plant material.


PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Pierre Hiel ◽  
Sophie Barbieux ◽  
Jérôme Pierreux ◽  
Claire Olivier ◽  
Guillaume Lobet ◽  
...  

Society is increasingly demanding a more sustainable management of agro-ecosystems in a context of climate change and an ever growing global population. The fate of crop residues is one of the important management aspects under debate, since it represents an unneglectable quantity of organic matter which can be kept in or removed from the agro-ecosystem. The topic of residue management is not new, but the need for global conclusion on the impact of crop residue management on the agro-ecosystem linked to local pedo-climatic conditions has become apparent with an increasing amount of studies showing a diversity of conclusions. This study specifically focusses on temperate climate and loamy soil using a seven-year data set. Between 2008 and 2016, we compared four contrasting residue management strategies differing in the amount of crop residues returned to the soil (incorporation vs. exportation of residues) and in the type of tillage (reduced tillage (10 cm depth) vs. conventional tillage (ploughing at 25 cm depth)) in a field experiment. We assessed the impact of the crop residue management on crop production (three crops—winter wheat, faba bean and maize—cultivated over six cropping seasons), soil organic carbon content, nitrate (${\mathrm{NO}}_{3}^{-}$), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) soil content and uptake by the crops. The main differences came primarily from the tillage practice and less from the restitution or removal of residues. All years and crops combined, conventional tillage resulted in a yield advantage of 3.4% as compared to reduced tillage, which can be partly explained by a lower germination rate observed under reduced tillage, especially during drier years. On average, only small differences were observed for total organic carbon (TOC) content of the soil, but reduced tillage resulted in a very clear stratification of TOC and also of P and K content as compared to conventional tillage. We observed no effect of residue management on the ${\mathrm{NO}}_{3}^{-}$ content, since the effect of fertilization dominated the effect of residue management. To confirm the results and enhance early tendencies, we believe that the experiment should be followed up in the future to observe whether more consistent changes in the whole agro-ecosystem functioning are present on the long term when managing residues with contrasted strategies.


Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Vilma Naujokienė ◽  
Daiva Rimkuvienė ◽  
Egidijus Šarauskis

Different bio-impacts affect the various properties and composition of soil, plant residues, harvests, and technological processes, as well as the interactions between different parts of the soil, working machine tools, energy consumption and environmental pollution with harmful gases. To summarize the wide-coverage investigations of various aspects of different bio-impact parameters, a multicriteria evaluation was conducted. Experimental research shows that different bioeffects such as those of agricultural practices can be oriented towards a reduction in fuel consumption, followed by reductions in CO2 emissions from machinery and changes in soil properties, dynamics of composition, yield and other parameters. A multicriteria assessment of the essential parameters would give farmers new opportunities to choose one optimal decision for reducing fuel consumption and increasing agricultural production, thereby reducing the negative environmental impact of soil cultivation processes, increasing yields and improving soil. Of all the properties investigated, from a practical point of view, the selection of the most important of all the essential links, such as reducing energy and expenditure, reducing environmental pollution, improving soil, and increasing yields and productivity, is reasonable. The evaluation of the bio-impact effects in agriculture by accounting for many criteria from several aspects was the main objective of the multicriteria assessment using the analytic hierarchy process. Based on the results of a multivariable research of fuel consumption—C1, C2, yield—C3, CO2 from soil—C4, density—C5, total porosity—C6, humus—C7, soil stability—C8, and soil moisture content—C9, the evaluation used experimental research data and the Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) mathematical method to find the best-case scenario. Multicriteria effectiveness was most pronounced after the first and third soil bio-impacts by using a solution of essential oils of plants, 40 species of various herbs extracts, marine algae extracts, mineral oils, Azospirillum sp. (N), Frateuria aurentia (K), Bacillus megaterium (P), seaweed extract. The most important goal was to achieve the best soil bio-impact effectiveness—minimized energy consumption from ploughing and disc harrowing operations, parallelly minimized harmful emissions from agricultural machinery, minimized CO2 from soil, soil density, maximized soil total porosity, soil humus, soil stability, yield and optimized soil moisture.


