Zero Tillage farming also known as no till farming is a soil cultivation process that allows farmers to plant crop seeds are directly into the soil without tilling. In this process seeds are directly planted into untilled soil by creating a slot trench at the suitable depth and to obtain right seed coverage. The zero machine or zero tillage machine makes it quite effective and also reduces the tillage cost for a farmer. It allows maintaining the harvest and protects environment on the other hand. The zero tillage system let most of the microorganisms keep intact in the soil making it more fertile as its structure is not disturbed in this process.
In zero tillage process there is no need of tilling or ploughing the soil like usual. The seeds are places into the ground through the no-till drills without creating any disturbance in the soil. Zero tillage not only helps farmer in significantly reducing cost of the land cultivation and irrigation requirement but also helps saving the environment from issues like soil erosion and weed effect etc.
In simple words we can understand that it is a way of growing crops without creating disturbance in the soil. So we can say that the major benefits of using a zero machine are -
- Increased water infiltration capacity of the soil
- Increased organic matter retention capacity of the soil
- Increase in the cycling of nutrients into the soil
- Reduces soil erosion in areas where it is a major problem.
- Makes soil more resilient and more fertile biologically.
- Improves the efficiency by reducing time of sowing seeds in farming operations.
- More popular in humid areas as there is more risk of wind and water erosion.
Farm equipment such as disc seeds drills, zero machine or zero tillage planters, no till seed drills are used in such farming operations to reduce tillage.
Zero till machine or zero machine also work as fertilizers spreaders as they consists of different boxes for seeds and fertilizers. It also includes seed and fertilizer metering mechanisms, furrow openers, seed tubes, seed and fertilizer rate adjusting lever and transport cum power transmitting wheels. The seeds are directly places into the fields through the seed tubes at a fixed depth and distance. The weeds are are reduced with the application of fertilizers and herbicides without disturbing the soil. The zero tillage farming is especially helpful in plains to avoid erosion of the soil.
