Conservation Agriculture: A Review of Plant Residue use with Zero Tillage and Crop Rotation

Although Conservation Agriculture (CA) techniques have long been known, they are still rarely applied by farmers in their farming. Three principles of conservation agriculture: 1). zero tillage (ZT), 2). Cover crop used and 3). Crop rotations have spread throughout the world, but in practice, only one or two of the three principles used and vary greatly (The combination of zero tillage and crop residue is more efficient in utilizing rainwater and a more resilient agronomic production system compared to conventional tillage (CT) or zero tillage (ZT) without crop residue application. Not using crop residue in the system can result in decreased production and even yield zero. Zero tillage applications that are not combined with ground cover will result in poor farming performance. In reas with low rainfall, the yields were highest obtained in farms that combined zero treatments and the use of crop residues, whereas in rainfed areas with conventional (CT) systems, when residues were removed from no-till (ZT) systems, wheat and maize yields were drastically reduced. Furthermore, in many small-scale farms, the residue yield is low and has many competing uses. Crop residues are generally burned in the fields or fed to livestock. For successful farming using CA techniques, at least a combination of 2 principles of conservation agriculture is needed, namely the use of crop residues and ZT as soil cover or the use of crop residues as soil cover with crop rotation, can provide better results than only applying one of the three CA principles.