Abstract:
Plant cultivation in unploughed land, that is by using the system
called no-tillage in English and respectively sans-labour in French, is now
practised on hundreds of millions of hectares in the USA, Argentine, Brazil
etc. For instance, in the USA the no-tillage system is practised on 35-40% of
the entire arable surface. The no-tillage system is used first of all for purely
ECONOMICAL reasons, as the ton of maize, soybean or wheat obtained by
applying this system is 2 or 3 times cheaper than by using the classical
system. The second major advantage of the no-tillage system is elimination of
soil erosion. Even in Paraguay (a less developed country) the no-tillage
system is practised on a surface of over 1,000,000 hectares.
In Romanian agriculture, especially under the circumstances of the
current economic crisis, the no-tillage system can be practised in the
following ten years on at least 10,000,000 hectares, just like in Paraguay, as
in Romania, in the past 40 years, the maize, wheat, barley or soybean crops
cultivated in the no-tillage system have been practically equal with the ones
cultivated in the classical system. In the conventional system, 12-15 works
are performed between the ploughing and harvesting stages, while in the notillage system only two works are performed: sowing and harvesting. The fuel
consumption and cost of the mechanical works in the no-tillage system is 2-3
times lower in the no-tillage system as compared to the conventional system.
For example, in case of the winter wheat crop, the cost of the mechanical
works performed amounted to RON 4,900, while in the no-tillage system it
was of only RON 1,700.
