Tillage refers to the mechanical manipulation of soil in order to prepare it for planting crops or other agricultural activities. It involves various operations, such as plowing, harrowing, and cultivating, which are aimed at breaking up the soil, loosening it, and creating a suitable seedbed for planting.
The primary objectives of tillage systems are:
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Seedbed Preparation: The Tillage systems help to create a favourable environment for seed germination and plant growth by breaking up compacted soil, removing weeds and crop residues, and incorporating fertilizers or organic matter into the soil.
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Weed Control: Tillage can help control weeds by uprooting or burying weed seeds and disrupting weed growth. However, it’s worth noting that excessive or improper tillage can also promote weed seed germination and lead to soil erosion.
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Soil Aeration and Drainage: By loosening the soil, tillage improves soil aeration, allowing oxygen to reach plant roots. It can also enhance water infiltration and drainage, preventing waterlogging and promoting healthy root development.
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Incorporation of Amendments: Tillage facilitates the incorporation of soil amendments such as fertilizers, lime, or organic matter into the soil. This helps improve soil fertility, pH balance, and nutrient availability for plants.
Types of tillage systems
List of the effects of tillage systems
What is tillage in agricultural science
is the process of loosening the topmost soil before planting commences in other to expose the soil nutrients to the reach of plant roots
Tillage Practices
Land tillage is the operation that follows after the land area has been cleared, stumped and plotted.
Tillage involves the opening up of the soil for seed planting. This could be done by means of simple farm implements like ploughs, harrows or ridges that could be used in tilling the land. This is used mostly in large-scale farming. The purpose of tillage is the same whether hand tools or mechanized equipment are used.
Importance of land tillage practices
1. It provides a good soil environment for germination and emergence of seeds.
2. Tillage systems encourage the aggregation of particles for better contact between seed roots and soil.
3. It helps to improve the aeration of the soil
4. It assists the farmer in weed control.
5. Organic matter is incorporated into the soil during tillage operations, thereby increasing soil nutrients.
6. Tillage systems improve the soil’s physical conditions such as the infiltration rate of water in the soil and water holding capacity.
However, constant or constant or continuous tillage makes the soil loose and easily eroded. Leaching of bases could occur, resulting in soil acidity.
(a) Ploughing:
This involves the tilling or turning of the soil upside down. It can be done with a hoe, a spade, or a tractor-driven plough in tropical regions or mould-board plough, used mostly in temperate regions. Animals could be used to drag the plough during tilling.
It is usually the first equipment to be used on cleared farmland. The plough cuts and inverts large lumps of soil. Weed seeds are then buried below-cultivated seeds. The disc plough is more suitable for use in heavy, stick) and dry tropical soil than the mouldboard plough tillage systems
(b) Harrowing: The harrow is the next piece of equipment used after the land has been ploughed. It is used to further break down the large lumps of soil cut by the plough into smaller pieces. This is called the pulverisation of soil. The disc harrows are more suitable for use in tropical environments.
After harrowing it may be possible to grow crops such as rice which do not require sei beds or ridges. However, it may be necessary to construct set beds or ridges for other crops such as yam, tomato and groundnut after harrowing which is a type of tillage systems
This will necessitate the next operation which is ridging.
(c) Ridging: This is the last stage in land preparation for the planting of seeds or seedlings. It can be done by means of Indian hoes tractor-driven disc ridger or mouldboard ridger. Animals could be used to drag the ridger for ridge-making.
Ridging is done normally across the slope of the land to prevent it from being washed away by erosion. It is spaced 1m apart. This is measured from the top or crest of one ridge to the other. The length of the ridge depends on available land and the choice of the farmer as a tillage systems
A standard ridge should be 25m long. It has a conically shaped top or rest or triangular shape. The trench between two ridges is called a furrow. Tie-ridges can be constructed at intervals between two ridges, especially in school farms. The
y are also called cross-bars. They help to keep water in the furrow for plant use in the ridges and prevent water erosion.
Ridging increases the depth of surface soil for better crop growth. Manure is better provided for crop use during ridging tillage systems
Ridging provides fine tilts that make it easier for roots to penetrate and get food for plants in the soil. Other forms of seed beds are:
(i) Heap: This type of tillage systems are a built-up small cone-shaped hill usually less than 60 cm high. It is constructed with a hoe for growing tuber crops such as yam and cassava through tillage systems
(j) Mound: This is a raised heap with a circular base. It is made with hoes and used for growing root and tuber crops such as yam. Coco-yam, cassava, potatoes and others. More than one crop can be sown at one time on it. It is commonly used in Igbo farming communities of Nigeria.
(iii) Flat seed bed: This is used in low rainfall areas or periods of level and well-drained land. There may be no other construction in this case, after farmland has been ploughed and harrowed. It is used to foreclose, growing crops such as rice.
(iv) A bed: This could be an SPP\’H bed used for the initial growing of crops before transplanting to the field or root bed us^ growing crops to maturity. A bed generally is a raised top soil with a square or rectangular flat top.
It is suitable for vegetable crop production, though, other crops such as tobacco, cocoa, and citrus could be raised first in a seed be< (nursery bed), which is usually 1.20 m wide and 25 m long for a standard bed. Don’t forget to use the comment box and leave a message or suggestion and we will get back to you within seconds. tillage systems
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