Soil Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Poeplau ◽  
Lisa Reiter ◽  
Antonio Berti ◽  
Thomas Kätterer

Crop residue incorporation (RI) is recommended to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. However, the positive effect on SOC is often reported to be relatively low and alternative use of crop residues, e.g. as a bioenergy source, may be more climate smart. In this context, it is important to understand: (i) the response of SOC stocks to long-term crop residue incorporation; and (ii) the qualitative SOC change, in order to judge the sustainability of this measure. We investigated the effect of 40 years of RI combined with five different nitrogen (N) fertilisation levels on SOC stocks and five SOC fractions differing in turnover times on a clay loam soil in Padua, Italy. The average increase in SOC stock in the 0–30cm soil layer was 3.1Mgha–1 or 6.8%, with no difference between N fertilisation rates. Retention coefficients of residues did not exceed 4% and decreased significantly with increasing N rate (R2=0.49). The effect of RI was higher after 20 years (4.6Mgha–1) than after 40 years, indicating that a new equilibrium has been reached and no further gains in SOC can be expected. Most (92%) of the total SOC was stored in the silt and clay fraction and 93% of the accumulated carbon was also found in this fraction, showing the importance of fine mineral particles for SOC storage, stabilisation and sequestration in arable soils. No change was detected in more labile fractions, indicating complete turnover of the annual residue-derived C in these fractions under a warm humid climate and in a highly base-saturated soil. The applied fractionation was thus useful to elucidate drivers and mechanisms of SOC formation and stabilisation. We conclude that residue incorporation is not a significant management practice affecting soil C storage in warm temperate climatic regions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
MA Haque ◽  
P Bala ◽  
AK Azad

A field experiment was conducted at the farm of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during November 2009 to March 2010 to study the response of three lentil varieties (viz., BARI Masur-1, BARI Masur-2 and BARI Masur-3) to Rhizobium inoculations to yield. There were three Rhizobium inoculants (Rhizobium strain BINA L4, Rhizobium strain TAL 640, and mixed culture) with uninoculated control and urea @ 50 kg ha-1. Phosphorus and potassium @ 26 kg P ha-1from TSP and 33 kg K ha-1 from MP were used as basal. It was observed that Rhizobium inoculation alone increased plant height, grain yield and crop residues yield of plant significantly compared to uninoculated control. Local inoculants BINA L4 performed better than the exotic culture TAL 640 in respect of yield. 50 kg urea ha-1 also recorded better results than control but not superior to any of the inoculation treatments. The highest seed (1,565 kg ha-1) and crop residue yields (3,303 kg ha-1) were recorded from the lentil variety BARIMasur-3 inoculated with mixed culture.Bangladesh Agron. J. 2014, 17(1): 41-46


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (03) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maninder Singh ◽  
Anita Jaswal ◽  
Arshdeep Singh

Crop residue management (CRM) through conservation agriculture can improve soil productivity and crop production by preserving soil organic matter (SOM) levels. Two major benefits of surface-residue management are improved organic matter (OM) near the soil surface and boosted nutrient cycling and preservation. Larger microbial biomass and activity near the soil surface act as a pool for nutrients desirable in crop production and enhance structural stability for increased infiltration. In addition to the altered nutrient distribution within the soil profile, changes also occur in the chemical and physical properties of the soil. Improved soil C sequestration through enhanced CRM is a cost-effective option for reducing agriculture's impact on the environment. Ideally, CRM practices should be selected to optimize crop yields with negligible adverse effects on the environment. Crop residues of common agricultural crops are chief resources, not only as sources of nutrients for subsequent crops but also for amended soil, water and air quality. Maintaining and managing crop residues in agriculture can be economically beneficial to many producers and more importantly to society. Improved residue management and reduced tillage practices should be encouraged because of their beneficial role in reducing soil degradation and increasing soil productivity. Thus, farmers have a responsibility in making management decisions that will enable them to optimize crop yields and minimize environmental impacts. Multi-disciplinary and integrated efforts by a wide variety of scientists are required to design the best site-specific systems for CRM practices to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability while minimizing environmental impacts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 152-157
Author(s):  
M. A. Muftau ◽  
A. A. Kwaido ◽  
M. S. Ayuba ◽  
N. Kadi ◽  
Y. NaAllah

