Controlled traffic conservation tillage using small to middle sized machinery in China

摘要

Research and farmers' experiences have demonstrated that reduced tillage helps maintain surface residues and provide substantial benefits in terms of water use efficiency, soil condition and productivity. However, the impact of field traffic and its influence on the soil when tillage is reduced or eliminated have been ignored, for small to middle-sized machinery are mostly used in Chinese agriculture. There is a need to study on wheel traffic impacts and to test controlled traffic farming system for Chinese conditions. This paper reports the five-year controlled traffic conservation tillage experiment in North China. Two trial plots (Spring Maize and Winter wheat) with four treatments and five replications were set up. The results indicated that controlled traffic conservation tillage could minimize the compaction of wheel traffic, make field operation timely and precisely, improve soil structure and increase soil moisture on crop zone which is beneficial to crop establishment and growth. With the accumulation of damages year after year, the impacts of random wheeling are becoming more notable. Heavier machinery appeared to compact soil to a greater depth, but even small tractors could compact the surface 10cm, critical to rainfall infiltration, to a remarkable degree. For the small-scaled controlled traffic system tested in this study, traffic lanes occupy about 20% of the land, but the yields were similar to those in the non-controlled traffic fields. Further test is needed for the long-term impacts of the traffic lanes on soil structure and crop yield and detailed analysis is necessary to develop a suitable controlled traffic farming system.