No-till farming is becoming more common, Brad Plumer writes for The Washington Post. Plowing and tillage cause soil erosion and release carbon dioxide into the air, increasing concerns about global warming. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, no-till farming is growing at a pace of about 1.5 percent every year.
Herbicides like atrazine and paraquat gave farmers ways to kill weeds without plowing up more soil, and seed drills and other equipment invented in the 1960s let farmers plant with little disturbance to the soil. The 1985 Farm Bill and higher oil prices encouraged farmers to adopt no-till. "As the technique became more widely used, U.S. farmers found that they could conserve water, reduce erosion and use less fossil fuel and labor to grow crops," and U.S. cropland erosion dropped almost 40 percent between 1982 and 1997, Plumer writes.
No-till does have disadvantages. It leads to increased use of chemical herbicides for weed killing, and the specialized equipment to make it happen costs more upfront. Still, USDA "expects no-till operations to keep spreading in the United States in the year ahead," Plumer reports. If no-till farming became common around the world as well, it could have positive effects on the climate. Governments should provide research, training or financial support to encourage the adoption of no-till farming and smooth the transition, according to a recent report from the U.N. Environment Program.
"The UNEP estimates that no-tillage operations in the United States have helped avoid 241 million metric tons of carbon dioxide since the 1970s. That's the equivalent to the annual emissions of about 50 million cars," Plumer writes. (Read more)
No-till does have disadvantages. It leads to increased use of chemical herbicides for weed killing, and the specialized equipment to make it happen costs more upfront. Still, USDA "expects no-till operations to keep spreading in the United States in the year ahead," Plumer reports. If no-till farming became common around the world as well, it could have positive effects on the climate. Governments should provide research, training or financial support to encourage the adoption of no-till farming and smooth the transition, according to a recent report from the U.N. Environment Program.
"The UNEP estimates that no-tillage operations in the United States have helped avoid 241 million metric tons of carbon dioxide since the 1970s. That's the equivalent to the annual emissions of about 50 million cars," Plumer writes. (Read more)
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