Tillage practices for an agricultural field

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1. Tillage Wahab Nazir

2. Special Types Subsoil tillage (sub soiling) Done to cut open/break the subsoil hard pan or plough pan using sub soil plough/chisel plough. Here the soil is not inverted. Sub soiling is done once in 4–5 years, where heavy machinery is used for field operations and where there is a colossal loss of topsoil due to carelessness. Levelling by tillage – Arable fields require a uniform distribution of water and plant nutrition for uniform crop growth. This is achieved when fields are kept fairly leveled. Levellers and scrapers are used for levelling operations. In leveled field soil erosion is restricted and other management practices become easy and uniform

3. Special Types Wet tillage – This refers to tillage done when the soil is in a saturated condition. For example puddling for rice cultivation. Clean tillage – Refers to the working of the soil of the entire field in such a way no living plant is left undisturbed. It is practiced to control weeds, soil borne pathogen and pests

4. Special Types Ridge tillage – It refers to forming ridges by ridge former or ridge plough for the purpose of planting Conservation tillage – Any tillage system that reduces loss of soil or water relative to conventional tillage. It is often a form of non-inversion tillage that retains protective amounts of crop residue mulch on the surface. Presence of crop residue mulch Effective conservation of soil and water Improvement of soil structure and organic matter content, and maintenance of high and economic level of production

5. Special Types Contour tillage – It refers to tilling of the land along contours (contour means lines of uniform elevation) in order to reduce soil erosion and run off. Blind tillage – It refers to tillage done after seeding or planting the crop (in a sterile soils) either at the pre-emergence stage of the crop plants or while they are in the early stages of growth so that crop plants (cereals, tuber crops etc.) do not get damaged, but extra plants and broad leaved weeds are uprooted Done at 4-5 cm

6. Crop – It decides the type, intensity and depth of tillage operations with small sized seeds like finger millet, tobacco etc. Require a fine seedbed which can provide intimate soil-seed contact as against coarser seed bed required for larger size seeds such as sorghum, maize, pulses, etc. Root or tuber crops require deep tillage whereas rice requires shallow puddling FACTORS AFFECTING THE TILLAGE OPERATIONS

7. Soil type – It dictates the time of ploughing. Light soils require early and rapid land preparation due to free drainage and low retentive capacity as against heavy soils Climate – It influences soil moisture content, draught required tilling and the type of cultivation. Low rainfall and poor water retentive capacity of shallow soil do not permit deep ploughing at the start of the season. Heavy soils developing cracks during summer (self tilled) need only harrowing. FACTORS

8. Type of farming – It influences the intensity of land preparation. In dry lands, deep ploughing is necessary to eradicate perennial weeds and to conserve soil moisture. FACTORS

9. Cropping system – In involves different crops, which need different types of tillage. Crop following rice needs repeated preparatory tillage for obtaining an ideal seedbed. Crops following tuber crops like potato require minimum tillage. Similarly crops following pulses need lesser tillage than that of following sorghum, maize or sugarcane FACTORS

10. Desirable ploughing depth is 12.5–20 cm. Ploughing depth varies with effective root zone depth of the crops. Ploughing depth is 10–20 cm to shallow rooted crops and 15–30 cm to deep-rooted crops. Deep ploughing is done to control perennial weeds like Cyanodon dactylon and to break soil hard pans. Since deep ploughing increases the cost, most farers resort to shallow ploughing only. DEPTH OF PLOUGHING

11. It depends on soil conditions, time available for cultivation between two crops, (turn over period) type of cropping systems etc. Small or fine seeded crop requires fine tilth, which may require more ploughings. Zero tillage is practiced in rice fallow pulse crops or relay cropping system. Three numbers of puddling is sufficient for rice cultivation. NUMBER OF PLOUGHING

12. The time of ploughing is decided based on moisture status and type of soil. The optimum moisture content for tillage is 60% of field capacity. Ploughing at right moisture content is very important. Summer ploughing (March–May) can be practiced utilizing summer showers to control weeds and conserve soil moisture. Light soils can be worked under wide range of moisture. Loamy soils can be easily brought to good tilth. TIME OF PLOUGHING

13. Tillage Implements (Wet Land)

14. Primary Tillage Implements