THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NO-TILL TECHNIQUE ON CHERNOZEM SOIL OF THE NORTHERN FOREST-STEPPE IN WESTERN SIBERIA

Abstract

The decline in the fertility of chernozem soil is an acute problem of modern agriculture in Russia. It is possible to prevent the degradation of arable land by developing and implementing techniques for cultivating crops without tillage in the system of no-till farming. No-till is a system of cultivation of agricultural crops, which is based on the constant covering
(mulching) of the soil surface with crop residues, the rejection of all types of mechanical tillage for all crops in crop rotations, the expansion of the range of cultivated crops based on the
crop diversification. We laid the foundation for field stationary complex experiment on the
comparative study of no-till technique with traditional one based on deep subsurface loosening on leached medium loam chernozem in the conditions of the northern forest-steppe of
Western Siberia in the experimental production farm “Elitnoe” in the Novosibirsk Region
with annual precipitation of 380-450 mm in 2008. The research results showed that the air-dry
weight of plant residues with no-till technique accumulates on the soil surface 1.8 times more
than with conventional tillage. The soil is not over-compacted, the structural and aggregate
composition improves, there is a tendency of increasing the diameter of soil aggregates and
humus. Plant residues on the soil surface protect it from erosion, reduce the temperature on its
surface, which contributes to an increase in soil fertility and crop yields. All those things open
up new opportunities and prospects for the introduction of direct seeding techniques in the notill system on chernozem soil of Siberia. It will contribute to the yield increases, productivity,
reduce the need for labor force and equipment, and most importantly, it contributes to the restoration, preservation and increase of soil fertility.