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Area under No- tillage in different countries One has to be aware that only a few countries in the world conduct surveys on the extent of no-tillage adoption and that in most cases the data is based on estimates made by farmer organizations, agro industry and others. Table 1 shows the estimated area under no-tillage worldwide.
Source:
1) John Hassel CTIC, 2005; 2) FEBRAPDP, 2005; 3) AAPRESID, 2004; 4) Dr. Doug McKell, Soil Conserv. Council of Canada, 2004; 5) Bill Crabtree, WANTFA, 2005, 6) MAG – DEAG, Soil Conservation Program, 2005; 7) Dr. Peter Hobbs & Raj Gupta 2005; 8) Carlito Los, 2005, 9) Richard Fowler, 2003; 10) ECAF Homepage, 2005; 11) Rafael E. Perez, 2004; 12) Miguel Carballal AUSID, 2005; 13) ECAF Homepage, 2005; 14) Carlos Crovetto, 2005; 15) Fabio Leiva, 2005; 16) Li Hongwen, 2005; Readers of this paper, who think that their countries should be mentioned in this list, or that some numbers should be corrected, are invited to contact the author giving credit of the sources of the information. Internationally accepted definitions of no-tillage should be respected. According to previous sources there would be 650,000 ha of no-tillage in Mexico. But this estimate was based on the number of no-till machines sold which was multiplied by average farm size. Newer data by CIMMYT showed that this system greatly overestimated the area under this practice. Data presented at the ISCO Conference in Indianapolis in 1999 (Derpsch, 2001a), showed 45.5 million ha of no-tillage being adopted by farmers at that time. More recent data presented at the I World Congress on Conservation Agriculture in Madrid (Derpsch, 2001b,) showed 62 million ha of no-tillage being adopted worldwide. That means that the area under this technology has more than doubled since 1999 and has increased by 54% since 2001. Since the II World Congress on CA (Derpsch and Benites, 2003), no-tillage adoption has grown by 25 million ha. Published in: Derpsch, R., 2005: The extent of Conservation Agriculture adoption worldwide: Implications and impact. Proceedings on CD, III World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, October 3 – 7, 2005, Nairobi, Kenya. The Knife Roller A new development for permanent cover cropping systems Green Manure Cover Crops
(GMCC's) and crop rotation are the key factors for the unprecedented growth of no-tillage
especially in Brazil and Paraguay. Linked to the spread of cover crops is the use of a Knife
Roller to flatten cover crops. This implement is not terribly expensive and in many cases can
be made locally or by the farmer himself. The implement can be pulled by medium sized tractors
or the smaller version by animal traction and has contributed a lot in reducing herbicide rates
in the no-tillage system. The Knife Roller has become an essential tool for managing GMCC's in
many countries of South America. The knives should not cut the plants but just smash the stems,
in order to impede water circulation in the plant. It has been a big error of many manufacturers
to make the implement with sharp knives. In this case knives penetrate into the soil enhancing
weed germination The Knife Roller to flatten and kill green manure cover
crops and leave the plant residues on the soil surface is an essential tool for cover
crop management. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||