Soil Health and Strategic Tillage in a Changing Climate
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil and Plant Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 July 2021) | Viewed by 414
Special Issue Editor
Interests: no-till farming; strategic tillage and sustainable land management practices; greenhouse gas emission; soil constraints; soil health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
The use of no-till (NT) within conservation agriculture systems has been identified as an important tool to help to promote soil health and thus ensure future food security and buffer agricultural productivity against climate change. However, the use of NT can be challenged over the long term by a build-up of herbicide resistant weeds; the stratification of soil organic carbon, acidity, and nutrients in surface soil layers; and an increased incidence of soil- and stubble-borne diseases. Strategic tillage (ST), or the incorporation of occasional tillage events into an otherwise NT system, has been identified as a strategy to help to combat some of the problems that develop due to the long-term use of NT. However, there are many questions that are yet to be fully answered regarding the use of strategic tillage within NT systems. In particular, it is not fully understood for a wide range of environments, soil types, and farming systems on how ST should be implemented (e.g., frequency of tillage, implement type, and tillage depth) so that it counters the negative impacts of long-term NT but still preserves the beneficial impacts of NT for soil health.
This special issue will highlight the recent progress that has been made in the implementation of ST in continuous NT farming systems in a wide range of cropping systems and across different agro-ecologies. All types of manuscripts (original research and reviews) providing new insights into the application and pros and cons of ST approaches are welcome.
Dr. Yash Dang
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- No-tillage
- Strategic tillage
- Occasional tillage
- Conservation agriculture
- Weed management
- Pest management
- Soil-borne diseases
- Nutrient stratification
- Compaction
- Soil acidification
- Runoff and erosion
- Climate change
- Productivity and profitability
- Soil health
- Environmental impacts