A study was conducted to examine the management problems of crop residues production in five villages within Aliero Local Government Area of Kebbi State, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was administered to 75 respondents within the study area. The data collected was analyzed using simple statistical tools such as frequency counts and percentages. The family size of the respondents showed that more than half (52.41%) had 5-8 members. Majority of the respondents were within the age categories of 23-32 (39.60%) and 32-42 years (33.30%). It was observed that most of the respondents were male (78.08%) with different educational background. The study revealed that about 47.95% of the respondents were farmers. Mixed cropping is common to the household with cereal and legume crops combination; sorghum/groundnut (6.85%), millet/groundnut (28.03%) and sorghum/cowpea (36.99%). Various storage methods existed among the house hold in handling crop residues as majority (45.21%) kept crop residues on the roof tops and the least (9.59%) kept crop residues on the tree branches. Crop residues were from groundnut straws, cowpea straws, maize stover, millet stover and rice straws with sorghum stover constituting the highest (30.14%). Majority of the respondents (39.74%) source their crop residues from self production. The study also showed that all the respondents encountered one or more management problems which limit crop residue production and they include high cost of irrigation (78.08%), inadequate storage structures (75.34%) and inadequate capital (68.86%) among others constitute the prominent problems to crop residue production in the study area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-126
Author(s):  
Galina G. Parkhomenko ◽  
Igor V. Bozhko ◽  
Sergey I. Kambulov ◽  
Viktor I. Pakhomov

Introduction. One of the areas of agricultural production is crop production. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account all available possibilities of reducing the energy consumption and labor required for tillage operations that can be achieved by using energy efficient tillage tools. Materials and Methods. In the course of the research, an agrotechnical and energy assessment of the technological process of soil cultivation performed by tillage tools was carried out. The agrotechnical assessment includes identifying the indicators of unevenness of the tillage tool travel depth, soil pulverization, ridging, and the content of erosion threatening particles. As an energy assessment, the indicator of draught created by a tillage tool was taken. The researches were carried out for various configurations of the chisel cultivators with flat and curved hoes, and elements made of polymer. Results. The data of agricultural assessment and draught of chisel cultivators were obtained for various agricultural backgrounds: winter wheat stubble with preliminary disking in one track, winter barley stubble with preliminary disking in one track, and autumn fallow on the background. Discussion and Conclusion. According to the results of the research, it was found that, in terms of quality indicators, the tillage tools meet the agrotechnical requirements for a given processing depth of 25–35 cm. The operation of the chisel equipped with a curved hoe is characterized by the highest presence of clods up to 5 cm (91–96%). The ridge height was 6.8–8.0 cm for all tillage tools. It has been established that the tillage tools are advisable to be uses for anti-erosion soil cultivation. In terms of preserving plant and crop residues, a chisel with a curved hoe providing their content by 9.5–28.6% more than with a polymer of 13.2–14.3%. The chisel with polymer has the smallest draught of 7.6 kN, which is 18.28% lower in comparison with tillage tools equipped with a flat hoe.


Author(s):  
Gopalakrishnan Srinivasan ◽  
Arumugam Abirami

The atmosphere of New Delhi during the months of October to the January next year (every year) remains critical due to factors such as stubble burning in the nearby state of Punjab, air pollution rising out of Diwali fireworks and the smog during December and January. Stubble burning is the intentional incineration of paddy / any other field stubbles by farmers after the harvest. It is usually done to eliminate pests such as rats, crickets and hoppers. The availability of short time between rice harvesting and sowing of wheat is the most important reason for burning of crop residues. Also yield and quality of wheat gets severely affected if there is delay in sowing. Since the time gap is very limited (about 3 – 4 weeks) between rice and wheat, burning of crop residues is preferred since it is the quickest and easiest solution for the farmers. According to reports, New Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad recorded a peak Air Quality Index (AQI) of around 480 – 490 in the month of November 2019. Health effects of air pollution include respiratory diseases, skin and eye irritation and other ailments. An important factor is shortage of labor contributing to burning of rice straw. Apart from stubble burning, farmers burn wood for domestic cooking, removal of municipal solid wastes and accidental / intentional wildfires. Use of combined harvester – Happy Seeder machine is a profitable and less labour-intensive management of rice residue. Yet many farmers still have the perception that there are no alternative solutions for crop residue management. Besides Happy Seeder machine, there are other machines such as rotavator, reaper binder and no-till seed drill that can be alternatives for crop residue burning. In 2019 – 20, the Punjab government disbursed a certain amount to farmers for not burning stubble as compensation, yet many farmers adopted the stubble burning process. Other measures such as adoption of villages by Confederation of Indian Industries, MoU with institutes for wast


Author(s):  
B Manyuchi ◽  
S Ncube ◽  
T Smith

Dry season feed for ruminants is characterised by a shortage of energy and protein. Technology for improving the utilization of crop residues may not be available because of shortages of money or inputs. Chemical treatment, supplementation and handling of stovers available in Zimbabwe has been studied.Lambs were allocated to treatment by blocking according to live weight and then randomizing within blacks. Three weeks acclimatisation was followed by intake measurement over 7 days and digestibility over 5 days.


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