Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Sistema de Plantio Direto na Palhada e seu impacto na agricultura brasileira 1

2009; UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE VIÇOSA; Volume: 56; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

2177-3491

A.A. Silva, Leandro Galon, Francisco Affonso Ferreira, Siumar Pedro Tironi, Evander Alves Ferreira, Alexandre Ferreira da Silva, Ignácio Aspiazú, E. L. Agnes,

Crop Yield and Soil Fertility

No-tillage system and its impact on Brazilian agriculture Agriculture is among the major interventions of man in nature. Conventional tillage, historically based on fire, plowing and harrowing, always aimed to clean and prepare the soil for cultivation, without the concern of conserving it. Large agricultural areas were intensely plowed and harrowed and were exposed to various types of erosion, resulting in the loss of thousands of tons of soil of the arable layer, depleting its fertility. In the search for alternatives to alleviate this environmental problem, producers and researchers have developed the no-tillage system (NTS), whose basic principle is not to disturb the soil. Nowadays , 30 years after its implementation, this practice is commonly used in most large and small Brazilian farms, not only to control erosion, but with several other advantages such as reduction in fuel expenditure and time spent in agricultural activities and lower incidence of pests and diseases. These advantages contribute to reduce production costs and increase or maintain crops productivity in comparison with the conventional