Conservation tillage technology with Chinese characteristrics

Conservation tillage (CT) has been shown as a wind and water erosion reduction technology from many years, research in developed countries. This program mainly evaluates the suitability of CT to China and what kinds of technology and machinery should be adopted. From 1991, China Agricultural University cooperated with Shanxi Agricultural Mechanization Bureau and so on, commenced systematic CT experiments combined agronomy and mechanization research together. It has been proved that the CT can not only reduce the wind and water erosion, but also increase the crop yield, after 10 years' experiment. Through improvement of CT operations and development of small size CT equipment, the conserration tillage technology with Chinese characteristics is basically formed, which can realize CT in small piece of land with small CT equipment, and can gain higher yield from poor soil. Therefore, it can meet the requirements of protecting environment and increasing farmers' incomes. The study shows that, due to different natural conditions, cropping systems and economical levels, different CT technological systems should be adopted in different regions.