TRANSITION TO CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE: EVALUATING THE SOIL QUALITY DURING TILLAGE SHIFT FOR ENHANCED ADOPTION

This study delves into the pivotal role of conservational agriculture in addressing the global challenges of food production, economic sustainability, and environmental conservation. CA is an agroecosystem management emphasizing minimal soil tillage, permanent soil cover, and diversified crop rotation. The research explores the adoption challenges of CA in Europe, highlighting the influence of agricultural policies and the cognitive shift required by farmers. A field experiment conducted at the Lucio Toniolo Experimental Farm in Italy, studying the transition from conventional to conservational agriculture. The experiment encompasses three tillage systems: Conventional tillage (CT), minimum tillage (MT), and no-tillage (NT). Various soil parameters were monitored over two cycles, such as bulk density, hydraulic conductivity, earthworm presence, pH, nutrient analysis. After 5 years from the conversion from conventional tillage, the MT and NT soils present, as expected, a higher bulk density. Despite of this, the hydraulic permeability appears to be almost unaffected while a tendency of a higher plant available water is evident. Furthermore, the increase of earthworm’s abundance in MT and NT indicates a better biological functioning of the soils. Looking to chemical soil parameters, total N content and Soil organic carbon showed an increase in NT over MT and CT. Conservation agriculture is a competent practice in this study area, clearly further research is needed to get more long-term answers from the implementation of conservation agriculture.