No-till technology: benefits to farmers and the environment? Theoretical analysis and application to Finnish agriculture

Jussi Lankoski, Markku Ollikainen and Pekka Uusitalo

European Review of Agricultural Economics, 2006, vol. 33, issue 2, 193-221

Abstract: We assess theoretically and empirically the private profitability and social desirability of conventional tillage and no-till when crop yields, production costs and nutrient and herbicide runoff damages are taken into account. Based on Finnish experimental data, no-till provides higher social and private profit than conventional tillage for barley but not for oats and wheat, for which the production cost advantage of no-till does not compensate for lower yields in the private optimum. As regards social returns, no-till provides slightly better overall environmental performance but, given the existing valuation of nutrient and herbicide runoff damage, this is not enough to give no-till an advantage in oats and wheat cultivation. Thus, the key factors determining the private and social profitability of no-till and conventional tillage are yields and production costs rather than environmental performance. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2006
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