"No-Till" Farming Is a Growing Practice

John K. Horowitz, Robert Ebel and Kohei Ueda

No 96636, Economic Information Bulletin from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: Most U.S. farmers prepare their soil for seeding and weed and pest control through tillage—plowing operations that disturb the soil. Tillage practices affect soil carbon, water pollution, and farmers’ energy and pesticide use, and therefore data on tillage can be valuable for understanding the practice’s role in reaching climate and other environmental goals. In order to help policymakers and other interested parties better understand U.S. tillage practices and, especially, those practices’ potential contribution to climate-change efforts, ERS researchers compiled data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey and the National Resources Inventory-Conservation Effects Assessment Project’s Cropland Survey. The data show that approximately 35.5 percent of U.S. cropland planted to eight major crops, or 88 million acres, had no tillage operations in 2009.

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management; Land Economics/Use; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy; Risk and Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22
Date: 2010-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uersib:96636

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.96636

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